260px, Akashi City Hall 260px, Akashi fromAkashi Castle is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in southern

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan. , the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 304,274 in 135,323 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

of 6,200 people per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Akashi located in southern Hyōgo prefecture, and is a long and narrow municipality along the Seto Inland Sea. It is separated from Awaji Island by Harima Bay; however, the terminus of the

Akashi Kaikyō Bridge The is a suspension bridge which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island. It is part of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, and crosses the busy and turbulent Akashi Strait (''Akashi Kaikyō'' in Japanese ...

, which connects

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island se ...

to Awaji Island and to

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

, is not in Akashi but in

Tarumi-ku, Kōbe is one of nine wards of Kobe, Japan. It has an area of 26.89 km², and a population of 219,958 (2008). Tarumi is a suburban area in western Kobe, providing residential towns for commuters to downtown Kobe and even Osaka. The Akashi Kaiky ...

. The 135th meridian east line that determines

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to ...

passes though the city.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hyōgo Prefecture *

Kōbe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...

* Kakogawa *

Harima or Banshū (播州) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tanba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji. During the ...

* Inami

Climate

Akashi has a humid subtropical climate (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than in most parts of Honshū, and there is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Akashi is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Akashi was on 13 August 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 30 January 2003.

Demographics

History

Akashi is mentioned in a ''waka'' (five-line, 31-syllable poem) written by

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (柿本人麻呂 or 柿本人麿; – ) was a Japanese ''waka'' poet and aristocrat of the late Asuka period. He was the most prominent of the poets included in the ''Man'yōshū'', the oldest ''waka'' anthology, but ap ...

in the 7th century and it is the setting for one of the chapters of the 11th-century novel '' The Tale of Genji''. It developed as the

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, a ...

Akashi Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Harima Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Akashi Castle, which is located in what is now the ci ...

during the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...

, from 1617 to 1871 due to its location dominating the

San'yōdō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The San'yōdō corresponds for the most part with the modern conception of the San'yō region. This name derives from the id ...

highway connecting the

Kinai region is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kinai' ...

with western Japan. The famous swordsman

Miyamoto Musashi , also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, strategist, writer and rōnin, who became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship a ...

is claimed to have laid out the design of the castle town. The town of Akashi was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on November 1, 1919. The city annexed the neighboring villages of Hayashizaki on February 11, 1942 and Okubo, Uozumi and Futami on January 10, 1951 to reach its present dimensions. A proposal to merge with the city of Kobe was rejected by a referendum in 1955. The city suffered from the

Great Hanshin earthquake The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and ha ...

of 1995 with 4,839 houses were completely or partially destroyed and nine fatalities. On July 21, 2001, 11 people were killed and 247 were injured during a

stampede A stampede () is a situation in which a group of large animals suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened. Non-human species associated with stampede behavior include zebras, cattle, elephants ...

after a fireworks show. Five city officials were subsequently convicted of negligence in connection with the incident. Akashi became a

Core city In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city ...

on April 1, 2018 with increased local autonomy.

Government

Akashi has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

city council of 30 members. Akashi contributes four members to the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo 9th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan. Akashi is governed by Mayor Fusaho Izumi, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Economy

Akashi is located within the Hanshin Industrial Area and Harima Seaside Industrial Area and has succeeded in attracting many companies to its Futami Seaside Industrial Park. the city has long been noted for aviation-related instrumentation manufacturers and electronic component manufacturers. Yamato Scale, a leading global manufacturer of commercial weighing and packaging equipment, is headquartered in the city. Due to its transportation connections and location, numerous

bedroom communities A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

have developed for commuters to Kobe and Osaka, which is estimated to exceed 30% of the working population. The city has also been noted since the Edo Period for its production of ''

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

''.

Education

Akashi has 28 public elementary schools, 13 public middle schools and one public high school operated by the city government and seven public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one national elementary school. The city also operates one special education school for the handicapped. The nursing school of

University of Hyogo The is a public university in Japan. Its headquarters is in Chuo-ku, Kobe City. History The University of Hyogo (UH) was established in April 2004 by integrating three universities which were run by Hyogo Prefecture government: , and th ...

is located in Akashi. The city also has the National Institute of Technology Akashi College (NITAC)． () The city once had a North Korean school, and Akashi Junior College ().

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, an ...

–

San'yō Shinkansen The is a line of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan. Operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West), it is a westward cont ...

– San'yō Main Line (

JR Kobe Line The is the nickname of portions of the Tokaido Main Line and the Sanyo Main Line, between Osaka Station in Osaka, Osaka Prefecture and Himeji Station in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture. The line, along with the JR Kyoto Line and the Biwako Line, ...

) * - - - - Sanyo electric railway logo-5

Sanyo Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway operating company based in western Hyōgo Prefecture. It runs local and express rail service between Himeji and Kobe, and also connects directly with Hanshin Main Line to Osaka. Although the Hanshin Electric R ...

Main Line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

* - - - - - - - - - - -

Highways

Daini-Shinmei Road The is a toll road in Kobe and Akashi, Japan. It is owned and operated by West Nippon Expressway Company and is signed as E93 under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's (MLIT) "2016 Proposal for Realization of Expressway ...

* (Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Shimonoseki) * (Kobe, Tokushima) * (Maizuru) * (Kobe, Okayama) * (Maizuru) * (Nishiwaki, Asago)

Ferries

* Akashi Awaji Ferry and Awaji Jenova Line to Awaji Island

International relations

Twin towns – Sister/friendship cities

Akashi is twinned with: *

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to th ...

, USA, sister city since 1968 *

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

, China, friendship city since 1981

Local attractions

Akashi Castle was an Edo period Japanese castle located in the city of Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. It was also known as or . Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1957. History Akashi Castle is located on Mount Akamatsu, ...

, National Historic Site * Akashi Municipal Planetarium, which stands on the

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

of 135 degrees east longitude, which is used to determine

. * Akashi Park Stadium is a track and field stadium that can hold 20,000 spectators. * Kakinomoto Shrine *''Uonotana'' (Uo-no-Tana, , literally "fish-shelf"), a market where local fishermen display an array of fresh seafood caught in the Akashi Strait. File:Port of Akashi,明石港 DSCF1831.jpg, Port of Akashi File:山陽電鉄明石駅・明石天文台より俯瞰P9160007.jpg,

Sanyo Akashi Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Akashi, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private Sanyo Electric Railway. Lines Sanyo Akashi Station is served by the Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line and is from the terminus of t ...

File:Port of Akashi,明石港地蔵のある路地 DSCF1956.jpg, Old town area File:Akashi-uontana,2010年末-魚の棚商店街 DSCF0215.JPG, Uontana File:Akashi Minicipal Planetarium.jpg, Akashi Municipal Planetarium

Culture

Akashi is known for ''

Akashiyaki is a small round dumpling from the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The dumpling is made of an egg-rich batter and octopus dipped into '' dashi'' (a thin fish broth) before eating. Modern style akashiyaki first started selling in t ...

'', a kind of ''

takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (''tako''), tempura scraps (''tenkasu''), pickled ginger (''beni shoga''), and green o ...

'' particular to the region. Small pieces of octopus (''tako'') are placed inside a ball-shaped mold containing a mixture of flour and eggs, and this is then fried. ''Akashiyaki'' is often eaten by dipping in a thin soup. People who live in Akashi call it ''"tamagoyaki"''(tamago, or , literally "egg").

Noted people from Akashi

* Yumi Kokamo, long-distance runner *

Mami Kingetsu is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Akashi, Hyōgo. She is currently affiliated with Aoni Production. She is best known for her role as Shiori Fujisaki in the ''Tokimeki Memorial'' series. Other notable roles include Izumi Himuro in '' Pr ...

, voice actress *

Airi Taira , known by her birth and stage name , is a Japanese actress who She debuted in 1999 by winning the Da Pump's, ISSA's Sister Role Grand Prix for the movie Dream Maker. She played a lead role in the live action movie of ''20th Century Boys'' as the ...

, actress

References

External links

Akashi City official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akashi, Hyogo Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Port settlements in Japan