is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northeast, Nagano Prefecture to the north, and Aichi Prefecture to the west.

Shizuoka is the capital and Hamamatsu is the largest city in Shizuoka Prefecture, with other major cities including Fuji, Numazu, and Iwata. Shizuoka Prefecture is located on Japan's Pacific Ocean coast and features Suruga Bay formed by the Izu Peninsula, and Lake Hamana which is considered to be one of Japan's largest lakes. Mount Fuji, the tallest volcano in Japan and cultural icon of the country, is partially located in Shizuoka Prefecture on the border with Yamanashi Prefecture. Shizuoka Prefecture has a significant motoring heritage as the founding location of Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha, and is home to the Fuji International Speedway.

thumb|View of Mt. Fuji from Numazu

History

Shizuoka Prefecture was established from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.

The area was the home of the first Tokugawa shōgun. Tokugawa Ieyasu held the region until he conquered the lands of the Hōjō clan in the Kantō region and placed land under the stewardship of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After becoming shōgun, Tokugawa took the land back for his family and put the area around modern-day Shizuoka City under the direct supervision of the shogunate. With the creation of the Shizuoka han from the Sunpu Domain in 1868, it once again became the residence of the Tokugawa family.

Geography

Shizuoka Prefecture is an elongated region following the coast of the Pacific Ocean at the Suruga Bay. In the west, the prefecture extends deep into the Japan Alps. In the east, it becomes a narrower coast bounded in the north by Mount Fuji, until it comes to the Izu Peninsula, a popular resort area pointing south into the Pacific.

11% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as natural parks, namely the Fuji-Hakone-Izu and Minami Alps National Parks; Tenryū-Okumikawa Quasi-National Park; and four Prefectural Natural Parks.

Climate

In Shizuoka prefecture, the temperature, over the course of the year, typically varies from 1.1 °C (34 °F) to 30.5 °C (87 °F) and is rarely below -2.2 °C (28 °F) or above 33.8 °C (93 °F.) The summers in Shizuoka are warm, oppressive, and mostly cloudy; the winters are very cold, windy, and mostly clear.

Disaster

On 15 March 2011, Shizuoka Prefecture was hit with a magnitude 6.2 earthquake approximately NNE of Shizuoka City. It is said, that throughout history, Shizuoka area has experienced a large earthquake every 100 to 150 years.

:

Demographics

thumb|Shizuoka prefecture population pyramid in 2020

3,635,220 people live in Shizuoka Prefecture, according to the 2020 census.

Municipalities

Since 2010, Shizuoka has consisted of 35 municipalities: 23 cities and 12 towns.

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Nihondaira from shizuoka plain.JPG|Shizuoka City

File:Hamamatsu City - panoramio (1).jpg|Hamamatsu

File:Numazu and Mount Fuji.jpg|Numazu and Mount Fuji

File:Fujinomiya 20120909.jpg|Fujinomiya

File:Atami 20170211-1.jpg|Atami

</gallery>

Mergers

After the introduction of modern municipalities in 1889, Shizuoka consisted of 337 municipalities: 1 (by definition: district-independent) city and 23 districts with 31 towns and 305 villages. The Great Shōwa mergers of the 1950s reduced the total from 281 to 97 between 1953 and 1960, including 18 cities by then. The Great Heisei mergers of the 2000s combined the 74 remaining municipalities in the year 2000 into the current 35 by 2010.

List of governors of Shizuoka (since 1947)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-

! #

! Name<br /><small>(Birth–Death)</small>

! colspan="2" | Term of office

! Political Party

|-

! 1

| Takeji Kobayashi (小林武治)<br /><small>(1899–1988)</small>

| 23 April 1947

| 22 April 1951

| Independent

|-

! 2

| Toshio Saito (斎藤寿夫)<br /><small>(1908–1999)</small>

| 1 May 1951

| 8 January 1967

| Liberal Party (1951–1959)<br />Liberal Democratic Party (1959–1967)

|-

! 3

| Yutaro Takeyama (竹山祐太郎)<br /><small>(1901–1982)</small>

| 31 January 1967

| 24 June 1974

| LDP

|-

! 4

| Keizaburo Yamamoto (山本敬三郎)<br /><small>(1913–2006)</small>

| 10 June 1974

| 6 July 1986

| LDP

|-

! 5

| Shigeyoshi Saito (斉藤滋与史)<br /><small>(1918–2018)</small>

| 7 July 1986

| 23 June 1993

| LDP

|-

! 6

| Yoshinobu Ishikawa (石川嘉延)<br /><small>(born in 1940)</small>

| 3 August 1993

| 17 June 2009

| Independent

|-

! 7

| Heita Kawakatsu (川勝平太)<br /><small>(born in 1948)</small>

| 7 July 2009

| 9 May 2024

| Independent

|-

! 8

| Yasutomo Suzuki (鈴木康友)<br /><small>(born in 1957)</small>

| 28 May 2024

| Incumbent

| Independent

|}

Industry

Home to a shogun, cherry shrimp, and Japan's green tea heartland. Situated along Suruga Bay between Tokyo and Nagoya on the historic Tokaido route, the Pacific coast city of Shizuoka is famed for supplying most of Japan's tea and maguro tuna.

Motorcycles

Shizuoka-based companies are world leaders in several major industrial sectors. Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki all have their roots in Shizuoka prefecture and are still manufacturing here. Thanks to this, Shizuoka prefecture accounts for 28% of Japanese motorcycle exports.

Musical instruments

Yamaha and Kawai are both global piano brands. Yamaha has the largest share in the global piano market. Kawai has the second largest share. They both got their start in Shizuoka prefecture in the early twentieth century.

Yamaha and Roland are major brand for electronic musical instruments. In the electronic piano world market, Yamaha has the world's largest share. Roland and Kawai have the second and third place share. Roland and Yamaha also manufacture high-quality synthesizers and drum machines for professional musicians.

In addition, various instruments such as wind instruments and guitars are manufactured in this prefecture. There are about 200 companies that manufacture musical instruments, in this prefecture.

Most of these musical instruments are especially produced in Hamamatsu City.

  • Shimizu Sushi Museum

Festivals and events

thumb|A kite festival in Hamamatsu, May 2013

  • Daidogei World Cup in central Shizuoka City, held in November
  • Enshu Daimyo Festival in Iwata, held in April
  • Mishima Festival, held in August
  • Numazu Festival, held in July
  • Shimizu Port Festival, held on 5 to 7 August
  • Shimoda Black Ship Festival, held in May
  • Shizuoka Festival, held in April

<gallery mode="packed">

File:Fujinomiya Hongu Sengen Taisha Honden.jpg|Fujisan Hongū Sengen Taisha Fujinomiya

File:181124 Shuzenji Onsen Izu Shizuoka pref Japan01s3.jpg|Shuzenji Onsen Izu

File:Sunpu-castle tatsumi-yagura.JPG|Sunpu Castle Shizuoka Aoi-ku

File:Hamamatsu.JPG|Hamamatsu Castle Hamamatsu <nowiki/> Chūō-ku

File:Kakegawa castle.jpg|Kakegawa Castle Kakegawa

File:静岡県立美術館-1.JPG|Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art Shizuoka Suruga-ku

File:LakeSanaru2.JPG|Lake Sanaru Hamamatsu Nishi-ku

File:BentenjimaKaihinkoenHamamatsu1.jpg|Lake Hamana Hamamatsu Nishi-ku

File:Beach in Atami City with sea bathers.jpg|Atami Sun Beach Atami

File:Prunus lannesiana cv. Kawazu-zakura 05.jpg|Kawazu Cherry blossom Kamo District Kawazu

File:Mt Fuji at Mihonomatsubara.jpg|Miho no Matsubara Shizuoka Shimizu-ku

File:富士サファリパーク ライオン2 Fuji-safari-park-Lion2.jpg|Fuji Safari Park Susono

File:Hanahaku2014-4.JPG|Hamanako Garden Park Hamamatsu Nishi-ku

File:Snowtown Yeti.JPG|Snowtown Yeti & Mount Fuji Susono

File:Haiden of Kunozan Toshogu.jpg|Kunōzan Tōshō-gū Shizuoka Suruga-ku

File:Jogasaki Coast 20111016 b.jpg|Jogasaki Coast Itō

</gallery>

Notable people

Motoo Kimura (木村 資生, 1924–1994), biologist and theoretical population geneticist, died in Shizuoka Prefecture

Notes

References

  • Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 58053128
  • Official Shizuoka Prefecture website
  • Official Shizuoka Guide

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