Nagasaki

About Nagasaki

Nagasaki Prefecture covers 4,131.22 square kilometers, population about 1.22 million, capital Nagasaki City. Surrounded by sea except for its Saga border, it includes Tsushima, Iki, and the Goto Islands. A 2023 Geographical Survey Institute count lists 1,479 islands, the national record, giving a convoluted rias coastline of 4,137 km, 12 percent of Japan's total, dotted with 83 ports. No point in the prefecture is more than 15 km from the coast. Low mountains dominate, with Unzen-Fugen-dake at 1,359 meters and Heisei-Shinzan at 1,483 meters active volcanoes whose 1990-1995 eruption caused major damage. Historically the area was western Hizen, Tsushima Province and Iki Province. The modern prefecture was created on November 14, 1871 from Nagasaki Prefecture of the former Nagasaki bugyo, absorbing Shimabara, Omura, Fukue and others after Haihan-chiken, excluding hamlet villages later merged in Heisei mergers from 79 municipalities to 21 today. Climate is warmed by the Tsushima Current, mild with small annual range, but continental cold waves can bring sharp cold and even midwinter days below zero, while winter clouds and shigure rain affect the East China Sea side with occasional heavy snow when monsoon wind passes unblocked over sea. Summer is humid, typhoons frequently make first landfall in Nagasaki, including many record storms since 1945, with high humidity over 75 percent in July. Biogeographically it retains continental relict species like Tsushima wildcat and mudskipper. Industry was built on shipbuilding at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard, producing vessels and power-plant turbines and cruise ships, plus aircraft parts and information industries growing recently, automotive parts in Sasebo. Agriculture yields mikan, biwa loquat where Nagasaki is Japan's top producer by value, and Wagyu; fisheries catch sea bream, squid, tilefish in spring and yellowtail and fugu in winter, with processing clusters at Nagasaki Fish Market second volume for trawling. Tourism centers on two UNESCO World Heritages: Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution including Hashima Island Gunkanjima Battleship Island with abandoned apartment ruins symbolizing coal mining history, and Hidden Christian Sites in the Nagasaki and Amakusa Region including Oura Cathedral oldest church in Japan 1864 and Shitsu Village and Egami, plus Dejima Dutch trading post of 1636-1859 with reconstructed warehouses, Glover Garden with foreign merchant houses, Nagasaki's night view certified among the world's top three with Hong Kong and Monaco from Mt. Inasa 333 meters altitude, Huis Ten Bosch Dutch theme park in Sasebo with seasonal illuminations, Shimabara Onsen, Unzen Onsen with sulfur-scented hot fields and Obama Onsen longest footbath in Japan 105 meters, and the scenic Kujukushima Islands 208 islands from a cruise and Goto church pilgrimage routes of church architecture unique to Japan and migratory bird reserves.