Reading Kanagawa Prefecture through the data
Certified public accountant / editor — reading the bigger picture by tying public data together.
The port of Yokohama, the ancient capital of Kamakura, the factories of Kawasaki. Three towns of utterly different character are bound together under a single prefecture name.
That layering is mirrored on the numbers side as well. Kanagawa’s advantage is supported almost entirely by the single leg of the rate of population change, and on top of that it holds a twist inside its medical care. On the future side too, an already-completed connecting road, a Linear line whose timing keeps moving, and an earthquake line up at differing certainties—a prefecture not as simple as it looks.
Past・How it got here
A port town, an ancient capital, and an industrial city coexisting
Yokohama Chinatown gathers more than about 600 shops. One of Japan’s foremost Chinatowns, it is featured as a representative spot even on the prefecture’s official tourism site. But this is only one of Kanagawa’s faces. In Kamakura flows the time of an ancient capital; in Kawasaki beats the pulse of an industrial city. In reading this prefecture, the second largest in the metropolitan area, I want first to set down this internal breadth. The prefectural capital is Yokohama.
A port town, an ancient capital, and an industrial belt coexist under a single prefecture name. Try to bind them with a single average and one of the faces always vanishes—this premise comes to bear in reading Kanagawa.
The chart below renders, as a single line, the longest story available on the numbers side. But—in this prefecture of three faces, Yokohama, Kamakura, and Kawasaki, even that line is only the shape left after adding up and averaging three different movements. What I (Atlas) take care over is not to reread the calm of the long line as the calm of the whole prefecture. The direction of history and the movement at our feet are kept apart. And the layering appears in the structure of the numbers too—which we look at squarely in the next section.
A port town, an ancient capital, and an industrial belt in one prefecture. Kanagawa’s numbers mirror that layering, too.
What Kanagawa Prefecture is known for
The industries, companies, and products that define this prefecture. Figures are based on official statistics, with sources cited on each item.
Leading industries (the core of the Keihin industrial belt)
- Transport machinery, chemicals & electrical equipment
The core of the Keihin industrial belt. Automotive, chemical, and electrical-equipment industries are clustered here.
Source: MAFF, Overview of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by Prefecture (FY2025 edition)
Leading listed company (head office located here)
- Nissan Motor
Head office in Yokohama. Founded in Yokohama in 1933. A major automaker listed on the TSE.
Source: Nissan Motor, Company Profile
Leading farm produce and specialties
- Daikon radish (Miura), cabbage, and others
Urban-fringe agriculture on the Miura Peninsula and elsewhere. Daikon and similar items rank near the national top.
Source: MAFF, Overview of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by Prefecture (FY2025 edition)
Source: Kanko Kanagawa NOW, Yokohama Chinatown (Kanagawa Prefecture official tourism site) / City of Kawasaki, On the Haneda Connecting Road Construction Project (Tamagawa Sky Bridge) / Nikkei, JR Central abandons 2027 Linear opening / Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (Government Earthquake Research Committee) / For primary sources on forward-looking factors, see each item in the roadmap below
