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

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

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 on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. , the city has 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 145,032 in 59,480 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 750 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Fujieda is a member of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

’s Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC).

Geography

Fujieda is located in the Shida Plateau in central Shizuoka Prefecture between the

Abe River The is a river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The river rises from Akaishi Mountains which stretch over the border between Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures, and flows into Suruga Bay in the Pa ...

and the Ōi River. The area enjoys a warm maritime climate with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters.

Neighboring municipalities

*Shizuoka Prefecture **

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

** Yaizu ** Shimada

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Fujieda grown rapidly over the past 50 years.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by 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 Fujieda is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2159 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.7 °C.Fujieda climate data
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History

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 ...

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 characteriz ...

Japan, much of the area of present-day Fujieda was part of Tanaka Domain, and its

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

formed part of the eastern outlying fortifications of Sunpu. The town also developed as Fujieda-juku, a post town on the Tōkaidō highway connecting

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

with

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

. During the cadastral reform of the early

Meiji period The is 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 colonization ...

in 1889, Fujieda-juku became Fujieda Town within Shida District Shizuoka Prefecture.

Fujieda Station is a railway station in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tōkai). Lines Fujieda Station is served by the Tōkaidō Main Line, and is located 200.3 kilometers from the starting point of the line ...

on the

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

railway opened on April 16, 1889, leading to development of the surrounding area. On March 31, 1954, Fujieda merged with neighboring Aoshima Town and four neighboring villages to form Fujieda City. Setoya Village merged on February 15, 1955 and Hirohata Village on April 1, 1957. On January 1, 2009, the neighboring town of Okabe (from Shida District) was merged into Fujieda. Shida District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

Government

Fujieda 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 legislature of 22 members.

Economy

Fujieda is primarily a bedroom community for nearby

. The local economy is dominated by agriculture (tea, strawberry, rice, ''

shiitake The shiitake (alternate form shitake) (; ''Lentinula edodes'') is an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which is now cultivated and consumed around the globe. It is considered a medicinal mushroom in some forms of traditional medicine. Ta ...

'') and light manufacturing, including pharmaceuticals, beverages, and food processing.

Education

Fujieda has 17 public elementary schools and ten public junior high schools operated by the city government. and three public high schools operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education. There are also two private middle schools and three private high schools. The prefectural also operates one special education school for disabled children. In addition,

Shizuoka Sangyo University is a private university in Iwata city, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, established in 1988. Location * Iwata Campus (1572-1 Ohara, Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture) * Fujieda Campus (4-1-1 Surugadai, Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture) Organiza ...

has a campus in Fujieda, and the agricultural fields for

Shizuoka University is a national university in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Shizuoka University is well known in the field of engineering, in creative innovation, and in the invention of next generation technology, with the prestigious international exchange ...

are also located in the city.

Sport

Fujieda is represented in the

J. League The , officially is Japan's professional football league including the first division J1 League, second division J2 League and third division J3 League of the Japanese association football league system. J1 League is one of the most succe ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

by its local club Fujieda MYFC. In the 1980s and 1990s the city was represented in the

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

and former Japan Football League by local clubs Fujieda City Hall SC, which still competes in the prefectural divisions, and Chuo Bohan SC/Fujieda Blux, which moved out of town in 1994 to become Avispa Fukuoka.

Transportation

Railway

Central Japan Railway Company is the main railway company operating in the Chūbu (Nagoya) region of central Japan. It is officially abbreviated in English as JR Central and in Japanese as JR Tōkai ( ja, JR東海, links=no). ''Tōkai'' is a reference to the geographical ...

Highway

* - Fujieda Bypass, Okabe Bypass

Sister City relations

* - Penrith,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, from November 3, 1984. * - Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, since August 24, 2009

Local attractions

* Tanaka Castle *

Shida Gunga ruins The is an archaeological site containing the ruins of the Nara period, Nara to early Heian period government administrative complex for Shida District, Shizuoka, Shiga District , Suruga Province, located in the Minamisurugadai neighborhood of th ...

, National Historic Site *

Utsunoya Pass The is a mountain pass on the old Tōkaidō highway connecting eastern Japan with imperial capital of Kyoto. Located between former Mariko-juku in what is now Suruga-ku, Shizuoka, and Okabe-juku in what is now Fujieda, it is the only portion of ...

, a National Historic Site *Gardens of Renge-ji temple

Notable people from Fujieda

Kunio Ogawa was a Japanese novelist born in Fujieda, Shizuoka. Ogawa was a graduate of the Japanese literature department at Tokyo University. In 1957, Ogawa wrote a book titled ''Aporon no shima'' (Isles of Apollo) after taking a trip to the Mediterranean. ...

, novelist *

Shizuo Fujieda was a Japanese writer. Shizuo Fujieda's first profession was of an ophthalmologist. For many years before becoming a full-time author he wrote only when he was free from his work as an ophthalmologist. Fujieda's literary career began rather late ...

, novelist *

Shin Asahina is a former Japanese football player. Playing career Asahina was born in Fujieda on August 20, 1976. After graduating from Doshisha University, he joined J1 League club Gamba Osaka in 1999. He played several matches as center back every seas ...

, professional soccer player *

Toshiya Ishii is a former Japanese football player. Playing career Ishii was born in Fujieda on January 19, 1978. After graduating from Shizuoka Gakuen High School, he joined J1 League club Urawa Reds in 1996. He became a regular player as defensive midfield ...

, professional soccer player *

Tatsuya Ishikawa is a Japanese former football player. Club career Ishikawa was born in Fujieda on December 25, 1979. After graduating from the University of Tsukuba, he joined the Kashima Antlers in 2002. He gradually played more often as left side back during ...

, professional soccer player * Kentaro Ohi, professional soccer player * Hiroshi Nanami, professional soccer player *

Yoshikazu Suzuki is a former Japanese football player. Playing career Suzuki was born in Fujieda on June 1, 1982. After graduating from high school, he joined J2 League club Shonan Bellmare is a Japanese professional football club based in Hiratsuka, i ...

, professional soccer player * Masashi Nakayama, professional soccer player *

Makoto Hasebe is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and defensive midfielder for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt. He played for the Japan national team, for which he served as captain. Club career Urawa Red Diamonds After gr ...

, professional soccer player * Nobuhisa Yamada, professional soccer player * Takeshi Watanabe, professional soccer player *

Ryu Okada is a Japanese footballer, who currently plays for Júbilo Iwata on loan from Jubilo Iwata ''Jubilo'' is a 1919 American comedy film directed by Clarence G. Badger and written by Robert F. Hill. The film stars Will Rogers, Josie Sedgwick, Ch ...

, professional soccer player *

Motoyuki Akahori is a retired Nippon Professional Baseball player. He was formerly with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. Currently, he was most recently the first team pitching coach of the Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, t ...

, professional baseball player

References

External links

Fujieda City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture