Hyogo

  • The Japan Standard Time meridian (135 degrees east longitude) passes through Akashi City, where visitors can stand on the meridian line at the Municipal Planetarium.
  • Uniquely, Hyogo encompasses all five former provinces: Settsu, Harima, Tajima, Tanba, and Awaji, promoting this heritage through the 'U5H' campaign.
  • The prefecture has the most irrigation ponds in Japan with over 20,000, particularly concentrated on Awaji Island.
  • The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge holds the Guinness World Record with its central span of 1,991 meters, making it one of the world's longest suspension bridges.
  • Nojigiku, the prefectural flower, is an endemic species growing wild on Awaji Island's coast.
  • Hyogo Prefectural University operates across four regions within the prefecture in a multi-area collaborative model.
  • Kobe ranks among the nation's top in bread consumption, known as a fierce bakery battleground.
  • The Oriental Stork wild reintroduction project centered in Toyooka City has succeeded, with breeding now confirmed outside the prefecture.
  • Koshien Stadium, hosting the National High School Baseball Championship and home to Hanshin Tigers, welcomes approximately 4.5 million visitors annually.
  • Nada-Gogo brewery district in Nishinomiya and Kobe's Higashinada Ward is Japan's largest sake production area, with mineral-rich miyamizu water as the key ingredient.
  • The prefecture holds first place nationally with over 18,000 ancient burial mounds, concentrated in Tanba and Harima regions.
  • Japan's first golf course, Kobe Golf Club, opened on Mt. Rokko in 1898.
  • Takarazuka Revue Company, founded in 1914, is a globally rare all-female musical theater troupe.
  • Hyogo's dialects vary greatly: southern Kansai-ben and northern Chugoku-dialect-influenced Tajima-ben.
  • The Kobe Marathon, a popular local race, offers stunning views of Akashi Kaikyo Bridge along the course.