a prefecture in Japan, in the northern part of the island of Honshu. Area, 9,600 sq km; population, 1.4 million (1965), about 55 percent of which is urban. Administrative center, Aomori.
The southern part of Aomori Prefecture is occupied by the northern spurs of the Ou and Dewa mountains (elevations to 1,625 m); in the north there are coastal depressions with scattered low-mountain ridges (mainly on Tsugaru and Shimokita islands). The prefecture is an agricultural region which is part of Tohoku, with isolated industrial centers. There is some mining of lead and zinc (Kamikita) and iron sands (the largest deposit in the country is in the area of Misawa). Manufacturing industry is poorly developed; saw-milling and timber processing are of the greatest significance. There are food, metallurgical, and petrochemical enterprises. (The center for metal industry is the fast-growing city of Hatinohe.) The cultivated area is 137,000 ha, including 80,000 ha under rice paddies (harvest, 388,000 tons) and 17,000 ha under gardens (mainly apples; Aomori contributes 66 percent of the country’s apple harvest). The livestock population (1965) is as follows: cattle, 34,000 (of which 25,600 were milk cows); horses, 14,000; and pigs, 86,000. There is fishing (catches of up to 250,000 tons). An underwater tunnel from Tsugaru to Hokkaido is under construction. Steam-driven trains run from Aomori to Hakodate (113 km). The Towada national park, with Japan’s most remarkable crater lake (Towada), is located in Aomori Prefecture.