is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in Higashikunisaki District,

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,136,245 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, Kumam ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The name ''Himeshima'' literally means "Princess Island". The village is on a small island, sometimes referred to as Hime Island, just off the Japanese island of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, and is accessible by ferry. As of March 2017, the village has an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 1,930 and the

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 280 persons per km². The total area is 6.98 km². The main occupations are fishing and shrimp farming. Every summer, there is a

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

religious ceremony featuring dancers dressed as foxes. There is currently only one school on the island (Himeshima Junior High School was closed due to depopulation, leaving only Himejima Elementary School behind here). In the

2017 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members (down from 475) of t ...

, 77.51% of Himeshima's

proportional Proportionality, proportion or proportional may refer to: Mathematics * Proportionality (mathematics), the property of two variables being in a multiplicative relation to a constant * Ratio, of one quantity to another, especially of a part compare ...

ballots were cast for either one of the two parties in the conservative ruling coalition (the Liberal Democratic Party and

Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

) or one of the two minor LDP-allied conservative parties (

Party for Japanese Kokor A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

) and

New Party Daichi The New Party Daichi (新党大地 ''Shintō Daichi'') is a Japanese political party. The party works based on jurisdiction and administrative divisions. The party's leader is Muneo Suzuki, a former House of Representatives (Japan), Representat ...

), making it the most conservative municipality in the country in this election under that definition (excluding Kuroshima Island's 82.76% conservative voting result, as this island is technically a part of

Matsuura, Nagasaki is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Matsuura City is bordered on three sides by mountains. Matsuura Bay, which leads to the Genkai Sea, makes up the fourth side. As of April 1, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 23,566 a ...

and not its own municipality).

Famous people

Eiichi Nishimura was a Japanese politician, who served in the Ikeda, Satō, Tanaka and Fukuda cabinets, and was the first to be appointed to the post of Director of the National Land Agency. Within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he held influence in the ...

- Politician and minister

References

External links

*
Himeshima official website

Himeshima, Ōita
- General information about Himeshima

- Information about Himeshima cuisine Villages in Ōita Prefecture {{Oita-geo-stub