The is located in the northwestern part of Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, the main island of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. It lies along the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

 within the Chūbu region

Chubu region

The is the central region of Honshū, Japan's main island. Chūbu has a population estimate of 21,886,324 as of 2008.Chūbu, which means "central region", encompasses nine prefectures : Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, Yamanashi, and often Mie.It is located directly...

. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province

Koshi Province

was an ancient province or region of Japan in the area of Echigo, Etchū and Echizen provinces. Also encompassed are Noto and Kaga provinces which were once part of Echizen. It was sometimes called ....

 and Hokurikudō

Hokurikudo

is a Japanese term denoting both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through the old Japanese geographical region. Both were situated along the northwestern edge of Honshū. The name literally means 'North Land Way'...

 area in pre-modern Japan.

The Hokuriku region includes the four prefectures of Ishikawa

Ishikawa Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. The capital is Kanazawa.- History :Ishikawa was formed from the merger of Kaga Province and the smaller Noto Province.- Geography :Ishikawa is on the Sea of Japan coast...

, Fukui

Fukui Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Fukui.- Prehistory :The Kitadani Dinosaur Quarry, on the Sugiyama River within the city limits of Katsuyama, has yielded the Fukuiraptor kitadaniensis and Fukuisaurus tetoriensis as well as an unnamed...

, Niigata

Niigata Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The capital is the city of Niigata. The name "Niigata" literally means "new lagoon".- History :...

 and Toyama

Toyama Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Toyama.Toyama is the leading industrial prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, and has the industrial advantage of cheap electricity due to abundant water resources....

, although Niigata is sometimes included in one of the following regions:: includes Niigata and Nagano

Nagano Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Nagano.- History :Nagano was formerly known as the province of Shinano...

 prefectures: includes Niigata, Nagano and Yamanashi

Yamanashi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of the island of Honshū. The capital is the city of Kōfu.-Pre-history to the 14th century:People have been living in the Yamanashi area for about 30,000 years...

 prefectures: includes both the Hokuriku and Shin'etsu regions

Major cities

The major population centers of Hokuriku are:

• Niigata
  Niigata, Niigata
  is the capital and the most populous city of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the northwest coast of Honshu, the largest island of Japan, and faces the Sea of Japan and Sado Island....
  
   (designated city)
• Kanazawa
  Kanazawa, Ishikawa
  is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.-Geography, climate, and population:Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan, bordered by the Japan Alps, Hakusan National Park and Noto Peninsula National Park. The city sits between the Sai and Asano rivers. Its total area is 467.77 km².Kanazawa's...
  
  , Toyama
  Toyama, Toyama
  is the capital city of Toyama Prefecture, Japan, located on the coast of the Sea of Japan in the Chūbu region on central Honshū, about 200 km north of the city of Nagoya and 300 km northwest of Tokyo....
  
   (core cities
  Core city
  A is a class of Japanese city created by the first clause of Article 252, Section 22 of the Local Autonomy Law of Japan. Core cities are delegated many functions normally carried out by prefectural governments, but not as many as designated cities...
  
  )
• Fukui
  Fukui, Fukui
  is the capital of Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The city is located in the north-central part of the prefecture on the coast of the Sea of Japan.-Demographics:...
  
  , Jōetsu
  Joetsu, Niigata
  is a city located in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.As of June 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 205,521, with 72,982 households and a population density of 211.15 persons per km². The total area is 973.32 km²....
  
  , Nagaoka
  Nagaoka, Niigata
  is a city located in the central part of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It is the second largest city in the prefecture, behind the capital city of Niigata...
  
   (special cities
  Special cities of Japan
  of Japan are cities with populations of at least 200,000, and are delegated a subset of the functions delegated to core cities.This category was established by the Local Autonomy Law, article 252 clause 26...
  
  )

Of these, Niigata is the largest with a population of over 800,000.

Industries

The main industries in the Hokuriku area include chemicals, medicine, tourism, textiles and textile machinery, heavy machinery, farming, and fishing. Koshihikari

Koshihikari

Koshihikari is a popular variety of rice cultivated in Japan as well as Australia and the United States.Koshihikari was first created in 1956, by combining 2 different strains of Nourin No.1 and Nourin No.22 at the Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Research Facility. It has become very popular now in...

, a popular variety of rice is a special product of Hokuriku region.

Climate

The Hokuriku region has the highest volume of snowfall of any inhabited and arable region in the world. This is because dry Siberian

Siberia (continent)

Siberia is the craton located in the heart of the region of Siberia. Siberia or "Angaraland" is today the Central Siberian Plateau...

 air mass

Air mass

In meteorology, an air mass is a volume of air defined by its temperature and water vapor content. Air masses cover many hundreds or thousands of square miles, and adopt the characteristics of the surface below them. They are classified according to latitude and their continental or maritime...

es, which develop high humidity

Humidity

Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...

 over the Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

, are forced upwards when they encounter the mountains of Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, causing the humidity to condense as snow.

The long winters and deep snow of this region are depicted in Hokuetsu Seppu

Hokuetsu Seppu

Hokuetsu Seppu is a late Edo-period encyclopedic work of human geography describing life in the Uonuma area of Japan's old Echigo Province, a place known for its long winters and deep snow.First published in Edo in 1837,...

, an encyclopedic work of the late Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

 which describes life in the Uonuma

Minamiuonuma District, Niigata

is a district located in Niigata, Japan.As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 72,908 and a density of 77.41 persons per km². The total area is 941.82 km².- Mergers :...

 district of Niigata Prefecture.

The Hokuriku region is also the setting for Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata

was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...

's novel Snow Country

Snow Country

is the first full-length novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel established Kawabata as one of Japan's foremost authors and became an instant classic.- Name :...

.

See also

• Kōshin'etsu region
• Shin'etsu region
  Shin'etsu Region
  is a geographical region of Japan.The area encompasses the old provinces of Shinano and Echigo. Though the name is a combination of those two provinces, the region also contains Sado Island from Sado Province...
  
  
• Tōkai region
  Tokai region
  The is a sub-region of the Chūbu region in Japan that runs along the Pacific Ocean. The name means "East sea" and comes from the Tōkaidō, one of the Edo Five Routes...
  
  
• Tōhoku
• Kitamaebune
  Kitamaebune
  The was a shipping route in Japan from the Edo to the Meiji periods. The route went from Osaka through the Seto Inland Sea and the Kanmon Straits to ports in Hokuriku on the Sea of Japan and later to Hokkaidō....
  
  
• Hokuriku Shinkansen
  Hokuriku Shinkansen
  The is a high-speed Shinkansen rail line under construction in Japan. The first section, between and , currently called the Nagano Shinkansen, opened on 1 October 1997.-Future:...
  
  
• Hokuriku Main Line
  Hokuriku Main Line
  The is a 358.3 kilometer line of the West Japan Railway Company from Maibara Station in Maibara, Shiga to Naoetsu Station in Jōetsu, Niigata. It serves the Hokuriku region on the northern central coast of Honshū, the largest island of Japan, as well as offering connections to the regions of...
  
  
• Hokuriku Expressway
  Hokuriku Expressway
  The ,The ,The ,(abbreviated as , is a 4-laned national expressway in Japan. It is owned and managed by East Nippon Expressway Company and Central Nippon Expressway Company.-Overview:...