is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Hachijō Subprefecture,

Tokyo Metropolis Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

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 town 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 7,056, 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 97.7 persons per km². Its total area is . Electric power for the town is provided by a

geothermal power Geothermal power is electricity generation, electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation i ...

station and a

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

Geography

Hachijō covers the islands of

Hachijō-jima is a volcano, volcanic Islands of Japan, Japanese island in the Philippine Sea. It is about south of the special wards of Tokyo. It is part of the Izu Islands, Izu archipelago and within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Its only municipalit ...

and Hachijō-kojima, two of the islands in the Izu archipelago in the

Philippine Sea The Philippine Sea is a List of seas#Marginal seas by ocean, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, Western Pacific Ocean east of the list of islands of the Philippines, Philippine Archipelago (hence the name) and the List of seas#Largest seas ...

, south of central Tokyo. Warmed by the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black Current or is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

, the town has a warmer and wetter climate than central Tokyo. All of the town's residents live on the island of Hachijō-jima, as the last of Hachijō-kojima residents left in 1969, citing lack of basic public services on that island.

Neighboring municipalities

*Tokyo Metropolis **

Aogashima, Tokyo is a village located in Hachijō Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It is the least-populated municipality in Japan, with an estimated population of 169 and a population density of 28.2 persons per km2 as of 2018. Its total area is . Geog ...

** Mikurajima, Tokyo

Climate

Demographics

The population of Hachijō was 7,042, down from 7,613 in 2015.

History

During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, Hachijōjima was known as a place of exile for convicts. This practice ended in 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 ...

, and the island residents developed an economy based on fishing,

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori, domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkwo ...

, and agriculture. Hachijō Subprefecture was organized on April 1, 1908, and included the villages of Mitsune, Nakanogo, Kashitate, Sueyoshi and Ōkago. The villages of Toruchi and Utsuki on Hachijōkojima were organized on May 3, 1947. The five villages of Hachijōjima merged on October 1, 1954, to form the village of Hachijō. On April 1, 1955, the two villages of Hachijōkojima also merged with the village of Hachijō, which was promoted to town status. However, in March 1966, the residents of Hachijōkojima voted to abandon their island, citing the inaccessibility of basic public services and economic difficulties, and Hachijōkojima became a deserted island from June 1969.

Economy

Fishing and tourism are the mainstays of the economy of Hachijō.

Education

The town government operates three public elementary and three public junior high schools. Junior high schools: * Fuji Junior High School (富士中学校) * Mihara Junior High School ( 三原中学校) * Okago Junior High School ( 大賀郷中学校) Elementary schools: * Mihara Elementary School (三原小学校) * Mitsune Elementary School (三根小学校) * Okago Elementary School (大賀郷小学校) The Tōkyō Metropolitan Government Board of Education operates .

Transportation

Hachijōjima is accessible both by aircraft and by ferry. A pedestrian ferry leaves Tōkyō once every day at 10 p.m., and arrives at Hachijōjima at 9:00 a.m. the following day. Air travel to Hachijojima Airport takes 45 minutes from Tōkyō International Airport (Haneda).

Sister cities

Maui County, Hawaii Maui County (), officially the County of Maui, is a county in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It consists of the islands of Maui, Lānai, Molokai (except for a portion of Molokai that comprises Kalawao County), Kahoolawe, and Molokini. The latt ...

, United States

Gallery

Image:Landsat Hachijojima Island.jpg, Hachijōjima (right) and Hachijōkojima (left) Image:Hachijojima tamaishigaki 2007-03-20.jpg, Typical stone walls Image:Sokodo harbor.jpg, Sokodo Harbor

References

External links

Hachijō Town Official Website

The Anchor Pub in Hachijō Town
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hachijo, Tokyo Towns in Tokyo Populated coastal places in Japan