Shimane Prefecture

Shimane-ken ; 島根県
Basic data
Administrative headquarters :	Matsue
Region :	Chūgoku
Main island :	Honshu
Area :	6,708.07 km²
Water content:	2.7 %
Residents :	673,891 ; (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	100 inhabitants per km²
Counties :	5
Municipalities :	19th
ISO 3166-2 :	JP-32
Governor :	Tatsuya Maruyama
Website:	www.pref.shimane.lg.jp
Symbols
Prefecture flag :
Prefecture tree :	Japanese black pine
Prefecture flower :	Shrub peony
Vogel prefecture :	swan
Fish prefecture :	Flying fish
Prefecture song :	Usumurasaki no sanmyaku; ("light purple mountain range")

The Shimane Prefecture ( Jap. 島根県 , Shimane-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan . It is located in the Chūgoku region on the island of Honshū . The seat of the prefecture administration is Matsue .

geography

Shimane is one of the two most rural and sparsely populated prefectures in Japan , along with the neighboring prefecture of Tottori . Shimane extends roughly from southwest to northeast and is separated from the economically much more important east coast by the Chūgoku Mountains. The prefecture is located on the Sea of Japan and is bordered by Yamaguchi Prefecture to the south and Hiroshima Prefecture to the east . In the northeast is the Tottori Prefecture. Most of the prefecture's larger cities and towns are located on the coast of the Sea of Japan, which is also where the prefecture's north-south main traffic axis runs.
The prefecture has the following border points:

in the east: 133 ° 23'13 "east longitude - Okinoshima-chō
in the west: 131 ° 40'04 "east longitude - Tsuwano-chō
in the south: 34 ° 18'09 "north latitude - Yoshika-chō
in the north: 37 ° 14'39 "north latitude - Okinoshima-chō

On the mainland, the eastern and northern border points are perceived by the city of Matsue :

133 ° 19'37 east longitude
35 ° 36'21 "north latitude

The territory of the prefecture also includes the Oki Islands, some 70 kilometers off the coast in the Sea of Japan . The former province moved from Tottori Prefecture to Shimane in 1904 .

politics

Political groups in the prefecture parliament
(as of May 14, 2019)

A total of 37 seats

Jiyūminshutō Shimane kengikai giin renmei (~ "Association of LDP MPs [in] the Shimane Prefectural Parliament "): 16

Shimane kengikai jiyūminshutō (~ " LDP [in] Shimane Prefectural Parliament "): 10

Minshu kenmin club ("Democratic Prefectural Citizens Club "; with KDP , DVP ): 5

Kōmeitō (non-attached): 2

CPY (non-attached): 2

Other non-affiliated lots: 2

Zembē Mizoguchi retired from Shimane in 2019 after three terms as governor. In the uniform regional elections in April 2019 , the former MIC official Tatsuya Maruyama, supported by the LDP Shimane, prevailed against the LDP Japan-supported Seiji Ōba and two other candidates as successors. At the same time, the LDP won an absolute majority with 19 seats in the 37-member prefectural parliament, twelve seats went to candidates without party nominations.

In the national parliament , Shimane is represented by two directly elected members of the Shūgiin , for the Sangiin Shimane forms a common constituency with the neighboring Tottori. The Shūgiin constituencies , originally three after the electoral reform of the 1990s and now two , went to the LDP in the 2017 election as well as continuously since 1996, namely to Hiroyuki Hosoda , head of the LDP's strongest faction since 2014, and Wataru Takeshita , brother of the former Party chairman Noboru Takeshita , who took over his brother's former faction in 2018. In the Sangiin, Shimane lost its independent representation in the 2016 and 2019 elections and is now part of the joint single-mandate constituency of Tottori-Shimane. However, the LDP uses the tokutei-waku system for proportional representation, which was introduced in 2019 , to give the LDP prefectural associations affected by the constituency association secure seats in the proportional representation: In 2019, Yasushi Miura from Shimane was given second place on the LDP list in the proportional representation constituency.

Shimane is one of the financially weakest prefectures in the country and can only cover around a quarter of its theoretically calculated financial needs from its own income.

tourism

The main tourist attraction in Shimane is the Izumo-Taisha shrine, located near the city of Izumo , one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan. In the area of the prefecture there are also some ski areas, which in winter attract skiers and snowboarders from nearby Hiroshima .

Administrative division

When the prefectures were set up during the Meiji Restoration in 1889, Shimane was formed from the independent city of Matsue, 8 small towns belonging to the county and 269 villages (in 16 counties). As a result of incorporations and mergers, the number of municipalities fell to 19 by 2011 (1950: 247 - 1954: 158 - 1956: 75 - 1970: 1959). The prefecture is divided into 8 independent cities ( Shi ), 10 small towns ( Chō ) and a village ( Son ), the latter organized in 5 districts ( Gun ). Matsue , the seat of the prefecture administration, has also been a "core city" ( chūkakushi ) since April 2018 .
In the table below, the districts ( 郡 ) are shown in italics, below each (indented) the small towns ( 町 ) and the village ( 村 ) within them. A dependency between rural district and small town can also be seen in the first three digits of the code (1st column). At the beginning of the table are the 4 independent cities.

code	Surname		Area (in km²)	population	Population density (inh / km²)
code	Rōmaji	Kanji	01.10.2017 ¹	01.10.2018 ³	01/10/2015 ²
32201	Matsue- shi	松江市	572.99	204,428	206.230	359.92
32202	Hamada- shi	浜田市	690.68	55,772	58.105	84.13
32203	Izumo- shi	出雲市	624.36	172,947	171,938	275.38
32204	Masuda- shi	益田市	733.19	45,911	47,718	65.08
32205	Ōda -shi	大田市	435.71	33,417	35.166	80.71
32206	Yasugi- shi	安来市	420.93	38.032	39,528	93.91
32207	Gotsu- shi	江津市	268.24	23,582	24,468	91.22
32209	Unnan -shi	雲南市	553.18	37.012	39,032	70.56
32340	Nita-gun	仁多郡	368.01	12,175	13,063	35.5
32343	Okuizumo-chō	奥出雲町	368.01	12,175	13,063	35.5
32380	Iishi-gun	飯石郡	242.88	4772	5031	20.71
32386	Iinan-cho	飯南町	242.88	4772	5031	20.71
32440	Ōchi-gun	邑智郡	808.63	18,286	19,443	24.04
32441	Kawamoto-machi	川本町	106.43	3183	3442	32.34
32448	Misato-cho	美郷町	282.92	4534	4900	17.32
32449	Ōnan -chō	邑南町	419.29	10,569	11.101	26.48
32500	Kanoashi-.gun	鹿足郡	643.54	13,343	14,027	21.8
32501	Tsuwano- cho	津和野町	307.03	7197	7653	24.93
32505	Yoshika-cho	吉賀町	336.50	6146	6374	18.94
32520	Oki-gun	隠岐郡	345.92	19,949	20,603	59.56
32525	Ama-cho	海士町	33.44	2296	2353	70.36
32526	Nishinoshima-chō	西ノ島町	55.96	2886	3027	54.09
32527	Chibu-mura	知夫村	13.70	658	615	44.89
32528	Okinoshima- chō	隠岐の島町	242.82	14,109	14,608	60.16

Shi-bu ( All shi , part of urban districts)	市部	4299.28	611.101	622.185	144.72
Gun-bu ( All gun , proportion of counties)	郡部	2408.98	68,525	72.167	29.96
32000	Shimane-ken (Shimane Prefecture)	島根県	6708.26	679.626	694.352	103.51

swell

¹ Area data from 2017
² Results of the 2015 census
³ Estimated population 2018

Biggest places

Existing and former cities (-shi)
Census year	Residents
2015	2010	2005	2000
Matsue	206.230	194.258	196,603	152.616
Izumo	171,938	143,796	146.307	87,330
Hamada	58.105	61,713	63,046	47,187
Masuda	47,718	50,015	52,368	50.128
Yasugi	39,528	41,836	43,839	30,520
Unnecessary	39,032	41,917	44,403	——
Oda	35.166	37,996	40,703	33,609
Gotsu	24,468	25,697	27,774	25,773
Hirata	——	——	——	29.006

November 1, 2004 - The independent city of Unnan is formed from 6 municipalities.
March 22, 2005 - The city of Hirata is incorporated into the city of Izumo .

Population development in the prefecture

Census population
Census year	Total population	male population	female population	Gender ratio men to 1000 women	Area in km ²	Population density per km ²
1920	714.712	354,959	359.753	987	6618.04	108.0
1925	722.402	359.987	362.415	993	6618.04	109.2
1930	739.507	368,888	370.619	995	6618.04	111.7
1935	747.119	373.292	373,827	999	6624.60	112.8
1940	740.940	367,855	373.085	986	6624.60	111.8
1945	860.275	395.360	464.915	850	6624.60	129.9
1950	912,551	444.355	468.196	949	6626.29	137.7
1955	929.066	456.730	472,336	967	6625.27	140.2
1960	888.886	432,481	456.405	948	6625.26	134.2
1965	821.620	393,670	427,950	920	6625.95	124.0
1970	773,575	367,658	405.917	906	6626.12	116.7
1975	768.886	367.060	401,826	913	6626.80	116.0
1980	784.795	377,499	407.296	927	6627.41	118.4
1985	794.629	382,893	411.736	930	6628.42	119.9
1990	781.021	373.618	407,403	917	6626.24	117.9
1995	771.441	368,789	402,652	916	6706.70	115.0
2000	761.503	363.994	397.509	916	6707.29	113.5
2005	742.223	353.703	388,520	910	6707.56	110.7
2010	717.397	342.991	374.406	916	6707.95	106.9
2015	694.352	333.112	361.240	922	6708.24	103.5