Bōsō Peninsula by Sentinel-2, 2018-10-30

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island ...

. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefectur ...

to the north,

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefectur ...

to the northwest, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

to the west. Chiba is the capital and largest city of Chiba Prefecture, with other major cities including

Funabashi is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 644,668 in 309,238 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . It is the Greater Tokyo Area's 7th most populat ...

Matsudo 260px, Matsudo City Hall is a city in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 498,575 in 242,981 households and a population density of 8100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Matsudo is lo ...

, Ichikawa and

Kashiwa is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 433,436 in 194,216 households and a population density of 3800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a s ...

. Chiba Prefecture is located on Japan's eastern

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

coast to the east of Tokyo, and is part of the

Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as th ...

, the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Chiba Prefecture largely consists of the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula cover ...

, which encloses the eastern side of

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...

and separates it from

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. Chiba Prefecture is home to

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airpo ...

, the

Tokyo Disney Resort The (local nickname ''TDR'') is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, who cons ...

, and the Keiyō Industrial Zone.

Etymology

The name of Chiba Prefecture in Japanese is formed from two

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

characters. The first, , means "thousand" and the second, means "leaves". The name first appears as an ancient ''

kuni no miyatsuko , also read as "kokuzō" or "kunitsuko", were officials in ancient Japan at the time of the Yamato court. Yamato period Kuni no miyatsuko governed small territories (), although the location, names, and borders of the provinces remain unclear. Ku ...

'', or regional command office, as the . The name was adopted by a branch of the

Taira clan The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divi ...

, which moved to the area in present-day

Chiba City is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It sits about east of the centre of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. The city became a government-designated city in 1992. In June 2019, its population was 979,768, with a population density of 3,605 people ...

in the late

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

. The branch of the Taira adopted the name and became the

Chiba clan The Chiba clan (千葉氏 ''Chiba-shi'') was a Japanese '' gōzoku'' and samurai family descending from the Taira clan. The clan was founded by Chiba Tsunetane, the son of Taira no Tadatsune. The Chiba governed in Shimōsa Province, and the ...

, and held strong influence over the area of the prefecture until the Azuchi-Momoyama period. The name "Chiba" was chosen for the prefecture at the time its creation in 1873 by the , an early Meiji-period body of prefectural governors that met to decide the structure of local and regional administration in Japan. The compound word , which refers to the Tokyo-Chiba region, is formed from the second character in

(), and the second character in Chiba (), which can also be pronounced "kei" and "yō" respectively. This compound is used in terms such as the

Keiyō Line The is a railway line connecting Tokyo and Chiba in Japan, paralleling the edge of Tokyo Bay. It is operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line forms part of what JR East refers to as the around Tokyo, consisting of the Ke ...

, Keiyō Road, Keiyō Rinkai Railway Rinkai Main Line, and the Keiyō Industrial Zone.

History

Early history

Chiba Prefecture was settled in prehistoric times, as evidenced by the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a ...

remains in every part of the region. The prefecture holds the largest ''kaizuka'' sea shell mounds in Japan, evidence of a large population in the prefecture that relied on the rich marine products of the Pacific Ocean and Tokyo Bay. Kofun burial mounds are found across the prefecture, with the largest group being in Futtsu along Tokyo Bay.

Asuka and Nara periods

In the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after t ...

(538 – 710), under the

Taika Reform The were a set of doctrines established by Emperor Kōtoku (孝徳天皇 ''Kōtoku tennō'') in the year 645. They were written shortly after the death of Prince Shōtoku and the defeat of the Soga clan (蘇我氏 ''Soga no uji''), uniting Jap ...

of 645, the administrative structure of present-day Chiba Prefecture changed significantly. The historical province of

Fusa Province was an ancient province of Japan, in the area of Shimōsa ("Lower Fusa") and Kazusa ("Upper Fusa") provinces. At the time of the establishment of Kazusa Province, it also included the southern tip of the Bōsō Peninsula that would later be s ...

, which may have covered much of Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures, was divided into two provinces:

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from ...

(also called Shimofusa) in the north and

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa provinc ...

in the southern area. Awa Province at the south of Chiba Prefecture, was separated from Kazusa Prefecture in 718. These administrative units existed until they were abolished and merged into Chiba Prefecture after the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were r ...

. The central government established a ''kokubunji''

provincial temple were Buddhist temples established in each of the provinces of Japan by Emperor Shōmu during the Nara period (710 – 794). History Shōmu (701 – 756?) decreed both a ''kokubun-ji'' for monks and a for nuns to be established in each ...

in each province.

Heian period

The imperial court gradually extended its authority over the three provinces in the

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

(710 – 794) and

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one ...

(794 – 1185) periods.

Shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the privat ...

feudal estates were established across the three provinces, and the region became an important source of tax revenue, sending agricultural and other products to the capital in Kyoto. As the Heian period progressed, however, the kokushi provincial governors came to exert military power independent of the central government in Kyoto. The

broke entirely with the imperial court and was instrumental in the establishment of the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yo ...

Modern period

Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and

Inba Prefecture INBA or Inba may refer to: ; Chile * Internado Nacional Barros Arana, a secondary school ; India * ''Inba'' (film), a 2008 Tamil-language film ; Japan * Inba, Chiba, a village * Inba District, Chiba * Lake Inba, a lake in Chiba Prefecture ; Mexic ...

. The

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

caused widespread destruction in Chiba Prefecture, most notably in the southernmost part of the Bōsō Peninsula, where 1,300 residents were killed. Areas of the prefecture adjacent to Tokyo saw much damage, and mob violence against Koreans and other ethnic minorities occurred in the chaos after the earthquake in Funabashi, Ichikawa, and other areas. Koreans in several neighborhoods of Yachiyo were killed, and a tower was erected in 1972 near Yachiyodai Station to memorialize those killed in the incident. The

militarization Militarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state. The process of milit ...

of Chiba Prefecture dates to the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

(1904–1905). Coastal fortifications were built along

as far south as Tateyama to protect the capital of the

Japanese Empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

from attack. In the 1930s the north and central areas of the prefecture became a center of large-scale military production, and military bases and fortifications were constructed in most coastal areas of the prefecture. After the United States took control of

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 est ...

the northern part of the prefecture, most notably the city of Chiba and Chōshi, was firebombed. Much of the industrialized north of the prefecture was destroyed. Operation Coronet, one of two parts of

Operation Downfall Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ...

, was the planned land invasion of Tokyo in March 1946 by the United States. Coronet planned Kujūkuri Beach as one of two initial landing bases, the other being Hiratsuka via

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while ...

. The

U.S. First Army First Army is the oldest and longest-established field army of the United States Army. It served as a theater army, having seen service in both World War I and World War II, and supplied the US army with soldiers and equipment during the Ko ...

would enter at Kujūkuri, sweep across the

, and meet the U.S. Eighth Army at Tokyo. The plan was not carried out since Japan surrendered after the

atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

During the

Occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States ...

(1945–1952) Chiba Prefecture was controlled by American forces from the second floor of the prefectural capitol building in the city of Chiba. Numerous other cities in the prefecture, including Chōshi to the north and Tateyama to the south, were used as bases of the occupation. The rich agriculture areas across the prefecture protected the region somewhat from the level of food shortage and starvation immediately following the war. The immediate post-war period was characterized by carefully planned industrial expansion in the north of the prefecture and the significant increase of agricultural production after

land reform Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultur ...

s across the prefecture. The Keiyō Industrial Zone brought together smaller industrial areas along the entirety of the western coast of Chiba Prefecture, and the industrial zone became and remains an important center of heavy industrial production and large-scale port facilities in Japan. Cities to the northeast of the prefecture in close proximity to Tokyo were connected by rail to the capitol, and became and remain

bedroom communities A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

to Tokyo.

began operation in 1978 in Narita after much protest to replace the overcrowded

Tokyo International Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

(Haneda Airport). The majority of international air traffic enters Japan via Chiba Prefecture. The cultivation of

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

and vegetables to feed the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area expanded greatly and became a source of income to the northeast and central areas of the prefecture. The expansion of agriculture in the central and southern regions of the prefecture was in contrast to the depopulation of these areas as a significant part of the population moved to the northeast of the prefecture as a result of the

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

of Japan, a process that continues into the 21st century. The

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six m ...

and the subsequent

Fukushima nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 an ...

, which caused the affected areas as far south as Chiba Prefecture. While the loss of life and damage to housing and industry was far less than in the Tōhoku region, 20 people were killed in Chiba Prefecture, mostly from the tsunami that hit Asahi to the northeast of the prefecture and caused 13 deaths. An

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt, asphalt ...

fire broke out at the Cosmo Oil Chiba Refinery in Ichihara and was widely covered in the news media following the triple disaster. Large liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks burned from March 11–21, 2011.

Soil liquefaction Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, ...

in areas of

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

across the northern and western areas of Chiba Prefecture caused damage, primarily to housing.

Narashino is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 175,292 in 81,985 households and a population density of 8400 persons per km². The total area of the city is Geography Narashino is located in far north ...

, and especially

Urayasu 260px, old Urayasu is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 170,533 in 81,136 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Urayasu is best known as the home of the Toky ...

were greatly affected. As a result of permanent damage to housing stock due to soil liquefaction and evidence of radioactive materials caused by Fukushima radiation, the population of Chiba Prefecture fell for the first time since 1920.

Geography

Chiba Prefecture borders

to the north at the Tone River,

and

to the west at the Edo River, the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

to the east and

around its southern boundary. Most of Chiba lies on the hilly

Boso Peninsula Boso may refer to: People *Boso of Provence (850–887), Frankish nobleman and king *Boso the Elder (c. 800–855), a Frank from the Bosonid dynasty *Boso, Margrave of Tuscany (885–936), Italian nobleman *Boso II of Arles (d. 967), Frankish count ...

, a

farming region: the east coast, known as the

Kujūkuri Plain 260px, Kujūkuri Sardine Museum is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 15,343 in 7,092 households and a population density of 650 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Kujūkuri owes ...

, is an especially productive area. The most populous zone, in the northwest of the prefecture, is part of the Kantō region that extends into the urban agglomeration of Tokyo and Saitama. The

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

flows near Chiba, which keeps it relatively warm in winter and cooler in summer than neighbouring Tokyo.

National and prefectural parks

With the exception of the large-scale Keiyō Industrial Zone in the northeast, the entirety of the coast of Chiba Prefecture is protected as two quasi-national parks and one prefectural natural park under the national park system of Japan. As of 1 April 2012, 6% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks. * Suigo-Tsukuba Quasi-National Park encompasses a large area of the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kant ...

basin and the area around

Mount Tsukuba is an mountain located at the northern-end of Tsukuba, Japan. It is one of the most famous mountains in Japan, particularly well known for its double peaks, and . Many people climb the so-called "purple mountain" every year for the panorami ...

. The park was established in 1953 to protect not only the environment of the area, but also its unique cultural heritage. The mouth of the Tone River and to

Cape Inubō is a cape on the Pacific Ocean, in Chōshi, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The cape is near the midpoint of the Japanese Archipelago on the island of Honshū. Origin of name The name of the cape is constructed from two Chinese characters, the fi ...

and Byōbugaura in northeastern Chiba Prefecture make up the southern part of the park. *

Minami Bōsō Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in the Kantō region of Honshū in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. The park includes numerous widely separated portions of the coastal areas of southern Bōsō Peninsula, rang ...

was established in 1953 to protect much of the southern coastal areas of Chiba Prefecture from Cape Futtsu on

in northeastern Chiba Prefecture. The park spans across nine administrative districts in the prefecture. Minami Bōsō Quasi-National Park was established to protect not only the environment of coastal areas, but also the unique cultural assets of associated with these areas, notably the temples associated with

Nichiren Nichiren (16 February 1222 – 13 October 1282) was a Japanese Buddhist priest and philosopher of the Kamakura period. Nichiren declared that the Lotus Sutra alone contains the highest truth of Buddhist teachings suited for the Third Age of ...

. Chiba Prefecture has designated and maintains eight prefectural natural parks to protect both natural and cultural areas, namely the Inba Tega, Kasamori Tsurumai, Kujūkuri, Mineokasankei, Ōtone, Takagoyama, Tomisan, and Yōrō Keikoku Okukiyosumi Prefectural Natural Parks. Cities, towns, and villages in the prefecture also have designated and protected parklands. These parks are maintained for environmental protection as well as providing local recreational facilities.

Municipalities

Since 2010, Chiba consists of 54

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

and since 2013, they are 37

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, 16

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and one

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 ...

. File:View from Chiba Port-Tower Northwest.jpg, Chiba City File:Edo river near Ichikawa.JPG, Ichikawa File:North view near Narita Station.JPG, Narita File:20090730鴨川市.jpg, Kamogawa File:007 Katori, Japan - 香取市.JPG, Katori File:SH3J0304.jpg, Katsuura

Mergers

With the introduction of modern municipalities (cities/towns/villages) in 1889, Chiba's districts were subdivided into 43 towns and 315 villages. The first city was created in 1921 when Chiba Town from Chiba District became district-independent as Chiba City. The postwar/1950s Great Shōwa mergers reduced the number of municipalities in Chiba to 101 by 1960, including 14 cities by then. The early 3rd millennium Great Heisei mergers created the current 54 municipalities by 2010.

List of governors of Chiba Prefecture (from 1947)

* Tamenosuke Kawaguchi (川口為之助) - from 21 April 1947 to 25 October 1950 * Hitoshi Shibata (柴田　等) - from 15 December 1950 to 2 November 1962 * Hisaaki Kano (加納久朗) - from 3 November 1962 to 21 February 1963 * Taketo Tomonoo (友納武人) - from 17 April 1963 to 16 April 1975 * Kiichi Kawakami (川上紀一) - from 17 April 1975 to 27 February 1981 * Takeshi Numata (沼田　武) - from 5 April 1981 to 4 April 2001 *

Akiko Domoto Akiko can refer to: * ''Akiko'' (comic book), an American comic book * ''Akiko'' (film), a 1961 Italian comedy film * Akiko (Amiga), a custom chip used in the Amiga CD32 games console * Akiko (given name) is a feminine Japanese given name. Po ...

(堂本暁子) - from 5 April 2001 to 4 April 2009 * Kensaku Morita (森田健作) - from 5 April 2009 to 4 April 2021 * Toshihito Kumagai (熊谷俊人) - from 5 April 2021 to present

Economy

Industry

Chiba Prefecture is home to one of Japan's largest industrial areas. Prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

manufacturing in the prefecture was centered on the

brewing industry Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cere ...

, specifically the production of soy sauce,

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and ind ...

and

mirin is a type of rice wine and a common ingredient in Japanese cooking. It is similar to sake but with a lower alcohol content and higher sugar content. The sugar content is a complex carbohydrate that forms naturally during the fermentation pro ...

sweet cooking sake. The

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...

sector expanded greatly after the war. The prefecture was chosen as the site for a major Kawasaki Steel factory in 1950. In the same period the prefectural government embarked on a large-scale

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclam ...

program to

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

large plots of waterfront property. The large-scale construction of

factories A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to p ...

warehouses A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, town ...

, and

dock A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning va ...

s on this reclaimed land around the Tokyo Bay area ultimately formed the Keiyō Industrial Zone. Chiba Prefecture is now 6th in Japan in industrial output with the bulk of the industry focused on the

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

, and steel and machine industries. Together, these industries account for forty-five percent of the prefecture's exports. In recent years, the government has funded more than eighty

industrial park An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...

s to bring development further inland as well.

Agriculture

The prefecture also boasts Japan's overall second-highest agricultural output. Among all the prefectures, only Hokkaidō produces more agricultural products, and Chiba leads Hokkaidō in vegetable production.

Peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

s are considered a specialty product of Chiba: 78 per cent of the country's peanuts are produced in the prefecture. Chiba Prefecture leads the nation in the production of several vegetables, including carrots; cabbage;

daikon Daikon or mooli, '' Raphanus sativus'' var. ''longipinnatus,'' is a mild-flavored winter radish usually characterized by fast-growing leaves and a long, white, root. Originally native to continental East Asia, daikon is harvested and consum ...

radish The radish ('' Raphanus raphanistrum'' subsp. ''sativus'') is an edible root vegetable of the family Brassicaceae that was domesticated in Asia prior to Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, being mostly eaten ra ...

; ''negi'', the ubiquitous Japanese

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

of the

Welsh onion ''Allium fistulosum'', the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion. The species is very similar ...

;

loquat The loquat (''Eriobotrya japonica'') is a large evergreen shrub or tree, grown commercially for its orange fruit and for its leaves, which are used to make herbal tea. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. The loquat is in the family ...

; nashi, the Japanese cultivar of the

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

, which has a two hundred-year history of cultivation in the prefecture;

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word , ...

es; and

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed eith ...

It is the nation's second largest producer of

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

is also grown, and

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ke ...

, specifically ''

nori Nori is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from species of the red algae genus '' Pyropia'', including ''P. yezonesis'' and '' P. tenera''. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi o ...

'', is harvested in large quantities from Tokyo Bay.

Demographics

Chiba's population is one of the wealthiest in Japan due to the prefecture's strong commercial and industrial sectors. Per capita GDP is ¥3.1 million, the fifth-highest in the country. 70% of the population is employed in the service sector, with 25% in industry and 5% in agriculture.

Climate

Chiba Prefecture has a humid subtropical climate ( Koppen ''Cfa'') with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters. The ''tsuyu''

rainy season The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. Rainy Season may also refer to: * ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King * "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni * '' ...

occurs for approximately 50 days from June to July. According to the

Japanese Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

, the average of annual temperature is . The average high is , and the average low is .

Education

Universities

*Chiba **

Chiba University is a national university in the city of Chiba, Japan. It offers Doctoral degrees in education as part of a coalition with Tokyo Gakugei University, Saitama University, and Yokohama National University. The university was formed in 1949 from e ...

in Inage, Chuo ** Chiba Economic University in Inage **

The Open University of Japan is a distance learning university which has students from all over Japan; it accepted its first students in 1985. History Although founded by the national government initiative with a single-issue law and heavily subsidized by the government, ...

in Mihama **The Meteorological College of Japan **Heisei Teikyo University in Mihama ** Shukutoku University in Chuo ** Tokyo Information Sciences University in Wakaba ** Tokyo Dental College in Mihama **

Kanda University of International Studies or KUIS is a private university located in Makuhari, Mihama-ku, Chiba, Japan. The university was founded in 1987 as an extension of Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages in Tokyo. KUIS is a research university specializing in learner autonomy. ...

in Mihama **Tokyo University of Career Development in Chuo *Funabashi **

Toho University is a university in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. History The two brothers Yutaka Nukada and Susumu Nukada founded the Imperial Women's Medical College in Ōmori, Tokyo, the location of the present-day Faculty of Medicine, with their own money in 1925 ...

- Narashino Campus **

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice, in 1889. It is one of Japan's leading private univers ...

- Funabashi Campus *Matsudo **Nihon University - Matsudo Campus **

Ryutsu Keizai University is a Japanese private university in Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki. It was founded in 1965. The school has secondary campuses in Matsudo, Chiba and also in Kashiwa, Chiba. See also * Ryutsu Keizai University F.C., affiliated football Football is a ...

** Seitoku University *Ichikawa ** Chiba Commerce University ** Wayo Women's University *Kashiwa **

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

- Kashiwa Campus **Chiba University - Kashiwanoha Campus **

Kaichi International University is a private university in Kashiwa, Chiba, 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, ...

** Nishogakusha University - Kasiwa Campus **

Reitaku University is a private university in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, 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 ...

*Narashino ** Chiba Institute of Technology **Nihon University - Narashino and Mimomi Campus *Ichihara **Heisei Teikyo University - Ichihara Campus *Yachiyo ** Shumei University ** Tokyo Seitoku University *Sakura ** Keiai University - Sakura Campus *Noda **

Tokyo University of Science , formerly "Science University of Tokyo" or TUS, informally or simply is a private research university located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. History Tokyo University of Science was founded in 1881 as The Tokyo Academy of Physics by 21 graduat ...

- Noda Campus *Nagareyama **

Edogawa University is a private university in Nagareyama, Chiba, Japan, established in 1990. The school has two divisions, a College of Sociology and a College of Media and Mass Communication. Academics College of Sociology * Department of Psychology and ...

Toyo Gakuen University , also known by the acronym TGU, founded in 1926, is a small private college located in the greater Tokyo area of Japan. The university has two campuses. The original campus, which presently houses the School of Business Administration, is located ...

*Urayasu **

Juntendo University is a private university in Japan. Its headquarters are on its campus in Bunkyo, Tokyo, for the School of Medicine and in Inzai, Chiba, for the School of Health and Sports Science. The university was established in 1838 for medical and in 1946 ...

- Urayasu Campus **

Meikai University is a private university in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. History The university was founded in 1970, and obtained its present name in 1988. Programs The university's School of Dentistry is located in Sakado, Saitama is a city in Saitama Prefect ...

** Ryotokuji University *Abiko ** Chuo Gakuin University ** Kawamura Gakuen Woman's University *Kisarazu **

Seiwa University is a private university in Kisarazu, Chiba, 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, w ...

*Togane ** Josai International University *Inzai **Juntendo University - Sakura Campus *Kamogawa **

Kameda College of Health Sciences is a private university in Japan. The campus is located in Kamogawa, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 31,722 in 14,558 households and a population density of 170 persons per km². ...

Secondary schools

The Chiba Prefectural Board of Education oversees municipal school districts in the prefecture. The board also directly operates the prefecture's public high schools.

Culture

Museums

Chiba Museum of Science and Industry, outside 03

Chiba Prefecture is home to one national-level museum and several prefectural and local museums. The National Museum of Japanese History is located in Sakura and focuses on the history, archaeology, and folk culture of Japan. The Chiba prefectural museums consist of a main museum, the

Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba The is a prefectural museum in Chūō-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The museum opened in 1989 with a focus on the natural history and history of the Bōsō Peninsula. See also * List of Historic Sites of Japan (Chiba) * Chiba Prefect ...

in the central Chuō-ku ward of Chiba City, and six branch museums throughout the prefecture. The Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art is in Chiba City. The Chiba Prefectural Boso-no-mura in Sakae focuses on the local culture of the late Edo period, and the Chiba Prefectural Otone Museum in Katori focuses on the culture of the

basin. The reconstructed

Japanese castle are fortresses constructed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their best-known form in the 16th century. Castles in Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, suc ...

s of Sekiyado and Ōtaki host regional historical museums. The Chiba Museum of Science and Industry is located in Ichikawa on the site of a former factory, and the

Coastal Branch of Natural History Museum and Institute, Chiba The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in ...

in Katsuura focuses on the marine environment of the Pacific Ocean coast. Numerous other municipalities in the prefecture also host museums.

Libraries and archives

The Chiba Prefectural Library consists of three libraries. The Chiba Prefectural Central Library is located in the central Chuō-ku ward of Chiba City directly southwest of Chiba Castle and in close proximity to the City of Chiba offices. The Central Library houses a general collection as well as the central research collection for the prefecture. The Chiba Prefectural West Library is located in Matsudo next to the

Matsudo Museum 260px, Matsudo City Hall is a city in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 498,575 in 242,981 households and a population density of 8100 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Matsudo is lo ...

, and houses a research collection focused on natural history and the fine arts. The Chiba Prefectural East Library is located in Asahi, and houses a research collection focused on the literature and history of the prefecture. The Chiba Prefectural Archives are located across the

Miyako River Miyako may refer to: Places in Japan *Miyako, Iwate, a city in Iwate Prefecture *Miyako Islands **Miyako Island **Miyakojima, Okinawa, a city of the Miyako Islands *Miyako, Fukuoka, a town in Fukuoka Prefecture *''Miyako'' and ''Kyō no Miyako'', ...

from the City of Chiba offices. The archive maintains a collection of rare books and materials from across the prefecture, as well as materials related to the administration of Chiba Prefecture. Each municipality in the prefecture maintains a local libraries, and many shrines and temples maintain archival collections related to their institutions.

Cuisine

Big rolled sushi,Hutomakizushi,Katori-city,Chiba,Japan

The traditional diet of Chiba Prefecture is not fundamentally different than that of the rest of Japan. Chiba Prefecture produces prolific quantities of rice across all areas in the prefecture, vegetables in the northern area of the prefecture, and fish, seafood, and shellfish along the coastal areas of the prefecture. Chōshi has been a major center of worldwide soy sauce production since the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, and the prefecture remains the top producer in Japan.

Kikkoman is a Japanese food manufacturer. Its main products and services include soy sauce, food seasoning and flavoring, mirin, , and sake, juice and other beverages, pharmaceuticals, and restaurant management services. Kikkoman has production plant ...

is headquartered in Noda in northwestern Chiba Prefecture. These are all important components of

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan ( Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and ot ...

. Certain local products, however, are grown in abundance and have resulted in several dishes unique to the areas. Peanuts, grown in great quantities in the prefecture, appear fresh in markets in the prefecture and are eaten boiled as a snack.

Miso is a traditional Japanese seasoning. It is a thick paste produced by fermenting soybeans with salt and ''kōji'' (the fungus ''Aspergillus oryzae'') and sometimes rice, barley, seaweed, or other ingredients. It is used for sauces and spread ...

paste mixed with peanuts is also produced in Chiba. ''Takenoko'', whole

bamboo shoot Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including ''Bambusa vulgaris'' and ''Phyllostachys edulis''. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and b ...

, are harvested in the central part of the Bōsō Peninsula. The takenoko of Ōtaki lack the concentration of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, bu ...

typically found in uncooked bamboo shoots, and as such, are uniquely eaten raw in the area as "takenoko sashimi". '' Futomaki'' or ''futomakizushi'', literally "fat roll", is a large version of the sushi roll. The futomaki popularly made in Chiba Prefecture is up to 10 centimeters in diameter. Futomaki in Chiba Prefecture often utilize various ingredients to form a pattern, such as a flower or a

character, when the roll is cut and served.

Sports

The prefecture plays host to two major events in the Japanese athletics calendar: the

International Chiba Ekiden The International Chiba Ekiden was an annual team road running competition held in Chiba, Japan in late November. The marathon relay race, or ekiden as it is known in Japan, is one of the prominent annual races of its kind. The competition is split ...

and the Chiba International Cross Country. The following sports teams are based in Chiba.

American football

* X-League: Obic Seagulls (

) *X-League: IBM Big Blue ( Yachiyo)

Football

* J.League (J1):

Kashiwa Reysol is a Japanese professional football club based in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. Their home stadium is Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stad ...

(

) * J.League (J2):

JEF United Ichihara Chiba , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club that plays in the J2 League. On 1 February 2005, the club changed its name from ''JEF United Ichihara'' to the current name after Chiba city had joined Ichihara, Chiba as ...

( Chiba, Ichihara)

Baseball

* NPB:

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugu ...

( Chiba)

Basketball

* B.League: Chiba Jets Funabashi (

)

Rugby

* Nihon IBM Big Blue ( Yachiyo) * Kubota Spears (

) * NEC Green Rockets ( Abiko)

Futsal

* F.League:

Bardral Urayasu is a Japanese professional futsal club, currently playing in the F. League Division 1. The team is located in Urayasu, in the Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Their home ground is Urayasu General Gymnasium. Chronicle Current squads Bardral ...

(

)

Volleyball

*V.Challenge League II: Chiba Zelva ( Chiba)

Transportation

Narita International Airport

Most

-bound visitors arriving on international flights land in

, which is situated in Narita in the north of the prefecture, and connected to Tokyo by the

East Japan Railway The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

's ''

Narita Express , abbreviated as N'EX, is a limited express train service operated in Japan since 1991 by East Japan Railway Company (JR East), serving Narita International Airport from various Greater Tokyo Area stations. Services run approximately half-hourly ...

'' and the

Keisei Electric Railway The (stylized as K'SEI since 2001) is a major private railway in Chiba Prefecture and Tokyo, Japan. The name ''Keisei'' is the combination of the kanji 京 from and 成 from , which the railway's main line connects. The combination uses diffe ...

's '' Skyliner''.

Railways

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

Sōbu Main Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It connects Tokyo with the east coast of Chiba Prefecture, passing through the cities of Funabashi, Chiba, and Chōshi. Its name derives from the old ...

*** Chūō-Sōbu Line ***

Sōbu Line (Rapid) The Sōbu Line (Rapid) ( ja, 総武快速線, ) is a railway service on the Sōbu Main Line in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Tokyo Station in Chūō, Tokyo with Chiba Station ...

Jōban Line The Jōban Line ( ja, 常磐線, ) is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanu ...

*** Jōban Line (Local) ***

Jōban Line (Rapid) The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma, Iwanuma, Miyagi. However, foll ...

Narita Line The Narita Line ( ja, 成田線, ) is the name for a combination of three railway lines located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The main line connects Sakura Station and Matsugishi Station (as ...

Uchibō Line The is a railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) adjacent to Tokyo Bay, paralleling the western (i.e., inner) shore of the Bōsō Peninsula. It connects Soga Station in the city of Chiba to Awa-Kamogawa Station in t ...

Sotobō Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) adjacent to the Pacific Ocean, on the eastern (i.e., outer) side of the Bōsō Peninsula. It connects Chiba Station in Chiba to Awa-Kamogawa Station in Kam ...

** Musashino Line ** Tōgane Line ** Kashima Line ** Kururi Line * Keisei ** Main Line ** Narita Sky Access ** Chiba Line ** Chihara Line **Higashi Narita Line *

Shin-Keisei Line The is a railway line in Japan owned by the private railway company Shin-Keisei Electric Railway, a subsidiary of Keisei Electric Railway. The line runs between Matsudo Station in Matsudo, Chiba, and Keisei-Tsudanuma Station in Narashino, C ...

* Hokuso Line * Toyo Rapid Line *

Shibayama Railway is a third-sector railway company in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It operates Japan's shortest independent railway line,� ...

Tobu is a Japanese commuter railway and ''keiretsu'' holding company in the Greater Tokyo Area as well as an intercity and regional operator in the Kantō region. Excluding the Japan Railways Group companies, Tobu's rail system is the second longes ...

Noda Line NoDa (short for "North Davidson") is a popular arts district in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is located in the North Charlotte neighborhood on and around North Davidson Street and 36th Street, approximately one mile northeast of ...

Tsukuba Express The , or TX, is a Japanese railway line operated by the third-sector company Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company, which links Akihabara Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and Tsukuba Station in Tsukuba, Ibaraki. The route was inaugurated on 24 ...

Tokyo Metro The is a major rapid transit system in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the Tokyo Metro Co. With an average daily ridership of 6.84 million passengers, the Tokyo Metro is the larger of the two subway operators in the city; the other being the Toe ...

Tozai Line *

Toei Shinjuku Line The is a rapid transit line in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei). The line runs between Motoyawata Station in Ichikawa, Chiba in the east and Shinjuku Station in the west. At Shin ...

* Nagareyama Line * Choshi Electric Railway * Kominato Railway * Isumi Railway * Disney Resort Line

People movers

* Chiba Urban Monorail * Yamaman Yukarigaoka Line

Road

Expressways

* Joban Expressway * Narita Airport Expressway *

Higashi Kanto Expressway Higashi is the Japanese word for ''east''. In kanji it is represented as 東. Higashi may also refer to: Places *Higashi, Shibuya, a district of Shibuya, Tokyo *Higashi, Fukushima, a village in Fukushima Prefecture *Higashi, Okinawa, a village in ...

* Tokyo Gaikan Expressway * Tateyama Expressway *

Shuto Expressway is a network of toll expressways in the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan. It is operated and maintained by the . Most routes are grade-separated (elevated roads or tunnels) and central routes have many sharp curves and multi-lane merges that requi ...

* Keiyo Road * Togane Road *

Tokyo Bay Aqua Line The , also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Expressway, is an expressway that is mainly made up of a bridge–tunnel combination across Tokyo Bay in Japan. It connects the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture with the city of Kisarazu in Chiba P ...

National highways

*Route 6 *Route 14 *Route 16 *Route 51 *Route 124 *Route 126 *Route 127 *Route 128 *Route 294 *Route 295 *Route 296 *Route 297 *Route 298 *Route 356 *Route 357 *Route 408 *Route 409 *Route 410 *Route 464 *Route 465

Tourism

The

is located in

near the western border of the prefecture. The

Kamogawa Sea World Kamogawa Sea World is a large scale comprehensive marine leisure center/museum equivalent facility located between the Tojo coast and the national highway No. 128 in Kamogawa city, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is not affiliated with SeaWorld in ...

is located in Kamogawa. There are also a number of tourist sites on the Chiba peninsula, such as Nokogiriyama; Kujūkuri Beach; and Onjuku beach. Chiba beach

Politics

Since 2009, the prefectural governor is Eiji Suzuki, better known under his stage name as Kensaku Morita, former actor, member of the House of Representatives ( LDP/Independent – Tokyo 4th district) and member of the House of Councillors (Independent – Tokyo). He was reelected overwhelmingly to a second term as governor in the March 2013 election against only a Communist challenger and a minor, unaffiliated independent. The assembly of Chiba Prefecture has a regular membership of 95, elected in 45 electoral districts, currently still in the unified local election cycle of 1947 (last round 2011). As of July 2014, it is composed as follows: LDP 52 members, DPJ 13, Kōmeitō 7, JCP 4, Shimin Net/ SDP/Independents 4,

Your Party is a Japanese parliamentary caucus consisting of Yoshimi Watanabe and Takashi Tachibana, later Satoshi Hamada after Tachibana forfeited his seat, in the House of Councillors. It was also a political party led by Watanabe from 2009 until its d ...

3, four other caucuses with 5 members in total. In the National Diet, Chiba is represented by 13 members from single-member districts in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, and six members (three at-large per election) in the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

. After the most recent Diet elections of 2010, 2012 and 2013, the prefecture is represented by eleven Liberal Democrats and two Democrats in the House of Representatives, and three Liberal Democrats, two Democrats, and one Your Party member in the House of Councillors. Current Diet members from Chiba include former prime minister

Yoshihiko Noda is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 2011 to 2012. He was a member of the Democratic Party, and a member of the House of Representatives (lower house) in the Diet (national legislature). He was named to succeed Naoto ...

(H.R., DPJ – 4th district) and former ministers Kuniko Inoguchi (H.C., LDP – class of 2010) and Motoo Hayashi (H.R., LDP – 10th district).

Local government

As of 2014, Chiba is divided into 54 contiguous

(see list above): 37 cities, 16 towns and one village, as in all of postwar Japan each with a directly elected mayor and assembly. The most populous and Chiba's only designated major city is the capital

. Two cities, Funabashi and Kashiwa, are

core cities The Core Cities Group (also Core Cities UK) is a self-selected and self-financed collaborative advocacy group of large regional cities in the United Kingdom outside Greater London. The group was formed in 1995 and serves as a partnership of el ...

. After late 20th century mergers, much of the rest of the prefecture is also organized in independent

: Of the (today purely geographical)

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, only six remain, four of which have only one or two remaining

villages 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 ...

. – After the reorganization of county and municipal governments in all prefectures in 1889/1890, there had initially been 12 counties and no city in Chiba; Chiba town in Chiba county became the first municipality in Chiba to be elevated to city status in 1921.

Notable people

Miri Ichika Miri Ichika (''未梨一花, Ichika Miri'', born 24 February 1999) is a Japanese gravure idol, tarento, and actress from Chiba, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is si ...

- gravure model and tarento * KOSEKI Aquila Raphael * Keita Sawa *

Kei Shindō is a Japanese voice actress. Her major roles include Kyoka Jiro in ''My Hero Academia'', Gentoku in '' Ikki Tousen'', Kuro Kagami in '' Kodomo no Jikan'', Madoka Amano in ''Metal Fight Beyblade'', and Naomasa in ''Horizon in the Middle of Nowhe ...

- voice actress

Police

While by far not as large as that of neighbouring Tokyo, Chiba's police force is among the country's ten largest at more than 10,000 members (including the Narita airport police). As in every prefecture, the police are supervised by the public safety commission; its five members are appointed by the governor with approval by the assembly.Chiba prefectural public safety commission

Sister states

Chiba Prefecture has a sister-city relationship with: *

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, United States (1990) * Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom * Juanjuí, Peru *

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

, Germany (2019)

In popular culture

*Films set in Chiba include '' The Eel'' (1997), winner of the

Palme D'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

. Filming took place in Sawara. *Novels set in Chiba include: ''

Neuromancer ''Neuromancer'' is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and ...

'' by

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...

(set in

), '' Ningen Shikkaku'' by

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as '' The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and '' No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Sh ...

(

), and '' Nogiku no Haka'' by Sachio Itō (

). *''

Manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

'' (comics) representations include: '' WataMote'', '' Be Free!'', '' Chameleon'', '' Kyō Kara Ore Wa!!'', ''

Makuhari is a community in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is within Hanamigawa-ku and Mihama-ku. The seaside area of Makuhari was reclaimed from the sea. The district was constructed in a span of 10 years. Steven Poole, author of ''Trigger Happy ...

'' (set in

Chiba city is the capital city of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It sits about east of the centre of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay. The city became a government-designated city in 1992. In June 2019, its population was 979,768, with a population density of 3,605 people ...

), ''

Makuhari Saboten Campus is a community in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is within Hanamigawa-ku and Mihama-ku. The seaside area of Makuhari was reclaimed from the sea. The district was constructed in a span of 10 years. Steven Poole, author of ''Trigger Hap ...

'' (

), '' Susume!! Pirates'' and '' Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku'' (

). *''

Anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

'' (animation) representations include: '' The Family's Defensive Alliance'' (set in

), '' Battle Programmer Shirase'' (Narashino), '' My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU'' and ''

Zegapain is a Japanese anime television series created by Sunrise. The series premiered in Japan on April 6, 2006 on TV Tokyo and also later aired on BS Japan and AT-X. On October 2, 2007, Bandai Entertainment released the first Region 1 volume o ...

'' (

). *TV series representations include: '' Kisarazu Cat's Eye'' (set in Kisarazu), '' Miotsukushi'' (

Chōshi is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,174 in 27,160 households and a population density of 700 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Chōshi is located in the northe ...

), ''Beach Boys'' (filmed in Tateyama and Shirahama (now Minamiboso) and '' Yappari Neko ga Suki'' ( Chiba).

References

External links

*
Chiba Prefecture Official Website

{{coord, 35, 36, 18, N, 140, 07, 24, E, scale:500000, display=title Kantō region Prefectures of Japan Populated places established in 1873 1873 establishments in Japan