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Instant from Shizuoka... 200.com | SMO Business Headquarters, Kagoshima Branch snbl.com |
Kagoshima Prefecture (鹿児島県 Kagoshima-ken) is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. The capital is the city of Kagoshima.
[edit] GeographyKagoshima Prefecture is located at the southwest tip of Kyūshū and includes a chain of islands stretching further to the southwest for a few hundred kilometers. The most important group is the Amami Islands. Surrounded by the Yellow Sea to the west, at least since 1879 by Okinawa Prefecture in the south, Kumamoto Prefecture to the north, and Miyazaki Prefecture to the east, it has 2,632km of coastline (including the 28 islands). It has a bay called Kagoshima Bay (Kinkowan), which is sandwiched by two peninsulas, Satsuma and Ōsumi. Its position made it a 'gateway' to Japan at various times in history. While Kyushu has about 13 million people there are less than 2 million in this prefecture. The prefecture boasts a chain of active and dormant volcanoes, including the great Sakurajima, which towers out of the Kagoshima bay opposite Kagoshima city. A steady trickle of smoke and ash emerges from the caldera, punctuated by louder mini-eruptions on an almost daily basis. On active days in Kagoshima city an umbrella is advisable to ward off the ash. Sakurajima is one of Japan's most active volcanoes. Major eruptions occurred in 1914, when the island mountain spilled enough material to become permanently connected to the mainland, and a lesser eruption in 1960. Volcanic materials in the soil make Sakurajima a source for record daikon radishes, roughly the size of a basketball. Many beaches around the Kagoshima Bay are littered with well-worn pumice stones. A crater lake in the southwestern tip of the prefecture, near the spa town of Ibusuki, is home to a rare species of giant eel.  [edit] HistoryKagoshima Prefecture corresponds to the ancient Japanese provinces Ōsumi and Satsuma, including the northern part of the Ryukyu Islands. This region played a key role in the Meiji Restoration (Saigo Takamori), and the city of Kagoshima was an important naval base during Japan's 20th century wars and the home of admiral Tōgō Heihachirō. More recent incidents are the sinking of a North Korean spy ship (100 ton class) in 2001 by the coast guard, which was later salvaged and exhibited in Tokyo, and the abduction of an office clerk from a Kagoshima beach in 1978 by agents from the same country. This became known only recently under the Koizumi administration. [edit] Sister relations
[edit] RegionThe following is a list of Kagoshima Prefecture's cities, and its administrative districts with their constituent towns and villages: [edit] Cities[edit] Districts[edit] MergersMain article: List of mergers in Kagoshima Prefecture In the 2000s, many administrative mergers of cities towns and districts have occurred in Kagoshima Prefecture. [edit] RecreationAlthough there are strong highschool teams, no major baseball or soccer club is based in the prefecture. A number of Kagoshima's ballparks play host to well-known teams:
The Kirishima-Yaku National Park is located in Kagoshima Prefecture. No other prefecture has more pachinko parlors per capita than Kagoshima.[citation needed] [edit] Colleges and Universities
[edit] Economy
The prefecture has strong agricultural roots: green tea, sweet potato, radish, Pongee rice, Satsuma pottery and kurobuta pork. In 2005 about 120 000 tons of fish were entered at Makurazaki harbor.[citation needed]. Tourism is steadily increasing also from the neighboring countries. Electric power generation is an economic factor in the prefecture. Lacking a major industrial exporter the biggest corporation is Iwasaki Group of transport, hotels, gardens and Australian holdings. The drilling for oil and gas in the middle of the Yellow Sea also could be seen as a prefectural concern. [edit] Notables
[edit] See also[edit] External links
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