"whose" and "of which"

Question

I have a question about the usage of "whose" and "of which". I have learned that

a. Do you see the mountain whose top is covered with snow?

and

b. Do you see the mountain the top of which is covered with snow?

have the same meaning.

Now, please consider

For a nation whose food culture is admired all over the world, Japan depends to a surprising degree on imported food.

If I use "of which" in this, would the correct sentence be

For a nation the food culture of which is …

or

For a nation of which the food culture is …?

Answer 1

"For a nation whose food culture is admired all over the world, Japan depends to a surprising degree on imported food."

In the given context, the reference is to "nation," not in the sense of a geographical entity but of a people. People have culture, people have food habits.

For an inanimate object, which would work well. For people, we need to use whose. So,

"For a nation the food culture of which is admired all over the world, …" would not work.

HTH.

As for the specific question of what would the sentence structure be when of which is to be used instead of whose, the sentence would be, at least hypothetically,:

"For a nation, … of which …"

Of which cannot simply take the place of whose, they are not the same part of speech, also notice the preposition of, so it goes after the food culture, not before.

"For a nation, the food culture of which is admired all over the world, Japan depends to a surprising degree on imported food."