Nara

Lying in the center of Japan, Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture  and occupies the northern end of Nara Prefecture. Once the political and cultural center of Japan, Nara is considered the cultivating hometown by the Japanese people. The total area is 276.84 square kilometers, with a population of 366，500.

It takes approximately 1.5 hours from Nara to Kansai International Airport by tram and bus, about 30 minutes to Osaka and Kyoto and about 3 hours to Tokyo by shinkansen. Nara has now developed into a residential town of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, with the population greatly increased.

The employment proportion of industries in Nara is as follows: 1.8% of the population participates in the primary industry, with a suburban-typed agriculture; 24.48% in the secondary industry and 71.85% in the tertiary industry.

A famous historical and cultural city of Japan, Nara has developed into an international tourist destination, receiving about 12,960,000 visitors annually, 189,000 of whom are foreigners. The representative World Heritage sites include Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Shrine, Kasugayama Primeval Forest,  Gangō-ji, Yakushi-ji, Tōshōdai-ji and the Heijō Palace. Nara is also a place with unique culture and customs. Many traditional crafts and industries have a very long history, in which the most representative craft arts are  lacquer ware, ancient music mask, fan, pottery, tile, woodcarving, bleached cloth, pen, ink and antler artware, etc.