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 ...

located in Nagano Prefecture, 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 55,673 in 23,236 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical ...

of 210 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Chino is located in a mountainous area of the east-central Nagano prefecture. Notable mountains within the city limits include

Mount Yatsugatake , also known as just Yatsugatake is a volcanic group of inactive volcanoes located on the border of Nagano Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture on Honshū in Japan. Description The Southern Yatsugatake Volcanic Group is part of the Yatsugatake M ...

, Mount Tateshina, and Mount Kirigamine. Chino city hall is located at an elevation of 801 meters and is thus the highest city hall location in Japan.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (

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''). The average annual temperature in Chino is 10.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1310 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 23.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.8 °C. The mountainous portions of the city are considered part of the

snow country is a novel by the Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata. The novel is considered a classic work of Japanese literature and was among the three novels the Nobel Committee cited in 1968, when Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Writ ...

of Japan, with heavy accumulations of snow in winter.

Surrounding municipalities

*Nagano Prefecture ** Suwa **

Saku Saku may refer to: Places *Saku, Nagano, a city in Japan *Saku, Nagano (Minamisaku), a town in Japan *Saku Parish, a rural municipality in Harju County, Estonia **Saku, Estonia, a small borough in Saku Parish, Harju County, Estonia *Saku Constituen ...

** Ina ** Koumi ** Minamimaki ** Sakuho ** Tateshina ** Nagawa ** Fujimi ** Hara *Yamanashi Prefecture ** Hokuto

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Chino has recently plateaued after a long period of growth.

History

The area of present-day Chino was part of ancient Shinano Province and was part of Suwa Domain under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

in 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 ...

. The village of Eimei in Suwa District was established by the creation of the municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was elevated to town status and renamed Chino on May 3, 1948. On February 1, 1955, the town of Chino annexed the neighboring villages of Miyakawa, Kanzawa, Tamagawa, Toyohira, Azumino, Kitayama, Kohigashi, and Yonezawa. Chino was elevated to city status on August 1, 1958. In 2018, the Chino Municipal Government created a "Bond Diary" program (''Yui Nikki'', also known as ''Kōkan Nikki'') for citizens over the age of 20. The program romantically matches area residents with non-residents via "old fashioned" means of the written word.

Government

Chino 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 multi ...

city legislature of 18 members.

Economy

Chino is noted for its production of '' kanten'', a type of agar, and the growing of celery and lettuce. Manufacturing includes precision instruments and electronics. The mountains of the Tateshina Highlands are a popular destination for seasonal tourism.

Education

Chino has nine public elementary schools and four public middle schools. There is one public high school operated by the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education and one private high school. The

Tokyo University of Science, Suwa is a formerly private university now public (municipal) in Chino, Nagano, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered ...

is also located in Chino.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company - Chūō Main Line ** -

Highway

Chūō Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by NEXCO Central. Naming Officially the expressway is designated as the Chūō Expressway Nishinomiya Route (from Takaido Interchange to Komaki Junction), the Chūō Expressway Na ...

* * *

Sister city relations

* -

Asahi, Chiba is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 64,690 in 26,510 households and a population density of 500 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Asahi is located in far northeaster ...

since 3 December 1974, updated on 29 October 2015 due to Asahi’s amalgament of neighboring townships. * - Sōja, Okayama since 26 January 1984. * -

Isehara, Kanagawa 260px, Isehara Shibuta River 260px, Mount Oyama Afuri Jinja is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 101,670 and a population density of 1800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Ge ...

since 21 January 1986. * - Longmont, Colorado, USA since 25 May 1990.

Partner cities for the Mutual Evacuation Treaty

Awara, Fukui is a city located in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 27,107 in 10,140 households and the population density of 232 persons per km². The total area of the city was . It is one of the few Hiragana cities in Jap ...

since 17 August 2014.

Local attractions

Suwa Taisha , historically also known as Suwa Shrine (諏訪神社 ''Suwa-jinja'') or , is a group of Shinto shrines in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The shrine complex is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Shinano Province and is considered to be one of the oldest sh ...

*Lake Shirakaba *

Togariishi Museum of Jōmon Archaeology 20px, Togariishi ruins The is a municipal museum located in the city of Chino, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, specializing in artifacts of the Jōmon period (between 14,000 and 1000 BCE). Togariishi Museum of Jōmon Archaeology The museum was open ...

* Komagata ruins, Jōmon period settlement trace, National Historic Site * Uenodan stone age ruins, Jōmon period settlement trace, National Historic Site

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Nagano Prefecture