Product Code Database
lead=yes, historically known as , is the largest of Japan's four main islands. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian island of Java. Japan Civil Registry Database 2013See 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.
Honshu had a population of 104 million , constituting 81.3% of the entire population of Japan, 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, the island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyoto, 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. Honshu also contains Japan's highest mountain, Mount Fuji, and its largest lake, Lake Biwa.
Most of Japan's industry is located in a belt running along Honshu's southern coast, from Tokyo to Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Hiroshima. Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan 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.
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 while causing devastating tsunamis). The highest peak is the active volcano Mount Fuji at , 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. In addition to the general climate patterns, central Honshu, particularly the regions surrounding the Japanese Alps, experiences heavy snowfall in winter. Areas such as Niigata, Toyama, and Nagano prefectures are renowned for their snow accumulation, making them popular destinations for skiing and winter sports. These regions are among the snowiest inhabited places in the world, due to the humid air masses from the Sea of Japan colliding with the mountainous terrain.
| + Notable flora and faunaJapanese Wiki page 北海道 | ||
| Japanese black bear | Fauna | A subspecies of the Asian black bear. It is typically herbivorous and lives in Honshu and Kyushu. |
| Japanese macaque | Fauna | ( Macaca fuscata or snow monkey), is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. |
| Japanese golden eagle | Fauna | ( Aquila chrysaetos japonica), a subspecies of the golden eagle, inhabits Honshu and Hokkaido all year round. |
| Japanese wolf | Fauna | Aka Honshu Wolf is an extinct subspecies of the wolf. |
| Sika deer | Fauna | Cervus nippon (Japanese deer), is overabundant in Honshu. |
| Japanese dwarf flying squirrel | Fauna | ( Nihon momonga) is one of two species of Old World in the genus Pteromys. |
| Japanese raccoon dog | Fauna | ( Nyctereutes viverrinus, also called tanuki), is a species of Canidae Endemism to Japan. |
| Japanese giant salamander | Fauna | ( Andrias japonicus) this fully aquatic salamander is Endemism to Japan and called Ōsanshōuo (Giant Salamander) |
| Takydromus tachydromoides | Fauna | The Japanese grass lizard, is a wall lizard species of the genus Takydromus. |
| Japanese serow | Fauna | (kamoshika, lit. "coarse pelt deer"): ( Capricornis crispus) is a Japanese Caprinae found in dense woodland primarily in northern and central Honshu. |
| Japanese giant flying squirrel | Fauna | ( musasabi, Petaurista leucogenys) is native to Japan where it inhabits sub-alpine forests and boreal evergreen forests on Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. |
| Japanese boar | Fauna | ( Sus scrofa leucomystax, aka white-moustached pig, Nihon-inoshishi (ニホンイノシシ)), is a subspecies of wild boar native to all of Japan, save for Hokkaido and the Ryukyu Islands. |
| Japanese bush warbler | Fauna | (uguisu (鶯), is an Asian passerine bird more often heard than seen. It is a year-round resident of Japan (except Hokkaido where it is only in summer). |
| Sasakia charonda | Fauna | National butterfly of Japan ( ō-murasaki, "great purple") |
| Copper pheasant | Fauna | ( Syrmaticus soemmerringii) a large pheasant with a rich coppery chestnut plumage is Endemism to Japan. |
| Green pheasant | Fauna | ( Phasianus versicolor), aka Japanese green pheasant, is an omnivorous bird native to the Japanese archipelago, to which it is endemic. |
| Grey heron | Fauna | (Ardea cinerea) Long legged wading bird. |
| Japanese scops owl | Fauna | ( Otus semitorques) is a resident breeder in Japan and found in other countries in East Asia. |
| Doryrhamphus japonicus | Fauna | Doryrhamphus japonicus, or the Honshu pipefish, is a species of flagtail pipefish |
| Brahmaea japonica | Fauna | (Japanese owl moth) a species of moth of the Brahmaeidae family native to Japan. |
| Japanese spider crab | Fauna | ( Macrocheira kaempferi) a Marine biology crab with the largest leg-span of any arthropod. They live off the southern coasts of Honshū from Tokyo Bay to Kagoshima Prefecture. |
| Chum salmon | Fauna | (aka white salmon (白鮭 シロサケ) is native to middle and northern Honshu, Hokkaido and the North Pacific. |
| Silurus biwaensis | Fauna | The giant Lake Biwa catfish or Biwako-o'namazu, endemic to Lake Biwa. |
| Oncorhynchus kawamurae | Fauna | A species of landlocked Oncorhynchus in Japan. It is Endemism to Lake Tazawa, Akita Prefecture, but was translocated to Lake Saiko. |
| Akita Inu | Fauna | (秋田犬, Akita-inu) is a historic dog breed of large size originating from the mountains in Akita Prefecture (northern Honshu). |
| Kai Ken | Fauna | The Kai Ken (甲斐犬) is a rare Dog breed of dog native to Japan. It is originally from Kai Province in Yamanashi Prefecture. |
| Kishu | Fauna | 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. |
| Shiba Inu | Fauna | The Shiba Inu (柴犬), is an original and distinct spitz breed hunting dog, native to Japan. |
| Rosa rugosa | Flora | ( Rosa rugosa), a species of rose native to eastern Asia and Japan. |
| Hydrangea hirta | Flora | A species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae that is native to East Asia and common in the Pacific side of Honshu. |
| Tsuga sieboldii | Flora | (Tsuga sieboldii or simply tsuga (栂)), is a conifer native to the Japan islands of Honshū, Kyūshū, Shikoku and Yakushima. |
In 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0–9.1 occurred off the coast of Honshu, generating tsunami waves up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) high and killing 19,747. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The tsunami subsequently led to the meltdown of 3 nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, leading to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
| + National parks (国立公園) |
| 南アルプス |
| 中部山岳 |
| 白山 |
| 妙高戸隠連山 |
| 大山隠岐 |
| 秩父多摩甲斐 |
| 富士箱根伊豆 |
| 上信越高原 |
| 日光国立公園 |
| 小笠原 |
| 伊勢志摩 |
| 山陰海岸 |
| 吉野熊野 |
| 瀬戸内海 |
| 磐梯朝日 |
| 三陸復興 |
| 十和田八幡平 |
| 尾瀬 |
| Shimokita Hantō, Tsugaru, Hayachine, Kurikoma, Minami Sanriku Kinkasan, Zaō, Oga, Chōkai |
| Suigō-Tsukuba, Minami Bōsō, Meiji no Mori Takao, Tanzawa-Ōyama |
| Echigo Sanzan-Tadami, Myōgi-Arafune-Saku Kōgen, Sado-Yahiko-Yoneyama, Noto Hantō, Echizen-Kaga Kaigan, Yatsugatake-Chūshin Kōgen, Tenryū-Okumikawa, Chūō Alps, Ibi-Sekigahara-Yōrō, Hida-Kisogawa, Aichi Kōgen, Mikawa-wan |
| Suzuka, Wakasa Wan, Tango-Amanohashidate-Ōeyama, Biwako, Murō-Akame-Aoyama, Kongō-Ikoma-Kisen, Yamato-Aogaki, Kōya-Ryūjin, Meiji no Mori Minō, Kyoto Tamba Kogen |
| Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan, Hiba-Dōgo-Taishaku, Nishi-Chūgoku Sanchi, Kita-Nagato Kaigan, Akiyoshidai |
Most of Japan's copper, lead, zinc and chromite is located on Honshu, along with smaller, scattered deposits of gold, silver, arsenic, sulfur and pyrite.
The regions and their prefectures are:
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