Chōshi

Japan

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Article History

Chōshi, city, northeastern Chiba ken (prefecture), east-central Honshu, Japan. Chōshi is situated at the mouth of the Tone River, near Cape Inubō on the Pacific Ocean.

In the late 17th century it was a commercial port on the sea route between Edo (now Tokyo) and northern Japan. With the decline of sea transport and coastal fishing in the late 19th century, however, its main activities shifted to offshore fishing. Chōshi is now one of eastern Japan’s main bases for deep-sea fishing, and it has plants for processing marine products. The city is also well known in Japan for its production of soy sauce, an industry that dates to the early 17th century. Chōshi serves as a tourist base for Cape Inubō and other nearby scenic spots. Bridges across the Tone link the city with locales in Ibaraki prefecture. Pop. (2010) 70,210; (2015) 64,415.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray.