Japan's Strengths and Limitations

I found "Japan's Economy, at War with Itself" both somewhat hard to follow, as I lack much background knowledge about global economics, but I also found it interesting how the article traces the rise and fall of Japan's cultural and economic power in the aftermath of WWII. One thing that was odd to me is that although the article talked a lot about how Japan's banking, employee-focused job force, and lack of miltary all shaped Japan in various ways, the article didn't really talk about how Japan's geography places certain limitations on it. I know that Los Angeles has the 10th biggest economy in the world, and that makes sense because the city is contasntly growing and expanding. Japan, however, as a small island nation is limited in the ammount of space it can expand into. I wonder if when Japan was having such economic success in the 1980s if people started moving into and inhabiting previously uninhabited parts of Japan. Specifically, when the article mentioned the massive expansion of Japan's construction industry, I wondered how Japan, as a small island nation approached geographical expansion.