East Asia
Japan
Chugoku

Shimane

Shimane Prefecture is in the western region of the main island . It is the 2nd least populous prefecture in Japan.
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pref.shimane.lg.jp
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Photo: MaedaAkihiko, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Matsue and Izumo.

Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5.
is an old castle town at the heart of Izumo Province, and with a population of approximately 207,000 is its largest city.

Photo: 663highland, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a city in Shimane Prefecture with a population of around 150,000 people and a land area of 543.43km². It's located near .

Photo: Yama 1009, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Ōda is a city in Shimane Prefecture, . The city has a total area of 436.11 km. The total area of the city is 435.71 square kilometres. Ōda is home to the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, a World Heritage Site.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Masuda and Yasugi.

Photo: Asturio Cantabrio, CC BY-SA 4.0.
is a small city of a little more than 50,000 people in Shimane Prefecture. It is the birthplace of Kakinomoto Hitomaro.

Photo: Ryohei Noda, CC BY 2.0.
is a city at the eastern end of Shimane Prefecture. Directly to the west is the town of Higashi Izumo and then city. Directly to the east is the city of . On October 1, 2004, the towns of Hakuta and Hirose merged with the city of .

Photo: Yuvalr, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The is an archipelago in the , the islands of which are administratively part of , Shimane Prefecture, . The islands have a total area of 346.1 square kilometres.

Photo: 三茂屋三下奴, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a city located in Shimane Prefecture, . As of 31 May 2023, the city had an estimated population of 50,176 in 25498 households and a population density of 73 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 689.68 square kilometres.

Photo: Hyperbole, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Gōtsu is a city located in Shimane Prefecture, . As of June 30, 2023, the city had an estimated population of 21,913 in 11196 households and a population density of 82 persons per km2.

Photo: そらみみ, CC BY-SA 4.0.
is a town in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It's on the border with Yamaguchi Prefecture. It's sometimes referred to as "Little Kyoto" and is well known for having tens of thousands of koi that live in the narrow canals that run through town, mostly in the Tonomachi area.

Photo: Kuma83, CC BY-SA 4.0.
was a coastal town located in Nima District, Shimane Prefecture, . As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 3,853 and a density of 53.63 persons per km2.
Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5.

Shimane

Latitude of center
34.9418° or 34° 56′ 31″ north
Longitude of center
132.5374° or 132° 32′ 15″ east
Population
665,000
Elevation
218 metres (715 feet)
Inception
November 15th, 1871
Open­Street­Map ID
node 2552334551
Open­Street­Map feature
place=­province
Geo­Names ID
1852442
Wiki­data ID
Q132751
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover Shimane from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Achinese to Yue Chinese—“Shimane” goes by many names.
  • Achinese: “Prefektur Shimane”
  • Afrikaans: “Shimane Prefektuur”
  • Afrikaans: “Shimane-prefektuur”
  • Arabic: “شيمانه”
  • Arabic: “محافظة شيمانه”
  • Arabic: “محافظة شيمانيه”
  • Armenian: “Սիմանե (պրեֆեկտուրա)”
  • Armenian: “Սիմանե”
  • Asturian: “prefeutura de Shimane”
  • Asturian: “Shimane (prefeutura)”
  • Asturian: “Shimane (Xapón)”
  • Asturian: “Shimane”
  • Azerbaijani: “Şimane prefekturası”
  • Balinese: “Préféktur Shimané”
  • Bashkir: “Симанэ”
  • Basque: “Shimane”
  • Belarusian: “прэфектура Сіманэ”
  • Belarusian: “Сіманэ (прэфектура)”
  • Belarusian: “Сіманэ”
  • Bengali: “শিমানে প্রশাসনিক অঞ্চল”
  • Bulgarian: “Шимане”
  • Catalan: “prefectura de Shimane”
  • Catalan: “Prefectura de Shimane”
  • Cebuano: “Shimane-ken”
  • Central Kurdish: “پارێزگای شیمانێ”
  • Central Kurdish: “شیمانێ”
  • Chechen: “Симане (префектура)”
  • Chechen: “Симане”
  • Chinese: “Simane-koān”
  • Chinese: “岛根县”
  • Chinese: “島根縣”
  • Croatian: “Shimane”
  • Czech: “prefektura Šimane”
  • Czech: “Prefektura Šimane”
  • Danish: “Shimane-præfekturet”
  • Dutch: “Shimane Prefectuur”
  • Dutch: “Shimane”
  • Esperanto: “Gubernio Ŝimane”
  • Esperanto: “Ŝimane-prefektujo”
  • Esperanto: “Ŝimane”
  • Estonian: “Shimane prefektuur”
  • Finnish: “Shimane”
  • Finnish: “Shimanen prefektuuri”
  • French: “préfecture de Shimane”
  • French: “Préfecture de Shimane”
  • French: “Shimane”
  • Galician: “Prefectura de Shimane”
  • Georgian: “სიმანეს პრეფექტურა”
  • German: “JP-32”
  • German: “Präfektur Shimane”
  • German: “Shimane”
  • Greek: “Σιμάνε”
  • Gujarati: “શિમૅન પ્રીફેકચર”
  • Hakka Chinese: “Shimane-yen”
  • Hakka Chinese: “Tó-kîn-yen”
  • Hebrew: “שימאנה”
  • Hindi: “शिमाने प्रीफेक्चर”
  • Hungarian: “Shimane prefektúra”
  • Hungarian: “Simane prefektúra”
  • Iloko: “Prepektura ti Shimane”
  • Iloko: “Shimane”
  • Indonesian: “Prefektur Shimane”
  • Irish: “Maoracht Shimane”
  • Italian: “prefettura di Shimane”
  • Italian: “Prefettura di Shimane”
  • Italian: “Shimane”
  • Japanese: “Shimane-ken”
  • Japanese: “しまねけん”
  • Japanese: “シマネケン”
  • Japanese: “島根”
  • Japanese: “島根県”
  • Kannada: “ಶಿಮಾನ್ ಪ್ರಿಫೆಕ್ಚರ್”
  • Khmer: “ខេត្តស៊ីម៉ាណិ”
  • Khmer: “ស៊ីម៉ាណិ(ខេត្ត)”
  • Khmer: “អាណាខេត្ត ស៊ីម៉ាណិ”
  • Korean: “도근 현”
  • Korean: “도근현”
  • Korean: “시마네 현”
  • Korean: “시마네”
  • Korean: “시마네현”
  • Latvian: “Simanes prefektūra”
  • Latvian: “Šimanes prefektūra”
  • Literary Chinese: “島根縣”
  • Lithuanian: “Shimane prefektūra”
  • Lithuanian: “Šimane prefektūra”
  • Lithuanian: “Šimanė prefektūra”
  • Lithuanian: “Šimanė”
  • Lithuanian: “Šimanės prefektūra”
  • Macedonian: “Шимане”
  • Malay: “Shimane”
  • Malay: “Wilayah Shimane”
  • Manipuri: “ꯁꯤꯃꯥꯅꯦ ꯂꯝꯈꯥꯢ”
  • Marathi: “शिमाने प्रांत”
  • Marathi: “शिमाने”
  • Min Dong Chinese: “Shimane-gâing”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Shimane-koān”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Simane Koān”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Simane-koān”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “Simane-kōan”
  • Northern Frisian: “Shimane (Prefektüür)”
  • Northern Frisian: “Shimane”
  • Northern Sami: “Shimane prefektuvra”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “Shimane prefektur”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “Shimane prefektur”
  • Norwegian: “Shimane”
  • Ossetian: “Симане”
  • Persian: “استان شیمانه”
  • Polish: “Prefektura Shimane”
  • Polish: “Shimane”
  • Portuguese: “Shimane”
  • Pushto: “شیمانه”
  • Romanian: “Prefectura Shimane”
  • Romanian: “Shimane”
  • Russian: “Симане”
  • Russian: “Симанэ”
  • Scots: “Shimane Prefectur”
  • Serbian: “Prefektura Šimane”
  • Serbian: “Префектура Шимане”
  • Serbian: “Шимане”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Prefektura Shimane”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Prefektura Šimane”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Shimane”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “Šimane”
  • Sinhala: “ශිමානේ ප්‍රාන්තය”
  • Slovak: “Šimane”
  • Slovenian: “Prefektura Šimane”
  • South Azerbaijani: “شیمانه اوستانی”
  • Spanish: “Prefectura de Shimane”
  • Spanish: “Prefectura Shimane”
  • Sundanese: “Shimane Prefecture”
  • Swahili: “Mkoa wa Shimane”
  • Swahili: “Shimane”
  • Swedish: “Shimane prefektur”
  • Swedish: “Shimane”
  • Tagalog: “Prepektura ng Shimane”
  • Tagalog: “Prepekturang Syimane”
  • Tagalog: “Shimane Prefecture”
  • Tajik: “Prefekturai Simane”
  • Tajik: “Префектураи Симанэ”
  • Tajik: “Префектураи Шимане”
  • Tamil: “ஷிம்மனே ப்ரீபெக்ட்டுறே”
  • Tatar: “Симане (префектура)”
  • Tatar: “Симане”
  • Telugu: “షిమేన్ ప్రిఫెక్చర్”
  • Thai: “จังหวัดชิมาเนะ”
  • Turkish: “Shimane prefektörlüğü”
  • Turkish: “Shimane”
  • Ukrainian: “Префектура Сімане”
  • Ukrainian: “Префектура Шімане”
  • Ukrainian: “Сімане”
  • Ukrainian: “Шімане”
  • Urdu: “شیمانے پریفیکچر”
  • Vietnamese: “Shimane”
  • Vietnamese: “Tỉnh Shimane”
  • Waray (Philippines): “Shimane Prefecture”
  • Waray (Philippines): “Shimane”
  • Welsh: “Shimane-ken”
  • Welsh: “Shimane”
  • Western Panjabi: “ضلع شیمانے”
  • Wu Chinese: “岛根县”
  • Yue Chinese: “岛根县”
  • Yue Chinese: “島根”
  • Yue Chinese: “島根縣”

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About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Shimane”. Photo: 663highland, CC BY 2.5.