a prefecture in Japan, on the southeastern coast of the island of Honshu, situated primarily on the Boso Peninsula. Area, 5,000 sq km. Population, 3.6 million (1972), 70 percent of which is urban. The capital is the city of Chiba.
Chiba is one of Japan’s economically developed prefectures and is part of the Kwanto region. The leading branches of industry are metallurgy (24 percent of the value of the prefecture’s total industrial production in 1970), oil refining (14 percent), chemical production (13 percent), food industry (10 percent), metalworking (7 percent), electric machine building (6 percent), and general machine building (5 percent). Natural gas is extracted in the prefecture. Approximately 35 percent of the land is under cultivation, primarily with rice (86,300 hectares and a harvest of 344,000 tons in 1971); wheat and barley are also grown. Vegetables, including melons and gourds, are grown; Chiba is the country’s leading producer of watermelons. Livestock raised for dairy products and meat are stabled. A local fishing industry is based at Chosi.
a port city in Japan, on the island of Honshu, on Tokyo Bay. Capital of Chiba Prefecture. Population, 518,400 (1972). Local industries include nonferrous and ferrous metallurgy (steel foundry and aluminum smelting), petrochemistry, textile production, woodworking, food processing, chemical production, and shipbuilding. The freight turnover at the port totaled 123 million tons in 1974, making Chiba Japan’s third largest port.