Shimane Prefecture

Shimane Prefecture (島根県 Shimane-ken^?) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island.^[1]

The capital is Matsue.^[2]

It is the second least populous prefecture in Japan, after its eastern neighbor Tottori.

The prefecture has an area elongated from east to west facing the Chūgoku Mountain Range on the south side and to the Sea of Japan on the north side.

It is divided into the Izumo Region in the East, the Iwami Region in the West and the Oki Region, a small group of islands off the northern coast.

Most of the cities are near the shoreline of the Sea of Japan.  One-third of the prefecture's population is concentrated in the Izumo-Matsue area. Otherwise, over two-thirds of the population is on the coastline. The reason is that the Chugoku mountains make the land inland harder to inhabit.

Izumo Taisha in Izumo City is one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan.

The Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan are also part of Shimane Prefecture, which also claims to have jurisdiction over the South Korea-controlled island of Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima).

In Shimane, the largest employer is the retail industry, employing over 60,000 workers. The supermarket, Mishimaya, and the hardware store, Juntendo, are examples of companies based in Shimane. The manufacturing industry has the second number of employees with 49,000 workers. The retail industry has over 12,000 locations within the prefecture, the most of any industry.

Check out the cultural assets and tourist spots.