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David Attenborough | Japan's Secret Water Garden

Imagine a realm where the seasons' rhythms rule - where centuries of agriculture and fishing have re-shaped the land, yet where people and nature remain in harmony. Sangoro Tanaka lives in just such a paradise.

2014-06-29 19:00:00 - BBC Earth

Here - over a thousand years - towns and villages have developed a unique system to make springs and water part of their homes.


From inside these homes, the streams pour into Japan's largest freshwater lake, Lake Biwa - an area 5 times the size of Paris - near the ancient capital of Kyoto.


This is a habitat so precious the Japanese have a special word for it: "Satoyama" - villages where mountains give way to plains.


They are exceptional environments essential to both the people who maintain them and to the wildlife that now share them.

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