Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture (千葉県 Chiba-ken^?) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area.^[1]

Its capital is Chiba City.^[2]

The name of Chiba Prefecture in Japanese is formed from two kanji characters. The first, 千, means "thousand" and the second, 葉 means "leaves".

Chiba Prefecture was settled in prehistoric times, as evidenced by the Jōmon period remains in every part of the region.

Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north at the Tone River, Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture to the west at the Edo River, the Pacific Ocean to the east and Tokyo Bay around its southern boundary.

Chiba Prefecture is home to one of Japan's largest industrial areas. Chiba Prefecture is now 6th in Japan in industrial output with the bulk of the industry focued on the petroleum, chemical, and steel and machine industries.^[24] Together, these industries account for forty-five percent of the prefecture's exports.

The prefecture also boasts Japan's overall second-highest agricultural output.
Peanuts are considered a specialty product of Chiba: 78 per cent of the country's peanuts are produced in the prefecture.^[25]

Various rock bands have roots that stem from Chiba prefecture, including the popular X Japan, Plastic Tree, girugamesh and Ellegarden.

The Jōmon period (縄文時代 Jōmon jidai^?) is the time in Japanese prehistory from about 14,000 BC^[1][2] to about 300 BC, when Japan was inhabited by a Neolithic culture which reached a considerable degree of cultural sophistication, above all in pottery, despite limited development of agriculture and no use of metal.