Osaka Prefectural Route 250 in Hannan Pichipichi Beach 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 Osaka 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 52,350 in 24093 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 1400 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Hannan is located in the southwestern part of Osaka prefecture, bordered by

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. ...

to the north and the Izumi Mountains and Wakayama Prefecture to the south. The city is about 45 kilometers from the center of Osaka city and about 10 kilometer from the center of Wakayama city

Neighboring municipalities

Osaka Prefecture * Sennan *

Misaki Misaki ( ja, 御先, "misaki") are a collective term for spirit-like existences in Japan like gods, demons and spirits, among other supernatural entities. Their name comes from a kannushi's vanguard. Summary Misaki are subordinate to the high ...

Wakayama Prefecture * Wakayama *

Iwade Iwade is a village and civil parish north of the town of Sittingbourne in the English county of Kent. History Iwade was established in the late Medieval period, when it was a settlement linking Watling Street to the coast via Key Street (a s ...

Climate

Hannan has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Hannan is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1713 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.7 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Hannan population statistics
/ref> the population of Hannan has increased steadily from the year 1920 to the year 2000, and has started to slowly decline since..

History

The area of the modern city of Hannan was within ancient

Izumi Province :''The characters ''泉州'' are also used for the name of the Chinese city of Quanzhou''. was a province of Japan in the area of southern Osaka Prefecture. Tango bordered on Kii to the south, Yamato and Kawachi to the west, and Settsu to ...

. Archaeologists have found artifacts from the Japanese Paleolithic period and tombs from the Jōmon period of 10,000 years ago. The area also had many Kofun period

burial mounds A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

from the 5th to 7th century AD. 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 ...

, much of the city area was controlled by

Kishiwada Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Izumi Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Osaka Prefecture. It was centered around Kishiwada Castle and was controlled by the '' fudai dai ...

with smaller portions controlled by

Yodo Domain The was a Japanese domain of the Edo period, and the only domain located in Yamashiro Province. Its castle was located within modern-day Fushimi, Kyoto. The strategic location of the castle figured in the 1582 Battle of Yamazaki. During the 18 ...

or directly by 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 ...

. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, the villages of Ozaki, Nishitottori, Higashitottori, and Shimoshō were established within Hine District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On April 1, 1896 the area became part of

Sennan District, Osaka is a district located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 70,631 and a density of 991 persons per km2. The total area is 71.27 km2. At one time Peach Aviation had its head office in a locati ...

. Ozaki was elevated to town status on June 1, 1939. On September 30, 1956 Ozaki merged with Nishitottori-mura, and Shimoshō to form the town of Hankai (南海町). On November 1, 1960 the village of Higashitottori was elevated to town status. On October 20, 1972 the towns of Nankai and Higashitottori merged to form town of Hannan.The town's name was derived from the ''

onyomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequen ...

'' reading of the ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' 阪 (''han''), standing for Osaka prefecture (大阪府), and the kanji 南 (''nan''), meaning south. Thus it means "Southern Osaka". On October 1, 1991, Hannan attainted city status as the newest city in Osaka Prefecture. Hannan entered into discussions to merge with either Sennan and Misaki, or with Sennan, Misaki, Izumisano and Tajiri to form the city of "Sennanshu" (南泉州市) from 2001 to 2004; however, per a public referendum, only Misaki was in favor of the merger and the plans were abandoned.

Government

Hannan 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 council of 14 members. Hannan collectively with the cities of Kaizuka, Sennan, and the town of Misaki contributes two members to the

Osaka Prefectural Assembly The is the legislature of Osaka Prefecture. As in all prefectures, it is elected to four-year terms by single non-transferable vote in multi- and single-member districts and is responsible for enacting and amending prefectural by-laws, approving t ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Osaka 19th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy

The main industry of Hannan since the Edo Period was traditionally textile production of cotton and silk, using the abundant waters from the Izumi Mountains. At one point there were over 700 companies involved in textile production, but the rise of synthetics and overseas competition has severely impacted this industry. Likewise, Hannan was noted for its production of asbestos cloth, and more than 200 companies involved in the asbestos industry existed in Sennan from 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 ...

until the production and use of asbestos was banned. Another traditional industry is the quarrying of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

. In terms of primary industries,

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

(including the farming of ''

nori Nori is a dried edible seaweed used in Japanese cuisine, made from species of the red algae genus '' Pyropia'', including ''P. yezonesis'' and '' P. tenera''. It has a strong and distinctive flavor, and is often used to wrap rolls of sushi or ...

edible seaweed Edible seaweed, or sea vegetables, are seaweeds that can be eaten and used for culinary purposes. They typically contain high amounts of fiber. They may belong to one of several groups of multicellular algae: the red algae, green algae, and brown ...

and

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

s) and agriculture (notably a local variety of eggplant and onions) is also an important component of the economy.

Education

Hannan has seven public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Osaka Prefectural Department of Education.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, an ...

–

Hanwa Line The is a commuter rail line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The 61.3 km (38.1 mi) line runs between Osaka and Wakayama, Japan and has a 1.7 km branchline in a southern Os ...

* -

Nankai Electric Railway is a private railway in Japan, founded in 1884. The name ''Nankai'' (which means "South Sea") comes from the company's routes along the Nankaidō, the old highway that ran south from the old capital, Kyoto, along the sea coast. Nankai predates a ...

Nankai Main Line * - -

Highway

Hanwa Expressway *

Buses

Hannan is also served by a local community bus running to and from the city hall along the main Route 26, and the Nankai Wing Bus Nanbu bus service. Nankai Wing Bus Nanbu: * '':

Ozaki Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Hannan, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, operated by the private railway operator Nankai Electric Railway. It has the station number "NK37". Lines Ozaki Station is served by the Nankai Main Line, a ...

- Nakamura - Izumi-Tottori - Ishida - Ozaki Station * 5'': Ozaki Station - Aeon Rinku Mall - Ozaki Station

Local attractions

* Pichi-pichi beach, a locally famous public park and beach. * 'Naniwa-masamune'', a local brand of ''

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

References

External links

Hannan City official website
Cities in Osaka Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Osaka-geo-stub