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 de ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 km2 (2,359 sq mi). Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to ...

, Japan. The city was founded on March 31, 1954. As of October 1, 2016, the city has 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 ...

of 34,882 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 97 persons per km². The total area is 357.92 km². Nagato consists of five smaller towns that were absorbed over the past several years. The towns are Fukawa,

Senzaki Senzaki (written: or ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese shogi player *, Japanese Zen Buddhist See also * Senzaki Station, a railway station in Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan ...

Yuya Yuya (sometimes Iouiya, or Yuaa, also known as Yaa, Ya, Yiya, Yayi, Yu, Yuyu, Yaya, Yiay, Yia, and Yuy) was a powerful ancient Egyptian courtier during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (circa 1390 BC). He was married to Thuya, an Egyptian nob ...

, Heki and Misumi (all from Ōtsu District). Nagato also encompasses Omijima Island and the township of Kayoi. The nearby Omijima Island has many pebbled beaches and

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chri ...

on one of its northern beaches. The island is reached by a large road bridge which connects the Senzaki Peninsula with the southern edge of the island. There are many

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 ...

on the southern edge of the town in Yumoto with hot springs.

History

In the

Tokugawa era 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 ...

, the area was under the jurisdiction of the

Chōshū domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was ba ...

. In the

2017 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members (down from 475) of ...

, 76.25% of Nagato's

proportional Proportionality, proportion or proportional may refer to: Mathematics * Proportionality (mathematics), the property of two variables being in a multiplicative relation to a constant * Ratio, of one quantity to another, especially of a part compare ...

ballots were cast for either one of the two parties in the conservative ruling coalition (the Liberal Democratic Party and

Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coaliti ...

) or one of the two minor LDP-allied conservative parties ( Party for Japanese Kokor) and New Party Daichi), making it the most conservative city in the country for that election under this definition, and the second most conservative municipality overall behind Himeshima, Ōita.

Geography

Climate

Nagato has a humid subtropical climate (

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, nota ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is much higher in summer than in winter. The average annual temperature in Nagato is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Nagato was on 14 August 2018; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nagato in 2020 is 32,519 people. Nagato has been conducting censuses since 1920.

Transportation

Railways

West Japan Railway Company , 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, and ...

(JR Nishi Nihon) **

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyo ...

** Senzaki Branch Line (San'in Main Line) ** Mine Line

Famous people

Misuzu Kaneko was a Japanese poet, known for her poetry for children. She was born in the fishing village of Senzaki, now part of Nagato, Yamaguchi prefecture. Motifs of fishing and the sea often make appearances in her poems. Celebrated during her lifetime ...

* Shigeru Aburaya

Economy

Fujimitsu Corporation, a manufacturer of fish surimi products, is headquartered in the city.

Recent annexion

*On March 22, 2005, the towns of Heki, Misumi and

(all from Ōtsu District) were merged into Nagato.

References

External links

Nagato City official website
Cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture {{Yamaguchi-geo-stub