Kanagawa Prefecture

The Kanagawa Prefecture (Japanese神奈川 県, Kanagawa-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan and is located in the Kanto region on Honshu. The prefecture is part of the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Seat of the prefectural government is Yokohama. Since May 2006 Kanagawa prefecture lies behind Tokyo at position 2 of Japanese prefectures by population.

Kanagawa and Baden- Württemberg since 1989 to maintain a bilateral partnership.

• 5.1 Yokohama
• 5.2 Kamakura

History of the name

Kanagawa originally referred to the area from Kuraki -gun (久 良 岐 郡) in the east of the province of Musashi (now the city of Yokohama ). The area was an important shipping port and trading center and even today has a large port facility. 1854 closed the Japanese government after the arrival of the American fleet under Commodore Matthew Perry here the Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States. At the same time a central trading point was established, called Kanagawa Bugyo -sho. 1868 the name of Kanagawa was adopted for the newly founded prefecture.

Geography

The Kanagawa Prefecture is located in the southwestern part of the Kantōebene, approximately in the center of Japan's main island Honshu. The Kanagawa Prefecture abuts the north of the capital, Tokyo, in the east and south it borders the sea. To the west it borders the prefectures of Yamanashi and Shizuoka.

The geographical extent ranges from

The area can be divided into three different zones. The mountains and hills in the west and north- west with the mountain ranges of Hakone and Tanzawa ( highest elevation: Hirugatake 1673 m). In the center of the flat plains to the Sagami River, an important water dispenser for the whole region. In the south and east hills. The prefecture has a total of 426 km of coastline on the Sagami Bay in the south and the Bay of Tokyo in the northwest. The two bays are separated by the whole belonging to the prefecture of Miura Peninsula.

Climate

Warm ocean currents cause a mild climate. In the coastal areas, the summer is not so hot, winter is not quite as cold as in the interior. The temperatures go over distributed throughout the year, however, even under 0 ℃ in winter and well over 30 ℃ in summer.

• Average temperature: 16.9 ℃
• Maximum temperature: 36.5 ℃
• Minimum temperature: -0.7 ℃
• Average rainfall per year: 1932 mm

(Source: Yokohama Local Meteorological Observatory, 2004)

Politics and Administration

• LDP: 42
• DPJ - Kanagawa Club: 27
• Minna: 15
• Kōmeitō: 10
• Kenseikai: 6
• Kanagawa Network Undo: 1
• Ishin: 1
• Minshu Club ( "Democratic Club " ): 1
• Kaikaku - Kanagawa Minshu Club ( "Reform - Democratic Club Kanagawa " ): 1

Since 2011, the former newscaster Yuji Kuroiwa is governor of Kanagawa, who was elected at the uniform regional elections in April 2011 as the de facto candidate of major parties to succeed Shigefumi Matsuzawa. Also in the regional elections, the Parliament was elected: The Liberal Democratic Party remained with 40 of 104 seats strongest party followed by the Democratic Party with 29 mandates and the Minna no Tō with 15 The Kōmeitō has ten members of parliament, the Communist Party of Japan has been 2011 are not represented in parliament.

In the national parliament, the prefecture is represented by 18 directly elected members in Shūgiin and is part of proportional representation block South Kanto; into Sangiin selects Kanagawa three MPs per constituency. The 18 Shūgiin constituencies were 14 Liberal Democrats, a Democrat, two Minna -no- Tō members and one of Kōmeitō won in 2012, after the Democratic Party in 2009 had won 14 of the 18 seats yet. 2005 again had the LDP coalition won 17 seats Kōmeitō. Ins Sangiin selects the prefecture since 2013 instead of the previous four three representatives per part choice is so then represented temporarily until 2016 seven, eight deputies; according to the 2010 and 2013 elections are the two members of the LDP, DPJ and Minna no Tō and a deputy of the Kōmeitō.

The " financial strength index " ( zaiseiryoku Shisu ) of Kanagawa Prefecture is above 0.9 and even if they like Tokyo and Aichi can not be denied as a matter of their spending, it is one of the financially strongest prefectures of the country. In fiscal year 2008, the regular budget amounted to around 1.7 trillion yen.

With Yokohama, Kawasaki and Sagamihara Kanagawa is since 2010 the only prefecture with three " regierungsdesignierten cities " ( Seirei shitei toshi ).

Administrative divisions

Independent cities (市shi )

• Seirei shitei toshi ( " Regierungsdesignierte cities " ) Yokohama, the seat of the prefectural government
• Kawasaki
• Sagamihara

• Yokosuka

• Tokureishi ( " special cities " ) Atsugi
• Chigasaki
• Hiratsuka
• Odawara
• Yamato

• Other county-level cities Ayase
• Ebina
• Fujisawa
• Hadano
• Isehara

• Kamakura
• Minamiashigara
• Miura
• Zama
• Zushi

Counties (郡, gun)

List of counties of the Kanagawa Prefecture, and their towns (町, machi ) and villages (村, mura ).

• Aiko Aikawa
• Kiyokawa

• Kaisei
• Matsuda
• Nakai
• Oi
• Yamakita

• Hakone Hakone
• Manazuru
• Yugawara

• Samukawa

• Miura Hayama

• Ninomiya
• Oiso

Tourism

Yokohama

In Yokohama, is the tallest building in Japan until 2010, the 296 -meter-high Yokohama Landmark Tower. Due to the largest Chinatown in Japan and other foreigners who live in Yokohama, the city has a multicultural flair.

Kamakura

The former capital of Kamakura has a number of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Well known is the 13.35 -meter-high bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands outdoors for a tsunami in the 15th century, which destroyed the surrounding temples.

Saru -shima

Enoshima

Chinatown of Yokohama