Shiga Prefecture

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked region in Japan’s Kansai area, on the island of Honshu. It surrounds Lake Biwa, the country’s largest freshwater lake, and boasts the highest proportion of designated Natural Parks of any prefecture—37% of its land. The capital, Ōtsu, is also the biggest city, followed by Kusatsu, Nagahama, and Higashiōmi. The prefecture’s southern half sits next to Kyoto, the former capital, and is part of Greater Kyoto, Japan’s fourth-largest metro area. Notable local products and sites include Ōmi beef, the Eight Views of Ōmi, and Hikone Castle, one of just four national treasure castles in Japan.

Before the prefectural system, the area was known as Ōmi Province or Gōshū. Ōmi lay at the crossroads of eastern and western Japan, neighboring Nara and Kyoto. Emperor Tenji set up a palace in Ōtsu from 667 to 672, and Emperor Shōmu built one in Shigaraki in 742. In the early Heian period, Saichō, born north of Ōtsu, founded Enryaku-ji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of the Ancient Kyoto monuments, which became the center of Tendai Buddhism. During the Heian era, the Sasaki clan ruled Ōmi, followed by the Rokkaku, Kyōgoku, and Azai clans. In the Azuchi-Momoyama period, Oda Nobunaga conquered Ōmi and built Azuchi Castle on Lake Biwa’s eastern shore in 1579. Notable figures from that time include Tōdō Takatora, Gamō Ujisato, Oichi, Yodo-dono, Ohatsu, and Oeyo. In 1600, Ishida Mitsunari, born east of Nagahama and based at Sawayama Castle, fought Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sekigahara in Gifu. After the battle, Ieyasu gave Sawayama to Ii Naomasa, who founded the Hikone Domain, later known for Ii Naosuke. Naosuke served as Tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and signed commercial treaties with Western powers, ending Japan’s isolation in the 19th century. Other domains, like Zeze, also ruled parts of Ōmi.

When the han system was abolished, eight prefectures formed in Ōmi. They merged into Shiga Prefecture in September 1872, named after Shiga District because Ōtsu belonged to it until 1898. From August 1876 to February 1881, southern Fukui Prefecture was incorporated into Shiga. In 2015, Governor Taizō Mikazuki surveyed residents about whether to rename the prefecture, partly to boost its appeal for domestic tourism.

Shiga borders Fukui to the north, Gifu to the east, Mie to the southeast, and Kyoto to the west. Lake Biwa sits at the prefecture’s center, covering one-sixth of its area. The Seta River, the only natural outlet from the lake, flows to Osaka Bay through Kyoto. Most other rivers feed into the lake. Many lagoons around Lake Biwa were drained in the 1940s, but one preserved lagoon in Omihachiman was named the first Important Cultural Landscape in 2006. The lake splits the prefecture into four zones: centered on Nagahama, Imazu, Hikone, and Ōtsu. Plains stretch along the eastern shore, while mountain ranges enclose the area—the Hira Mountains and Mount Hiei to the west, the Ibuki Mountains to the northeast, and the Suzuka Mountains to the southeast. Mount Ibuki is the highest peak. In Yogo, a small lake is tied to a legend similar to the Western swan maiden tale. Climate varies sharply: southern Shiga is warm, but the north is cold with heavy snow and many ski resorts. In Nakanokawachi, the northernmost village, snow reached a record depth in 1936. As of April 2014, 37% of the land was designated as Natural Parks—the highest in Japan—including Biwako and Suzuka Quasi-National Parks, plus Kotō, Kutsuki-Katsuragawa, and Mikami-Tanakami-Shigaraki Prefectural Natural Parks.

The prefecture has thirteen cities: Ōtsu, Kusatsu, Nagahama, Higashiōmi, Hikone, and others. Towns are organized into districts. In politics, Governor Taizō Mikazuki, a former House of Representatives member from Shiga, narrowly won in July 2014 with center-left backing, defeating ex-METI bureaucrat Takashi Koyari (backed by center-right ruling parties) and succeeding Yukiko Kada. He was overwhelmingly reelected in June 2018 against a single communist challenger. The prefectural assembly has 44 members from 16 districts, elected in unified local elections. As of July 2019, the caucuses included LDP (20), Team Shiga (14), JCP (4), Sazanami Club (3), Kōmeitō (2), and one independent. In the National Diet, Shiga sends four directly elected members to the House of Representatives and two to the House of Councillors (one per election). For proportional representation in the lower house, it falls under the Kinki block. As of August 1, 2019, the Diet delegation from Shiga consisted of members from the 2016, 2017, and 2019 elections.