Japan may be fairly small in size, but it has a large population, and its industries have some of the best technology available. This makes it hard to believe that almost 70% of the land is covered in forest. But the Landsat satellite image below shows why we can say that Japan is "a land of forests surrounded by the sea."Japan is a land rich with gifts from trees. Over the centuries, trees have helped to secure the livelihood of the Japanese, and in turn people have helped the woodlands to develop. Even today, life in Japan is closely intertwined with the forest.