260px, Nakanoshima Park is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

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 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 town 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 8,162 in 2987 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 353 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 34.7%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Goka is located in the flatlands in the very western portion of Ibaraki Prefecture, bordered by Saitama Prefecture to the west and south, Chiba Prefecture to the east. 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) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

, along with the

Edo River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It splits from the Tone River at the northernmost tip of Noda City in the Sekiyado district, crosses through Nagareyama and Matsudo, and empties into Tokyo Bay at Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. The Edo ...

and Naka River pass through the town. Goka is approximately 50 kilometers from central Tokyo.

Rivers

* Naka River *Gongendo River(Lake Miyuki) *Fuyugi-otoshi River *Goka-otoshi River

Place names

*Motokurihashi *Kawatsuma *Kotesashi *Shinkōya *Kofukuda *Ōfukuda *Sanno-yama *Sanno *Egawa *Kōshu *Goka-mirai *Fuyugi *Maebayashi *Shaka *Harajukudai

Neighboring municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture *

Koga KOGA is a Dutch bicycle manufacturer based in Heerenveen, Friesland. The company is known for its long time partnership with Japanese frame manufacturer Miyata, producing bicycles and sponsoring racing teams under the brand name Koga Miyata. As ...

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 keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

Saitama Prefecture * Kuki * Satte Chiba Prefecture *

Noda NoDa (short for "North Davidson") is a popular arts district in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It is located in the North Charlotte neighborhood on and around North Davidson Street and 36th Street, approximately one mile northeast of Up ...

Climate

Goka 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 freezing ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Goka is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1326 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Goka population statistics
/ref> the population of Goka peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

History

The area of present-day Goka was part of

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from ...

and was transferred to Ibaraki Prefecture in 1875 after the start of the

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 ...

. The area was organized into the village of Goka within Nishikatsushika District, Ibaraki with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on 1 April 1889. The district was abolished in 1896, becoming part of Sashima District. Goka was raised to town status on 1 June 1996.

Government

Goka 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 ...

town council of 10 members. Goka, together with neighboring Bandō and Sakai, contributes two members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Ibaraki 7th district of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

Economy

Industrial Park

*Doyobu, Kawatsuma, Egawa, Ōsaki, Ondashi and Goka IC industrial park

Company office and plant

*Kewpie Corporation, Goka plant *Yakult Honsha Company Limited, Ibaraki plant *Kyodo Printing Company Limited, Goka plant *SHINCHOSHA Publishing Company Limited, Goka Office *KIKKOMAN SoyFoods Company, Ibaraki plant *KATO WORKS Company Limited, Ibaraki plant

Public institutions

Education

Goka has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school. *Goka-nishi elementary school *Goka-higashi elementary school *Goka junior high school

Public facilities

*Goka town hall *Goka post office *Goka Harajukudai post office *Goka town B&G Marine center *Environmental purification center *Kawatsuma water purification plant

Fire department

*Koga fire department(Koga-city) **Goka branch

Police department

*Ibaraki prefectural police, Sakai police station(Sakai-town) **Motokurihashi police box **Kofukuda police box

Transportation

Railway

Goka does not have any passenger railway service. The near station is on the

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

Utsunomiya Line The Utsunomiya Line ( ja, 宇都宮線, ) is the name given to a 163.5 kilometer section of the Tōhoku Main Line between Tokyo Station in Tokyo and Kuroiso Station in Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan. It is part of the East Japan Railway Compan ...

( Tohoku Main Line) and or on the

Tōbu Nikkō Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the private railway company Tobu Railway. It branches from Tōbu Dōbutsu Kōen Station in Miyashiro, Saitama on the Skytree Line, extending north to Tōbu Nikkō Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. The ...

.
Tohoku Shinkansen pass through northern part of the town.

Expressway

* – Goka Interchange

Highway

* ** Roadside station Goka (government-designated rest area)

Prefectural Road

*Prefecture Route 267 *Prefecture Route 268

Bus

*Route Bus(operated by Asahi bus) **Goka town hall - Tatsudō - Satte station *Community transportation "Gokarin-go" (operated by Asahi bus, operation route depending on the time of day except Sunday and holidays) **

Minami-kurihashi station is a railway station located in the city of Kuki, Saitama, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Tōbu Railway. The station is numbered "TN-03". Lines Minami-Kurihashi Station is served by the Tōbu Nikkō Line, and is 10.4 km ...

- Saiseikai Kurihashi Hospital - Goka town hall - Goka Egawa-honson (Morning and evening time route) **Beisia Supermarket Kurihashi Store - Minami-kurihashi station - Saiseikai Kurihashi Hospital - Goka town hall - Motokurihashi-ikenari - Dōmu Park - Tatsudō - Roadside station Goka - Goka Egawa-honson(Daytime route)

Local attractions

*Kurihashi castle ruins *Tōshōji temple *Ana-yakushi ancient tomb *Fuyugi A・B shellmound *Nakanoshima Park *Dōmu Park *Roadside station Goka *Information and disaster station Goka

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Ibaraki Prefecture Goka, Ibaraki