Симидзу: География, экономика и развитие портового города

Shimizu was introduced in a Japanese school textbook of geography as a city with all three industries: agriculture, heavy industry and commerce.

Shimizu is known for producing Japanese mandarin oranges, and green tea in the mountainous area and around the Nihondaira. Shimizu Port is a major commercial fishing port. Production of roses used to be the highest in Japan.

The waterfront area was formerly an industrial area and there were shipyards, iron works, and numerous canneries. Most of the heavy industry has been replaced by commercial venues.

At Shimizu Station, the "Shimizu Ekimae Ginza" shopping area used to be the city center of Shimizu. However, there are no longer any department stores. The Seiyu that remained near the station closed in March 2015. Since many large suburban shopping centers have been expanding, the shopping area downtown is not as lively as it used to be. Lately, department stores like Nagasaki ya, Marui, Seifu and Daiei have closed, one after the other. Moreover, since Shimizu merged with Shizuoka, a plan is being implemented to move fundamental functions to the area around Higashi Shizuoka Station as the third central area of the city in addition to Shimizu and Shizuoka.

The Port of Shimizu is a long established mid size sea port, catering to container ships, dry bulk ships and cruise ships ( https://www. portofshimizu intl. com/ ). It is well located, being in between the two major port areas of Japan, i. e. the Tokyo Bay ports of Tokyo, Kawasaki and Yokohama (Keihin ports) and the Osaka Bay ports of Osaka and Kobe (Hanshin ports. The Port of Shimizu has a water depth of about 12 meters; its attractiveness has been enhanced over the past years by the construction of new road and rail links which contribute to expanding its commercial hinterland. In tonnage, imports (about 6.5 million tons) are close to twice export volumes, but in trade value exports are twice as valuable as imports. The Port of Shimizu container traffic is about balanced, with over 250,000 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) in each direction, with auto parts and chemicals amongst the main cargo types. Major international container lines provide weekly services on major trade routes, including North America, Europe and Asia, with about 110 calls per months on 28 trade routes. The port of Shimizu also includes a terminal to receive LNG tankers and store imported Liquefied natural gas; it is operated by Shimizu LNG, a subsidiary of Shizuoka Gas (Japan is the world's largest importer of LNG). The Port of Shimizu is also connected to other Japan ports. In particular, it is served by a Roll on/roll off service serving the port of Ōita, on the north east coast of the southern island of Kyushu. This service, which sails three times a week and has a transit time of 20 hours, has enabled a modal shift of freight trucks from road to sea, thereby contributing to decreasing congestion and pollution on roads.

Shimizu is famous as one of the top cities in Japan where football is quite popular. It is well known as the home town of a J. League team, Shimizu S Pulse. An earlier club, Hagoromo Club (which spun off its parent company Nippon Light Metal) represented Shimizu in the old Japan Soccer League in the 1970s. The local elementary schools and junior high schools equip fields with night lighting for soccer and Shimizu has maintained this infrastructure for a long time. Since 1987, the national soccer competition “Shimizu Cup” for boys and girls has been held in August. A famous son of the city is Japan youth international and Celtic footballer, Koki Mizuno.