Hokuriku region (北陸地方 Hokuriku chihō, literally North Land Region) is a region in the northwestern part of Honshū, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region.
The Hokuriku region includes the prefectures of Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui. Niigata Prefecture is sometimes included in the Hokuriku region and sometimes in one of the following regions.
- Shin'etsu (信越): region that includes Niigata and Nagano Prefecture.
- Kōshin'etsu (甲信越): region that includes Niigata, Nagano and Yamanashi Prefectures.
- Hokushin'etsu (北信越): region where the Hokuriku region meets the Shin'etsu region.
The main cities of the Hokuriku area are Toyama, Takaoka, Fukui, Kanazawa, Komatsu, and Niigata. Of these, Kanazawa is the largest with a population approaching 500,000.
The main industries in the Hokuriku area include chemicals (Toyama), medicine (Toyama), tourism, textiles and textile machinery (Ishikawa), heavy machinery (Ishikawa), farming, and the fishing industry.
Climate
The Hokuriku region has the highest volume of snowfall of any inhabited and arable region in the world.[citation needed] This is because dry Siberian air masses, which develop high humidity over the Sea of Japan, are forced upwards when they encounter the mountains of Honshū, causing the humidity to condense as snow.
The long winters and deep snow of this region are depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu, an encyclopedic work of the late Edo period which describes life in the Uonuma district of Niigata Prefecture.
The Hokuriku region is also the setting for Yasunari Kawabata's novel Snow Country.
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