Noto Peninsula (能登半島, Noto-hantō) is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. The main industries of the peninsula are agriculture, fisheries, and tourism.
Noto has no meaning in Japanese. It appears to come from a language antecedent to Ainu, in which not means "peninsula"; the final -o is presumably a paragogic echo vowel in order to meet Old Japanese phonological requirements. The name is written with two ateji (ad hoc kanji used for an unrelated word): nō 'ability' and tō/to 'ascend'.
The area of the Noto Peninsula is divided into 3 regions.
The Noto Peninsula features prominently in the Japanese film noir Zero Focus (Zero no Shoten, 1961), directed by Yoshitaro Nomura. The film features breathtaking footage of the peninsula's coast, along with an interesting dissection of the area's social distinctions. Noto Peninsula is also the setting of Hirokazu Koreeda's second film Maborosi (1995). Suzu, the city located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula is the setting for the 2014 film Saihate Nite.
On March 25, 2007, the 2007 Noto earthquake shook the peninsula, causing one death and at least 170 injuries.
Coordinates: 37°21′N 136°56′E / 37.350°N 136.933°E