Honshu

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Honshu
Native name: ??
Japan honshu map small.png
Honshu
Honshu is located in Japan HonshuHonshu
Geography
Location East Asia
Archipelago Japanese archipelago
Area 225,800 km2 (87,200 sq mi)
Area rank 7th
Length 1,300 km (810 mi)
Width 50230 km (31143 mi)
Coastline 5,450 km (3,386 mi)
Highest elevation 3,776 m (12,388 ft)
Highest point Mount Fuji
Administration
Japan
Prefectures
Tohoku[show]
Kanto[show]
Chubu[show]
Kansai[show]
Chugoku[show]
Largest settlement Tokyo (pop. 13,617,445)
Demographics
Population 104,000,000 (2010 Census)
Pop. density 447 /km2 (1,158 /sq mi)
Ethnic groups Japanese
Honshu or Honshiu (?? Honshu / Honsyu, "Main Island" or "Main Province"),
pronounced [ho?????] (About this sound listen), is the largest and most populous
island of Japan,[1] located south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of
Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Straits.
The island separates the Sea of Japan, which lies to its north and west, from the
North Pacific Ocean to its south and east. It is the seventh-largest island in the
world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java.[2][3]

Honshu had a population of 103 million as of 2005,[citation needed] mostly

concentrated in the coastal lowlands, notably in the Kanto plain where 25% of the
total population resides in the Greater Tokyo Area.[citation needed] As the
historical center of Japanese culture and political power,[citation needed] the
island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyoto, Nara, and
Kamakura. Much of the island's southern shore forms part of the Taiheiyo Belt, a
megalopolis that spans several of the Japanese islands.

Most of Japan's industry is located in a belt running along Honshu's southern

coast, from Tokyo to Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Hiroshima;[citation needed] by
contrast, the economy along the northwestern Sea of Japan (East Sea) coast is
largely based on fishing and agriculture.[4] The island is linked to the other
three major Japanese islands by a number of bridges and tunnels. Its climate is
humid and mild.
Contents [hide]
1 Geography
1.1 Extreme points
1.2 Bridges and tunnels
2 Administrative regions and prefectures
3 Natural features
3.1 Agriculture
3.2 Minerals
4 See also
5 References
Geography[edit]
The island is roughly 1,300 km (810 mi) long and ranges from 50 to 230 km (31 to
143 mi) wide, and its total area is 225,800 km2 (87,200 sq mi), 60% of the total
area of Japan,[citation needed] making it slightly larger than Great Britain.[5]
Its land area has been increasing with land reclamation and coastal uplift in the
north, but global sea level rise has diminished these effects.[citation needed]
Honshu has 5,450 kilometres (3,386 mi) of coastline.[1]

Mountainous and volcanic, Honshu experiences frequent earthquakes (the Great Kanto
earthquake heavily damaged Tokyo in September 1923, and the earthquake of March
2011 moved the northeastern part of the island by varying amounts of as much as 5.3
m (17 ft)[6][7] while causing devastating tsunamis). The highest peak is the active
volcano Mount Fuji at 3,776 m (12,388 ft), which makes Honshu the world's 7th
highest island. There are many rivers, including the Shinano River, Japan's
longest. The Japanese Alps run the length of Honshu, dividing the northwestern (Sea
of Japan, also called East Sea) shore from the southeastern (Pacific or Inland Sea)
shore; the climate is generally humid subtropical in the southern and coastal parts
of the island and humid continental in the northern and inland portions.

Extreme points[edit]
The northernmost point on Honshu is the tip of the Shimokita Peninsula in Oma,
Aomori; Cape Kure lies at the southern extreme in Kushimoto, Wakayama. The island's
eastern extremity is Todogasaki in Miyako, Iwate, and its western one is
Bishanohana in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. Honshu spans more than eight degrees of
latitude and 11 degrees of longitude.[citation needed]

Bridges and tunnels[edit]

Honshu is connected to the islands of Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku by tunnels and
bridges. Three bridge systems have been built across the islands of the Inland Sea
between Honshu and Shikoku (Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and the Onaruto Bridge; Shin-
Onomichi Bridge, Innoshima Bridge, Ikuchi Bridge, Tatara Bridge, Omishima Bridge,
HakataOshima Bridge, and the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge; Shimotsui-Seto Bridge,
Hitsuishijima Bridge, Iwakurojima Bridge, Yoshima Bridge, Kita Bisan-Seto Bridge,
and the Minami Bisan-Seto Bridge), the Seikan Tunnel connects Honshu with Hokkaido,
and the Kanmonkyo Bridge and Kanmon Tunnel connects Honshu with Kyushu.[citation
needed]

Administrative regions and prefectures[edit]

The island is divided into five nominal regions and contains 34 prefectures,
including metropolitan Tokyo. Administratively, some smaller islands are included
within these prefectures, notably including the Ogasawara Islands, Sado Island, Izu
Oshima, and Awaji Island.[citation needed]

The regions and its prefectures are:

Tohoku region consists of six prefectures.

Akita Prefecture
Aomori Prefecture
Fukushima Prefecture
 Iwate Prefecture
Miyagi Prefecture
Yamagata Prefecture
Kanto region consists of seven prefectures, including the capital of Japan which is
the Tokyo Metropolis.
Chiba Prefecture
Gunma Prefecture
Ibaraki Prefecture
Kanagawa Prefecture
Saitama Prefecture
Tochigi Prefecture
Tokyo
Chubu region consists of nine prefectures.
Aichi Prefecture
Fukui Prefecture
Gifu Prefecture
Ishikawa Prefecture
Nagano Prefecture
Niigata Prefecture
Shizuoka Prefecture
Toyama Prefecture
Yamanashi Prefecture
Kansai region consists of seven prefectures.
Hyogo Prefecture
Kyoto Prefecture
Mie Prefecture
Nara Prefecture
Osaka Prefecture
Shiga Prefecture
Wakayama Prefecture
Chugoku region consists of five prefectures.
Hiroshima Prefecture
Okayama Prefecture
Shimane Prefecture
Tottori Prefecture
Yamaguchi Prefecture
Natural features[edit]
Agriculture[edit]
Most of Japan's tea and silk is from Honshu. Fruits, vegetables, grains, rice and
cotton are grown in Honshu.[8] Niigata is noted as an important producer of rice.
The Kanto and Nobi plains produce rice and vegetables. Yamanashi is a major fruit-
growing area, and Aomori is famous for its apples.[citation needed] Rare species of
the lichen genus Menegazzia are found only in Honshu.[9]

Minerals[edit]
Yields of zinc, copper, and oil have been found on Honshu.[8]

See also[edit]
flag Japan portal
icon Islands portal
Kyushu
Shikoku
Hokkaido
References[edit]
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Honshu.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Honshu.
^ Jump up to: a b "Honshu". Encyclopadia Britannica. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
Jump up ^ Japan Civil Registry Database 2013
Jump up ^ See Japan Census of 2000; the editors of List of islands by population
appear to have used similar data from the relevant statistics bureaux, and totalled
up the various administrative districts that make up each island, and then done the
same for less populous islands. An editor of this article has not repeated that
work. Therefore this plausible and eminently reasonable ranking is posted as
unsourced common knowledge.
Jump up ^ Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
Jump up ^ "Islands By Land Area". Islands.unep.ch. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
Jump up ^ "Map of Horizontal Land Movement caused by 2011/3/11 M9.0 earthquake"
(PDF) (in Japanese). Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. March 19, 2011.
Retrieved 15 November 2012.
Jump up ^ "Quake shifted Japan by over two meters". Deutsche Welle. March 14, 2011.
Retrieved March 14, 2011.
^ Jump up to: a b "Honshu". infoplease.com. 2012. Retrieved 2014-11-23.
Jump up ^ Bjerke JW (2004). "Revision of the lichen genus Menegazzia in Japan,
including two new species". The Lichenologist. 36 (1): 1525.
doi:10.1017/S0024282904013878. ISSN 0024-2829.
[hide] v t e
Japan Regions and administrative divisions of Japan
Regions
Hokkaido Tohoku Kanto Nanpo Islands Chubu Hokuriku Koshin'etsu Shin'etsu Tokai
Kansai Chugoku San'in San'yo Shikoku Kyushu Northern Southern Okinawa
Regions and Prefectures of Japan 2.png
47 Prefectures
Hokkaido
Hokkaido
Tohoku
Aomori Iwate Miyagi Akita Yamagata Fukushima
Kanto
Ibaraki Tochigi Gunma Saitama Chiba Tokyo Kanagawa
Chubu
Niigata Toyama Ishikawa Fukui Yamanashi Nagano Gifu Shizuoka Aichi
Kansai
Mie Shiga Kyoto Osaka Hyogo Nara Wakayama
Chugoku
Tottori Shimane Okayama Hiroshima Yamaguchi
Shikoku
Tokushima Kagawa Ehime Kochi
Kyushu
Fukuoka Saga Nagasaki Kumamoto Oita Miyazaki Kagoshima Okinawa
Coordinates: 36N 138E

Authority control
WorldCat Identities VIAF: 240423304 GND: 4240123-9 BNF: cb11981340t (data)
Categories: HonshuIslands of JapanJapanese archipelago
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