Shikoku
Shikoku is an oft-forgotten island in Japan. The smallest of Japan's Big Four with around four million inhabitants, it lies to the south of Honshu. The island is thought of as a rural backwater, with few must-see attractions, but a visit there can wash away those doubts; the mountainous inner regions offer some good hiking.
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Iya Valley and Miyoshi.
Iya Valley
Iya Valley is a remote mountain valley deep in the heart of Shikoku. One of Japan's Three Hidden Valleys, Iya has dramatic mountain scenery, traditional thatched roof homes, and historic vine bridges.
Miyoshi
Miyoshi is a city located in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 September 2025, the city had an estimated population of 20,518 and a population density of 28.4 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 721.42 square kilometres.
Matsuyama
Matsuyama, meaning "pine mountain", is the homely capital of Ehime prefecture. Quite provincial yet hospitable to travelers, and a hub of business and shopping amongst the lazy calm of the countryside, Matsuyama has much to offer in the way of curious literary and cultural assets.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Tokushima and Ehime.
Tokushima
Ehime
Kagawa
Kochi
Shikoku
- Type: Region with 4,000,000 residents
- Description: fourth largest island of Japan
- Also known as: “ile de Shikoku”, “île de Shikoku”, “ile de Si-koke”, “île de Si-koke”, “Schikoku”, “Shikoku Chiho”, “Shikoku Chihō”, “Shikoku I.”, “Shikoku Is.”, “Shikoku Island”, “Shikoku-chihō”, “Si-koke”, “Sikoki”, “Ŝikoku”, “Xi-cô-cư”, “Xicoca”, “Xicoca Insula”, “Ши-Коку”, “Шикок”, and “เกาะชิโกะกุ”
- Categories: island, island of Japan, and tetrad
- Location: Japan, East Asia, Asia
- View on OpenStreetMap
Latitude of center
33.75° or 33° 45′ north
Longitude of center
133.5° or 133° 30′ east
Population
4,000,000
Elevation
607 metres (1,991 feet)
This page is based on GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.
Satellite Map
Discover Shikoku from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Achinese to Yue Chinese—“Shikoku” goes by many names.
- Achinese: “Shikoku”
- Afrikaans: “Sjikokoe”
- Albanian: “Shikoku”
- Arabic: “شيكوكو”
- Armenian: “Սիկոկու”
- Asturian: “Rexón de Shikoku”
- Azerbaijani: “Şikoku”
- Balinese: “Shikoku”
- Banjar: “Shikoku”
- Bashkir: “Сикоку”
- Basque: “Shikoku”
- Belarusian: “Сікоку”
- Bengali: “শিকোকু”
- Bosnian: “Shikoku”
- Bosnian: “Šikoku”
- Breton: “Shikoku”
- Bulgarian: “Шикоку”
- Burmese: “ရှိခိုခုကျွန်း”
- Catalan: “Shikoku”
- Cebuano: “Shikoku”
- Central Kurdish: “شیکۆکو”
- Chinese: “四国”
- Chinese: “四国岛”
- Chinese: “四國”
- Chinese: “四國島”
- Croatian: “Shikoku”
- Czech: “Šikoku”
- Danish: “Shikoku”
- Dutch: “Shikoku”
- Egyptian Arabic: “شيكوكو”
- Esperanto: “Ŝikokuo”
- Estonian: “Shikoku”
- Fiji Hindi: “Shikoku”
- Finnish: “Shikoku”
- French: “Shikoku”
- Galician: “Shikoku”
- Georgian: “სიკოკუ”
- German: “Shikoku”
- Greek: “Σικόκου”
- Hakka Chinese: “Shikoku”
- Hakka Chinese: “Si-koet”
- Hausa: “Shikoku”
- Hebrew: “שיקוקו”
- Hindi: “शिकोकू”
- Hungarian: “Sikoku”
- Icelandic: “Shikoku”
- Ido: “Shikoku”
- Iloko: “Shikoku”
- Indonesian: “Shikoku”
- Irish: “Shikoku”
- Italian: “Shikoku”
- Japanese: “四国”
- Japanese: “四国地方”
- Kazakh: “Сикоку”
- Khmer: “កោះស៊ិកុគឹ”
- Khmer: “តំបន់ស៊ីកុគឹ”
- Kirghiz: “Сикоку”
- Korean: “시코쿠”
- Kurdish: “Shikoku”
- Latin: “Insula Shikokuensis”
- Latin: “Sicocus”
- Latvian: “Šikoku”
- Literary Chinese: “四國”
- Literary Chinese: “四國地方”
- Lithuanian: “Šikoku”
- Macedo-Romanian: “Shikoku”
- Macedonian: “Шикоку”
- Malay: “Shikoku”
- Malayalam: “ഷികോകു”
- Marathi: “शिकोकू”
- Min Nan Chinese: “Sikoku”
- Min Nan Chinese: “Sù-kok”
- Mingrelian: “სიკოკუ”
- Mongolian: “Шикокү”
- Nepali: “सिकोकु”
- Newari: “शिकोकु”
- Northern Frisian: “Shikoku”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Shikoku”
- Norwegian Nynorsk: “Shikoku”
- Norwegian: “Shikoku”
- Occitan (post 1500): “Shikoku”
- Ossetian: “Сикоку”
- Pampanga: “Shikoku”
- Panjabi: “ਸ਼ਿਕੋਕੂ”
- Persian: “شیکوکو”
- Polish: “Sikoku”
- Portuguese: “Shikoku”
- Quechua: “Shikoku”
- Romanian: “Shikoku”
- Russian: “Сикоку”
- Samogitian: “Šėkoku”
- Sardinian: “Shikoku”
- Scots: “Shikoku”
- Scottish Gaelic: “Shikoku”
- Serbian: “Шикоку”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Shikoku”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Šikoku”
- Sindhi: “شيڪوڪو”
- Sinhala: “ෂිකෝකු”
- Slovak: “Šikoku”
- Slovenian: “Šikoku”
- South Azerbaijani: “شیکوکو”
- Spanish: “Región de Shikoku”
- Spanish: “Shikoku”
- Sundanese: “Shikoku”
- Swahili: “Shikoku”
- Swedish: “Shikoku”
- Tagalog: “Shikoku”
- Tamil: “சிகொக்கு”
- Tatar: “Сикоку”
- Thai: “เกาะชิโกกุ”
- Tok Pisin: “Shikoku”
- Turkish: “Shikoku”
- Tuvinian: “Шикоку”
- Uighur: “شىكوكۇ”
- Ukrainian: “Сікоку”
- Ukrainian: “Шікоку”
- Urdu: “شیکوکو”
- Vietnamese: “Shikoku”
- Waray (Philippines): “Shikoku”
- Welsh: “Shikoku”
- Western Frisian: “Sjikokû”
- Western Panjabi: “شیکوکو”
- Wu Chinese: “四国岛”
- Yue Chinese: “四國”
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