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 o ...

located in

Akita is a Japanese name and may refer to: Places * 8182 Akita, a main-belt asteroid * Akita Castle, a Nara period fortified settlement in Akita, Japan * Akita Domain, also known as Kubota Domain, feudal domain in Edo period Japan * Akita, Kumamoto ...

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 n ...

. , 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 usi ...

of 5603 in 2465 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 RosenberPopu ...

of 330 persons per km². The total area is . It is the smallest municipality in Akita Prefecture in terms of surface area.

Geography

Hachirōgata is located in the coastal flatlands northeastern

Akita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Provinces and prefectures" in ; "Tōhoku" in . Its population is approximately 966,000 (as of 1 October 2019) and its geographic area is 11,6 ...

, bordered by the remnant of Lake

Hachirōgata is a lake in Akita Prefecture in northern Japan. Its formal name is , but it is also called . At 4 meters below sea level, Hachirōgata is the lowest natural point in Japan. Hachirōgata was the second-largest lake in Japan after Lake Biwa. ...

which lies in the west of the town. Lake Hachirōgata was the second largest lake in Japan until it was drained in a

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamat ...

project from 1957 to 1977.The town is about 30 kilometers north of the prefectural capital at Akita City.

Neighboring municipalities

Akita Prefecture * Ikawa * Ōgata * Gojōme * Mitane

Climate

Hachirōgata 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 freez ...

(

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'') with large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is heaviest from August to October. The average annual temperature in Hachirōgata is 11.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1612 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Hachirōgata population statistics
/ref> the population of Hachirōgata peaked at around the year 1950 and has been in steady decline since then.

History

The area of present-day Hachirōgata was part of ancient

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early peri ...

, dominated by the

Satake clan The was a Japanese samurai clan that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Its first power base was in Hitachi Province. The clan was subdued by Minamoto no Yoritomo in the late 12th century, but later entered Yoritomo's service as vassals ...

during 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 characteriz ...

, who ruled

Kubota Domain was a feudal domain in Edo period Japan, located in Dewa Province (modern-day Akita Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Kubota Castle in what is now the city of Akita and was thus also known as the . It was governed for the whole of its histo ...

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 ...

. The village of Omogata was established in 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system, the town of Hitoichi in 1925. The two merged in 1956 to form the town of Hachirōgata. Efforts to merge the town with neighboring Gojōme and Ikawa failed to pass a referendum in 2005.

Government

Hachirōgata 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 12 members. Hachirōgata, together with the other municipalities of Minamiakita District contributes one member to the Akita Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Akita 2nd district , the House of Representatives of Japan is elected from a combination of multi-member districts and single-member districts, a method called Parallel voting. Currently, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member districts (called proportional r ...

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 ...

. File:Seanery of Lake Hachirogata and Ogata Village from Oga City 20170624 (2).jpg, Panoramic view of Hachirōgata and Ōgata, from Oga File:Sunset scene from Mikurabana Park 20200531.jpg, A sunset view of Hachirōgata, from Mikurabana Park File:Hitoichi Bon-odori Festival 2017b.jpg, Hitoichi Bon dancing festival File:Tanbo art in Hachirogata Town 20180721.jpg, Tanbo art in Hachirogata

Economy

The economy of Hachirōgata is based on agriculture and commercial fishing.

Education

Hachirōgata has one public elementary schools and one public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company 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 ...

Ōu Main Line The is a railway line in Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Fukushima Station through Akita Station to Aomori Station. Since the opening of the Yamagata Shinkansen on July 1, 1992, the Fukushima–Yamag ...

Highway

Akita Expressway The is a national Expressways of Japan, expressway in the Tōhoku region of Japan. The expressway begins at an interchange with the Tōhoku Expressway in Kitakami, Iwate from where it proceeds northwest towards the capital of Akita Prefecture, ...

Notable peoples

Chiharu Shida is a Japanese badminton player from the Saishunkan team. She was the bronze medalists at the Asian and World Junior Championships in 2014 and 2015. Shida won her first international title at the 2016 Vietnam International, and claimed her first ...

, Japanese national badminton player

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hachirogata, Akita Towns in Akita Prefecture