Kagawa

Kagawa (kägä`wä), prefecture (1990 pop. 1,023,434), N Shikoku, Japan. Takamatsu is the capital. It is an agricultural region (rice, barley, wheat, mandarin oranges) with a mountainous and forested interior. The coast has fishing ports and salt-producing centers. Lacquer, work gloves, and fans are also produced in the prefecture.

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Kagawa 

a prefecture in Japan, on the northern part of the island of Shikoku. It also includes the island of Shodo. Area, 1, 864.7 sqkm. Population, 908, 000 (1970), about 50 percent of which is urban. The major city and administrative center is Takamatsu. Most of the area (about 70 percent) is covered by mountains and highlands; but in the north there is a narrow strip of lowlands.

Kagawa is an agricultural region, with rice (the chief crop) accounting for about 77 percent of the cultivated area. Fruitgrowing (tangerines and peaches) is also important. The prefec-ture is a center for fishing and the maritime industries, as wellas for the production of salt (accounting for up to 40 percent oftotal Japanese salt output). Manufacturing consists chiefly oflight industry and food-processing (57.1 percent of the prefec-ture’s industrial production). Nonferrous metallurgy, mainlycopper smelting and gold refining (at the city of Naoshima), based on the mining of copper and complex ores, is also welldeveloped. Another growing industry is heavy chemicals.Tourism is also important.