The combined length of major rivers crisscrossing Japan and classified by the government as "Class A" comes to 88,000 km, or more than twice the circumference of the globe — quite a large figure for this small country.
Since the prehistoric age, these rivers have enriched people's lives, but at the same time snarled at them with floods. The latter fact is still reflected in the names of some of the rivers. For example, the Kinugawa River, which played havoc with large areas north of Tokyo in September, literally means a "river of a demon's wrath," while the Arakawa River in Tokyo denotes a "wild river."
The Japanese people are beginning to forget to regard these rivers with the awe they deserve, and the floods in Tochigi, Ibaraki and Miyagi prefectures last month almost look like deserved punishment.