Kyushu is the third largest island of Japan's five main islands. In the past, it has been known as, and. The historical regional name Saikaidō referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands. In the 8th-century Taihō Code reforms, Dazaifu was established as a special administrative term for the region. , Kyushu has a population of 14,311,224 and covers.
Geography
The island is mountainous, and Japan's most active volcano, Mt Aso at, is on Kyushu. There are many other signs of tectonic activity, including numerous areas of hot springs. The most famous of these are in Beppu, on the east shore, and around Mt. Aso in central Kyushu. The island is separated from Honshu by the Kanmon Straits. Being the nearest island to the Asian continent, historically it is the gateway to Japan. The name Kyūshū comes from the nine ancient provinces of Saikaidō situated on the island: Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, Bungo, Hyūga, Osumi, and Satsuma. Today's Kyushu Region is a politically defined region that consists of the seven prefectures on the island of Kyushu, plus Okinawa Prefecture to the south:
Kyushu has 10.3 percent of the population of Japan. Most of Kyushu's population is concentrated along the northwest, in the cities of Fukuoka and Kitakyushu, with population corridors stretching southwest into Sasebo and Nagasaki and south into Kumamoto and Kagoshima. Except for Oita and Miyazaki, the eastern seaboard shows a general decline in population. Politically, Kyushu is described as a stronghold of the Liberal Democratic Party. Per Japanese census data, and, Kyushu region population with Ryukyu Islands has experienced a large population decline since around 2000 whose population decline has softened mainly due to relatively high birth rate of Ryukyuans both within the Ryukyuan lands and throughout the Kyushu region. The Ryukyuans are an indigenous minority group in Japan. Historical populations with Ryukyu Islands Historical populations without Ryukyu Islands
Parts of Kyushu have a subtropical climate, particularly Miyazaki prefecture and Kagoshima prefecture. Major agricultural products are rice, tea, tobacco, sweet potatoes, and soy; also, silk is widely produced. The island is noted for various types of porcelain, including Arita, Imari, Satsuma, and Karatsu. Heavy industry is concentrated in the north around Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, Nagasaki, and Oita and includes chemicals, automobiles, semiconductors, and metal processing. In 2010, the graduate employment rate in the region was the lowest nationwide, at 88.9%. Besides the volcanic area of the south, there are significant mud hot springs in the northern part of the island, around Beppu. The springs are the site of occurrence of certain extremophilemicroorganisms, which are capable of surviving in extremely hot environments.
