250px, Road station Kawaba Den-en Plaza is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

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 village 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 3,241 in 1127 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 110 persons per km². The total area of the village is .

Geography

Located in north-central Gunma, Kawaba is in a mountainous area. Approximately 83% of its area is covered by forests, and five rivers (the Tashiro, Sakura, Tazawa, Usune, and the Mizomata) flow through the village. Kawaba, meaning "the place of the rivers" is thought to be named after its many streams. *Mountains: Mount Hotaka (2158m) *Rivers: Tashiro River, Sakura River, Tazawa River, Usune River, Mizomata River

Surrounding municipalities

Numata is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 46,908 in 20,589 households, and a population density of 110 persons per km². The total area of the city is , making it the largest city in terms of area w ...

* Katashina * Minakami

Climate

Kawaba 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 ''Cfb'') characterized by warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kawaba is 9.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1763 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 21.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around -2.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kawaba population statistics
/ref> the population of Kawaba has remained relatively constant for a century.

History

The area of present-day Kawaba was part of the holdings of

Numata Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Numata Castle in what is now the city of Numata, Gunma. History Following the Battle of ...

Kōzuke Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today Gunma Prefecture. Kōzuke bordered by Echigo, Shinano, Musashi and Shimotsuke Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . Under the ''Engishiki'' classification system, Kōzuke was ran ...

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 ...

. On April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system 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 ...

, Kawaba village was established within

Tone District, Gunma is a rural district located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. As of January 2015, the district had an estimated population of 34,946 and an area of 1,322.23 km2, with a population density of 26.4 people per square kilometer. Towns and villages * ...

. In 2002, a proposal to

merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

Kawaba into neighboring

was opposed by young local politicians, who instead proposed that the village be merged with its

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

Setagaya, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orch ...

. However, this proposal was strongly opposed by the Gunma prefectural government and met with lukewarm response from Setagaya, and the village remained independent.

Government

Kawaba 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 ...

village council of 10 members. Kawaba, together with the other municipalities in Tone District, contributes one member to the Gunma Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Gunma 1st 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

The economy of Kawaba is heavily dependent on agriculture; primarily rice, and apples and blueberries. Seasonal tourism to ski resorts and to

onsen In Japan, are the country's hot springs and the bathing facilities and traditional inns around them. As a volcanically active country, Japan has many onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands. There are approximately 25,000 hot ...

also play a major role in the economy.

Education

Kawaba has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the village government. The village does not have a high school.

Transportation

Kawaba does not have any passenger railway service and is also not connected by any national highways.