October 15, 2018

Jilin Province and Shimane Prefecture established a friendly relationship

[Introduction]

Shimane Prefecture is located in the southwestern Honshu Island of Japan. The area is 6,708 square kilometers with a population of about 680,000 (2018). The prefecture has jurisdiction over 8 cities, 10 towns and 1 village. The prefectural capital is Matsue City. Shimane Prefecture borders Tottori Prefecture to the east, Yamaguchi Prefecture to the west, Hiroshima Prefecture to the south and the Sea of Japan to the north. It is across the sea from the Korean Peninsula and the Primorsky Krai of Russia. There are many mountains in the south forming a long and thin terrain from northeast to southwest with few plains, and the mountains in the west extend to the coastline. The natural scenery is beautiful with four distinct seasons. The annual average temperature ranges from 12 to 15 ℃ and the annual rainfall ranges from 1,600 to 2,300mm. There are three airports in the prefecture, including Izumo Airport, Iwami Airport and Oki Airport. Hamada Expressway in the west connects to Hiroshima, San-in Expressway in the east and the expressway across China are still under construction. 

[Resources and Industries]

In 2015, the GDP of Shimane Prefecture was 2,494 billion yen (149.6 billion yuan). The primary industry accounts for 1.6% of the prefecture's total economic volume, the secondary industry accounts for 25.2% of the prefecture's total economic volume, the tertiary industry accounts for 72.4% of the prefecture's total economic volume, and the annual GDP per capita is about 2.65 million yen (160,000 yuan).

Agriculture, forestry and aquatic products: The forest area accounts for 80% of Shimane Prefecture’s total area. Because of mountainous landscape, the cultivated area is 38,200 hectares accounting for 6% of the prefecture area. The average annual output value of agriculture is about 55.2 billion yen (3.5 billion yuan). Rice is the main crop and accounts for 80% of the total cultivated area. In addition, there are planting industries such as vegetables, grapes, cantaloupes, and animal industries such as cow and beef cattle. The rich fishery resources concentrate on Oki Island and have become one of the few aquatic products supply counties in western Japan. The average annual fishing volume is 153,000 tons. 

Industry: The main industries in Shimane Prefecture are precision machinery manufacturing industry and steel industry, which produce information and telecommunication equipment and electronic products, metals, clay tiles, aquatic products, food, etc. The annual output value of processing and manufacturing industries is about 984 billion yen (60 billion yuan). 

Tourism: Shimane Prefecture is rich in tourism resources and its tourism industry is one of the important industries. The annual number of tourists reaches about 32 million, which promotes the consumption of 134.9 billion yen (8.1 billion yuan). The tourism industry contributes about 145 billion yen (8.7 billion yuan) to the GDP of the whole prefecture every year.