is a

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

located on the island of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa and the other Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regio ...

. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

to the north,

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,081,646 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, K ...

to the northeast,

Miyazaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Miyazaki Prefecture has a population of 1,028,215 as of 1 January 2025 and has a geographic area of 7,735 Square kilometre, km2 (2,986 sq mi). Miyazaki Prefectur ...

to the southeast, and

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

to the south.

Kumamoto is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a populat ...

is the capital and largest city of Kumamoto Prefecture, with other major cities including

Yatsushiro 270px, Yatsushiro City Hall 270px, ruins of Yatsushiro Castle is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 120,389 in 57,953 households, and a population density of 300 persons per km2. The total are ...

Amakusa , which means "Heaven's Grass," is a series of islands off the west coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. Geography The largest island of the Amakusa group is Shimoshima, which is 26.5 miles long and 13.5 mil ...

, and Tamana. Kumamoto Prefecture is located in the center of Kyūshū on the coast of the

Ariake Sea The is a body of salt water surrounded by Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto Prefectures, all of which lie on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. It is the largest bay in Kyūshū. Its deepest point is only about 50 meters (165 ft) deep, and ext ...

, across from

Nagasaki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan, mainly located on the island of Kyūshū, although it also includes a number of islands off Kyūshū's northwest coast - including Tsushima and Iki. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,246,4 ...

, with the mainland separated from the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

by the Amakusa Archipelago. Kumamoto Prefecture is home to

Mount Aso or Aso Volcano is the largest active volcano in Japan and among the largest in the world. Common use relates often only to the somma volcano in the centre of Aso Caldera. It stands in Aso Kujū National Park in Kumamoto Prefecture, on the i ...

, the largest active

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

in Japan and among the largest in the world, with its peak above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

History

Historically, the area was called

Higo Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. It was sometimes called , with Hizen Province. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces. History The cas ...

; and the province was renamed Kumamoto during the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. The creation of prefectures was part of the abolition of the feudal system. The current Japanese

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

for Kumamoto literally means "bear root/origin," or "origin of the bear." However,

Man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of t ...

-like phonetic transcriptions based on the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

for "a ball, a sphere" (球 /ku/ ~ /kjū/) and "to polish, to grind, to brush (one's teeth)" (磨 /ma/) are used for the names of the Kuma River (球磨川) and Kuma District (球磨郡). The ''Kuma'' element also appears in the ancient

Kumaso The were a mythical people of ancient Japan mentioned in the ''Kojiki'', believed to have lived in the south of Kyūshū until at least the Nara period. The last leader of the Kumaso, Torishi-Kaya was killed by Yamato Takeru in 397. The name of ...

Geography

Kumamoto Prefecture is in the center of

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

, the southernmost of the four major Japanese islands. It is bordered by the Ariake inland sea and the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

to the west,

and

to the north,

to the east, and

to the south.

(), an extensive active volcano, is in the east of Kumamoto Prefecture. This volcano is located at the centre of the

Aso caldera Aso caldera (also known as Asosan, the Aso Volcano or Mount Aso, although the later term usually is used related to its currently active vents) is a geographical feature of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It stretches 25 kilometers north to south a ...

. As of 31 March 2019, 21% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as natural parks: the Aso Kujū and Unzen-Amakusa National Parks; Kyūshū Chūō Sanchi and Yaba-Hita-Hikosan Quasi-National Parks; and Ashikita Kaigan, Itsuki Gokanoshō, Kinpōzan, Misumi-Ōyano Umibe, Okukuma, Shōtaisan, and Yabe Shūhen Prefectural Natural Parks.

Cities

Minamata City Central from Nakaoyama 2020

Fourteen cities are located in Kumamoto Prefecture:

Towns and villages

These are the towns and villages in each

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

Mergers

Demographics

the population was 1,748,134 inhabitants with a population density of . The prefecture ranks 23rd in Japan.

Economy

The largest

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

production facility in the world is located in Kumamoto. In 2023,

Mitsubishi Electric is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational electronics and electrical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1921 as a spin-off from the electrical machinery manufacturing d ...

announced plans to spend 100 billion yen on a new semiconductor factory in Kumamoto, with a target start date of April 2026 to begin production.

Tourism

Kumamoto Castle is a hilltop Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Kumamoto, in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a large and well-fortified castle. The is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, but a number of ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original ca ...

is one of the world's largest active volcanoes. * Suizenji Park *

Tsūjun Bridge Tsūjun Bridge (通潤橋 ''-kyō'') is an aqueduct in Yamato, Kumamoto, Japan. It is an arch bridge completed in 1854 and is 84.0m long. The arch spans 27.3m. It is the largest stone aqueduct in Japan. The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs ...

, the largest stone aqueduct in Japan is in Yamato The prefecture has a mascot named "

Kumamon Kumamon is a mascot created by the government of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It was created in 2010 for a campaign created to draw tourists to the region after the Kyushu Shinkansen line opened. Kumamon subsequently became nationally popular, an ...

", a black bear with red cheeks, who was created to attract tourists to the region after the

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima (Kagoshima-Chuo Sta ...

line opened.

Education

Universities

National

Kumamoto University , abbreviated to ''Kumadai'' (熊大), is a Japanese national university located in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture in the Kyushu region of Japan. It was established on May 31, 1949, at which time the following institutions were subsumed into it; ...

Public

* Prefectural University of Kumamoto

Private

* Heisei College of Music *

Kumamoto Gakuen University called Gakuendai (学園大) or Shōdai (商大), is a private Japanese university in Kumamoto, Japan. It was established in 1942, at which time Eastern Language Vocational College (東洋語学専門学校 ''Tōyō Gengo Senmon Gakkō'') wa ...

* Kumamoto Health Science * Kyushu Lutheran College * Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare * Shokei Gakuin University *

Sojo University is a private university in Nishi-ku, Kumamoto, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends f ...

Transportation

Rail

Hisatsu Orange Railway is a third-sector railway company which operates Hisatsu Orange Railway Line in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures. The line follows the former part of the JR Kyushu Kagoshima Main Line that connected Yatsushiro and Sendai in Kumamoto and K ...

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Hisatsu Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, Japan, operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It connects Yatsushiro, Kumamoto, Yatsushiro on the Kagoshima Main Line to Hayato station, Kirishima, Kagoshima , Kirishima on the Nippo Main Line. Fro ...

** Hohi Line ** Kagoshima Line **

** Misumi Line *

Kumamoto Electric Railway The is a public transport company in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is abbreviated as or . The company was founded in 1909. The company operates railway and bus lines. Lines * Kikuchi Line (菊池線) ** Kami-Kumamoto — Kita-Kumamoto ...

* Kumagawa Railroad *

Minami Aso Railway The is a Japanese railway line in Kumamoto Prefecture, between Tateno Station, Minamiaso, and Takamori Station, Takamori. This is the only railway line operates. The line traverses the southern part of Mount Aso caldera. History The single ...

Tramway

Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau The is a public transportation authority of Kumamoto City, Japan. Tram Routes The bureau operates 2 tram lines within the city. History Timeline * 23 November 2024 - The 2400 series train has entered service. Tram Fare The fare is a flat ...

Road

Expressways and toll roads

Kumamoto Amakusa Road is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

* Kyushu Chūō Expressway * Kyushu Expressway * South Kyushu Expressway

National highways

* Route 3 * Route 57 * Route 208 (Kumamoto-Tamana-Arao- Ōmuta) * Route 212 * Route 218 (Kumamoto-

Takachiho file:TakachihokyoWithManaiFalls.JPG, 270px, Manai Falls file:Mt.Sobo.jpg, 270px, Mount Sobo file:Yokagura.jpg, 270px, Yokagura is a List of towns in Japan, town in Nishiusuki District, Miyazaki, Nishiusuki District, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. , t ...

Nobeoka 270px, Central Nobeoka City is a city located in the north of Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 113,367 in 51272 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km². The total area of the city is . ...

) * Route 219 * Route 265 * Route 266 * Route 267 (Hitoyoshi- Isa-

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a ...

Satsumasendai 290px, Satsumasendai City Hall is a city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 90,918 in 46610 households, and a population density of 130 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History Sa ...

) * Route 268 * Route 324 * Route 325 (Yamaga-Minamiaso-Takamori-Takachiho) * Route 387 * Route 388 ( Saiki-Nobeoka-Unomae) * Route 389 * Route 442 * Route 443 * Route 445 * Route 501 (Ōmuta-Arao-Udo) * Route 503

Ports

Ferry routes

- Shimabara * Nagasu- Unzen * Reihoku-

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

* Ushibuka- Kuranomoto ( Nagashima) *

- Kamiamakusa

Airport

* Amakusa Airport *

Kumamoto Airport , also known as , is an airport in Mashiki, Kumamoto, Japan. History The first Kumamoto Airport opened in 1960 on the site of a former Imperial Japanese Army air base and had a 1,200 m runway. It was replaced by the current Kumamoto Airport in ...

Sports

These sports teams are based in the prefecture: *Professional: **Blaze Kumamoto - Men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

**Mashiki Renaissance Kumamoto - Women's association football **

Roasso Kumamoto is a Japanese football club based in Kumamoto, the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture. The club currently plays in the J2 League, Japan's 2nd tier of professional league football. Name origin ''Roasso'' is a portmanteau of the Italian words ...

- Men's football and

J League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, in ...

Second Division *Amateur: **Kumamoto Golden Larks - regional baseball The Kumamoto Prefecture hosted the

2019 World Women's Handball Championship The 2019 IHF World Women's Handball Championship, the 24th event hosted by the International Handball Federation, was held in Japan from 30 November to 15 December 2019. The Netherlands won their first title after defeating Spain in the final. Th ...

, having previously hosted the

1997 World Men's Handball Championship The 1997 World Men's Handball Championship was the 15th team handball World Championship. It was held in Kumamoto, Japan and was the first World Championship not played in a European country. Russia men's national handball team, Russia won the ch ...

Sister cities

Kumamoto Prefecture is the 'sister state/prefecture' of

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Kumamoto has a sister city located in Texas named

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, which holds an annual fall festival 'akimatsuri' for its Japanese citizens. In 2015 the mascot, 'Kumamon' visited as an honorary ambassador during the festival located at the Japanese Tea Gardens.

Notable people

* Aki Yashiro, a popular Japanese singer *

Jun Kunimura is a Japanese actor who has performed in Cinema of Japan, Japan, the Cinema of the United States, United States, and Cinema of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He won Best Supporting Actor and the Popular Star Award at the 37th Blue Dragon Film Awards for ...

, a popular Japanese actor *

Tetsu Komai (23 April 1894 – 10 August 1970), also known as Tetsuo Komai, was a Japanese-born American actor, known for his minor roles in Hollywood films. Biography Born in Kumamoto, Kyushu, Komai had small parts in over 50 films from the 1920s until t ...

, a Hollywood actor *

Kazuaki Kiriya is a Japanese photographer and film director, director of films and music videos. His birth name is . He is represented by Paradigm Agency. Early life and career In 1983, in his second year of junior high school, he moved to the United States. ...

, a filmmaker *

Kimeru Kimeru (most often written either in Romaji (Kimeru) or with Katakana (キメル), but has been written as きめる (Hiragana) and (決める) (Kanji), born June 17, 1980) is a Japanese pop musician, singer, and stage actor. He is most famous ...

, a pop artist * Miku Kobato, founder and vocalist of

Band-Maid Band-Maid is a Japanese Rock music, rock band formed in 2013, comprising singer Saiki Atsumi, guitarist/singer Miku Kobato, lead guitarist Kanami Tōno, bassist Misa, and drummer Akane Hirose. The band combines hard rock music with costumes mode ...

Kunio Nakagawa was the commander of Japanese forces which defended the island of Peleliu in the Battle of Peleliu which took place from 15 September to 27 November 1944. He inflicted heavy losses on attacking U.S. Marines and held Peleliu Island for almost ...

, Japanese Army general * Yuri Masuda, singer *

Munetaka Murakami is a Japanese professional baseball infielder for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Amateur career Munetaka started playing baseball at five years of age. He entered Kyushū Gakuin Integrated High School where he ...

, Japanese baseball player * Shodai Naoya, Sumo wrestler *

Tomiko Van , is a Japanese pop singer and occasional actress. She is as a member of the band Do As Infinity (DAI), along with Ryo Owatari and Dai Nagao, that has resumed activities after their 2005 split. Career Do As Infinity Beginnings as solo ...

, singer, vocalist of

Do As Infinity Do As Infinity is a Japanese pop and rock band that formed in 1999 with three members: vocalist Tomiko Van, guitarist Ryo Owatari, and guitarist and composer Dai Nagao. The band's name is sometimes abbreviated as DAI, alluding to the fact tha ...

Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series ''One Piece'', the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume. With more than 520 million copies of ''One Piece'' in circulation worldwide ...

, manga author, creator of ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the myt ...

'' *

Yuki Midorikawa is a Japanese Mangaka, manga artist. She is primarily known for her shōjo manga, ''shōjo'' manga works in the magazines ''LaLa'' and ''LaLa DX'', published by Hakusensha. Her most successful works have been ''Hotarubi no Mori e'', which rece ...

, manga author, creator of ''

Natsume's Book of Friends is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa. It started in Hakusensha's Shōjo manga, manga magazine ''LaLa DX'' in June 2003, where it ran until April 2008; it has been serialized in ''LaLa'' since July 2007. ...

'' and ''

Hotarubi no Mori e is a one-shot ''shōjo'' manga written by Yuki Midorikawa. It was published in the issue of ''LaLa DX'' in Japan, and in it was reprinted in a ''tankōbon'' short story collection of the same name, which included four romantic one-shot ...

'' * Tetsuya Noda, contemporary artist *

Katsuhiro Ueo is a Japanese professional drifting driver, whose currently competing in D1 Grand Prix with a Nissan Silvia S15, well known for formerly using the Toyota AE86 in the series. He is also known as, Therefore, it is (デスカラデスネ/ですか ...

, drifting driver *

Ichiki Tatsuo Ichiki Tatsuo (市来龍夫) (1906 – 9 January 1949) was a Japanese journalist who defected to Indonesia and participated in the Indonesian National Revolution. Born in Kumamoto, Tatsuo went to the Dutch East Indies at the age of 21 and worked i ...

, journalist and defector in the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution (), also known as the Indonesian War of Independence (, ), was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during A ...

* Madoka Hisagae, female Japanese fencer * Hitomi Tanaka, pornographic actress in Japanese * Kenta Matsumoto, vocalist and bassist of WANIMA * Koushin Nishida, guitarist of WANIMA * Kouki Fujiwara, drummer of WANIMA

Notes

References

* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''
Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

.
OCLC 58053128

External links

* * National Archives of Japa
... Kumamoto map (1891)
* {{Authority control Kyushu region Prefectures of Japan