Hyogo

a prefecture in Japan, in the southern part of the island of Honshu. Hyogo is bounded by the Sea of Japan to the north and by the Inland Sea to the south. The prefecture has an area of 8,300 sq km, including the island of Awaji. As of 1975, the population was 5 million, of which approximately 90 percent was urban. The capital is Kobe. Hyogo Prefecture is part of the Kansai Economic Region, the nucleus of which is formed by the cities of Osaka and Kobe.

The main branches of industry in Hyogo are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, food and condiments (especially the refining of sugar and the extraction of vegetable oil), general machine building, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of electrical equipment and chemical products. Other highly developed industries include lumbering and the production of glassware, ceramic ware, rubber goods, and textiles (cotton fabrics and synthetic fiber). Factories are concentrated primarily in the new industrial center of Harima and the coastal cities of Kobe, Amagasaki, and Nishinomiya. Gold, copper ore, and antimony are mined in the prefecture, and the Ikuno and Akenobe mines yield approximately three-fourths of the tin produced in the country.

Approximately 15 percent of Hyogo’s territory is under cultivation. The main crop is rice, with a harvest of 280,000 tons in 1971; 74,000 hectares are planted. Fruits grown in the area include mandarins and pears. Vegetables are also cultivated; Hyogo has the second greatest onion harvest in Japan. Sericulture is practiced in the prefecture, mainly in the north. Dairy and beef cattle, swine, and poultry are raised. Fishing produces a catch of more than 100,000 tons annually.