260px, Sakasai Castle is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 51,577 in 18,441 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), 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 geog ...

of 419 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 30.7%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Bandō is located in far southwestern Ibaraki Prefecture, on the north bank of the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

, bordered by Chiba Prefecture to the southwest. It is approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Surrounding municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Noda Ibaraki Prefecture *

Jōsō is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,314 in 21,168 households and a population density of 480 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 38.8%. The total area of t ...

* Koga *

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

* Yachiyo

Climate

Bandō has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Bandō is 14.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1316 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Bandō population statistics
/ref> the population of Bandō peaked around the year 1990 and has declined slightly since.

History

The area of modern Bandō was part of

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture as well as the bordering parts of Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo (the parts that used to be located east of the lower reaches of the old Tone River prior to the ...

until the start of the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the village of Iwai was created within Sashima District, Ibaraki. Iwai was elevated to town status on July 4, 1900, and to city status on April 1, 1972. The city of Bandō was established on March 22, 2005, from the merger of the city of Iwai with the neighboring town of Sashima.

Government

Bandō 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 20 members. Bandō contributes one member to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 7th district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Bandō has mixed economy with a large number of

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

s. The area is traditionally known for its production of leeks, lettuce and Chinese cabbage.

Education

* Bandō has 13 public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

* Bandō does not have any passenger train service.

Highway

* – Bando Interchange *

Local attractions

*site of Sakasai Castle *Ibaraki Nature Museum

International relations

Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff, officially the City of Pine Bluff, is the List of municipalities in Arkansas, tenth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County, Arkansas, Jefferson County. The population of the city wa ...

, United States, sister city since October 9, 1989

Notable people from Bandō

* Wakanami Jun, sumo wrestler * Makoto Takimoto, judoka

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bando, Ibaraki Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Bandō, Ibaraki