Honshu had a population of 104 million as of 2017[update], constituting 81.3% of the entire population of Japan,[11] and mostly concentrated in the coastal areas and plains. Approximately 30% of the total population resides in the Greater Tokyo Area on the Kantō Plain. As the historical center of Japanese cultural and political power,[12] the island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyōto, Nara, and Kamakura. Much of the island's southern shore forms part of the Taiheiyō Belt, a megalopolis that spans several of the Japanese islands.[12] Honshu also contains Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, and its largest lake, Lake Biwa.[13]
Most of Japan's industry is located in a belt running along Honshu's southern coast, from Tokyo to Nagoya, Kyōto, Osaka, Kobe, and Hiroshima.[12][14] The island is linked to the other three major Japanese islands by a number of bridges and tunnels. The island primarily shares two climates, with Northern Honshu having four seasons with largely varying temperatures while the south experiences long, hot summers and cool to mild winters.[15]
Etymology
The name of the island, Honshū (本州), stems from Middle Chinese. It directly translates to "main province" or "original land" in English.
History
Early history
Humans first arrived in Honshu at least approximately 37,000 years ago. The first humans to arrive in Honshu were Stone Age hunter-gatherers from Northeast Asia, likely following the migration of ice agemegafauna. Surviving artifacts from this period include finely-crafted stone blades, similar to those found in Siberia.[16]
Meiji Restoration
The Meiji Restoration, in Japanese history, is the political revolution in 1868 that brought the final demise of the Tokugawa shogunate (which is a military government). It ended the Edo (Tokugawa) Period (1603-1867) and at least nominally returned control of the country to direct imperial rule under Mutsuhito (the Emperor Meiji). One of the main leaders of the restoration (who were mostly young samurai) was Chōshū in far western Honshu, which was one of the feudal, hostile to Tokugawa authority domains.
Geography
Japan as seen from a satellite. Honshu is the largest, middle island.
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 227,960 km2 (88,020 sq mi).[1] It is slightly larger than Britain. Its land area has been increasing with land reclamation and coastal uplift in the north due to plate tectonics with a convergent boundary. Honshu has 10,084 kilometres (6,266 mi) of coastline.[7]
Mountainous and volcanic, Honshu experiences frequent earthquakes (such as the Great Kantō earthquake, which heavily damaged Tokyo in September 1923; and the earthquake of March 2011, which moved the northeastern part of the island by varying amounts of as much as 5.3 m (17 ft)[17][18] 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 span the width of Honshu, from the 'Sea of Japan' coast to the Pacific shore. Western Japan experiences a temperate climate with hot summers and cool to mild winters.
Population
Honshu has a total population of 104 million people, according to a 2017 estimate, 81.3% of the entire population of Japan.[11] The largest city is Tokyo (population: 13,988,129),[19] the capital of Japan and part of the Greater Tokyo Area, the most populous metropolitan area in the world.
(kamoshika, lit. "coarse pelt deer"): (Capricornis crispus) is a Japanese goat-antelope found in dense woodland primarily in northern and central Honshu.
Kishu Ken are a rare dog breed that was selectively bred for the hunting of wild boar and deer in the mountainous Mie prefecture and Wakayama prefecture.
Honshu island generates around US$3.5 trillion or more than 80% of Japan's GDP.[24]
Agriculture
Fruit, vegetables, grains, rice and cotton make up the main produce grown in Honshu.[25] The Tōhoku region, spanning the north-eastern part of the island, is notable for its rice production, with 65% of cultivated land being rice paddy fields – almost a quarter of all paddy fields in Japan.[26]Chiba Prefecture is famous for its peanuts, also being the largest producer in Japan.[27] Rare species of the lichen genus Menegazzia are found only in Honshu.[28]
Honshu is home to a large portion[29] of Japan's minimal mineral reserves,[30] including small oil and coal deposits. Several coal deposits are located in the northern part of the island,[31] concentrated in Fukushima Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture, though Honshu's coal production is negligible in comparison to Hokkaido and Kyushu.[32] Most of Japan's oil reserves are also located in northern Honshu, along the west coast, spanning Niigata, Yamagata, and Akita Prefectures.[33]
The Tokaido Shinkansen, opened in 1964 between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka, is Japan's first high-speed rail line.[35] It is the world's oldest high-speed rail line and one of the most heavily used.[36][37] The San'yō Shinkansen, connects the two largest cities in western Japan, Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka. Both the Tokaido Shinkansen and the Sanyo Shinkansen help form a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt megalopolis.
Mt. Fuji and the Tokaido Shinkansen
Administrative regions and prefectures
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 Ōshima, and Awaji Island.
^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.
