270px, Nishinomiya City Hall
270px, Aerial view of Nishinomiya city center
270px, Hirota Shrine
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
Hyōgo Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...
,
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 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 484,368 in 218948 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 4800 persons per km².
The total area of the city is . Nishinomiya is an important commercial and shipping city in the
Kansai region
The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...
with the third largest population in Hyōgo Prefecture. Nishinomiya is best known as the home of
Kōshien Stadium, where the
Hanshin Tigers
The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railwa ...
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
team plays home games and where Japan's annual
high school baseball championship is held.
Geography
Nishinomiya is located in southeast Hyōgo Prefecture between the cities of
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
and
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
. It is 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 south, the cities of
Amagasaki
270px, Amagasaki Castle
270px, Aerial view of Amagasaki city center
270px, Amagasaki Station
is an industrial city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 455,555 in 223812 households, and a population de ...
,
Itami and
Takarazuka along the Mukogawa and Nigawa rivers to the east and by a part of the
Rokkō Mountains and Kobe to the north. The city can be divided into two areas: a mountainous area in the north and a coastal plain in the south. Situated in the middle is
Mount Kabuto
{{nihongo, Mount Kabuto, 甲山, Kabuto-yama is a mountain in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. It is located in the east end of the Rokko Mountains, and the height is 309.2m.
Outline
Mount Kabuto is a famous picnic spot in the Kansai metropolitan ...
(309 meters), a landmark of the city.
Neighboring municipalities
Hyōgo Prefecture
*
Kita-ku, Kobe
is one of 9 wards of Kobe, Japan. It has an area of 241.84 km², and a population of 226,402 (2008). ''Kita'' in Japanese means North. Kita-ku is the biggest ward which occupies the northeastern part of the city. Arima Onsen
is an onsen, o ...
*
Amagasaki
270px, Amagasaki Castle
270px, Aerial view of Amagasaki city center
270px, Amagasaki Station
is an industrial city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 455,555 in 223812 households, and a population de ...
*
Itami
*
Takarazuka
*
Ashiya
Climate
Nishinomiya has a
Humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...
(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nishinomiya is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1578 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in January, at around 26.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.3 °C.
Demographics
Per Japanese census data, the population of Nishinomiya grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and has been increasing at a slower rate since.
History
The area of Nishinomiya was part of ancient
Settsu Province
was a province of Japan, which today comprises the southeastern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the northern part of Osaka Prefecture. It was also referred to as or .
Osaka and Osaka Castle were the main center of the province. Most of Setts ...
and has been inhabited since ancient times, with the traces of
Yayoi period
The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.
Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...
settlements, many
kofun
are megalithic tombs or tumuli in Northeast Asia. ''Kofun'' were mainly constructed in the Japanese archipelago between the middle of the 3rd century to the early 7th century CE.岡田裕之「前方後円墳」『日本古代史大辞典』 ...
burial mound
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
s found within the city limits. From the
Asuka period
The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after t ...
, the
Hirota Shrine was built, and the market town which developed around its west gate was the ancestor of "Nishinomiya". From the
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
, Nishinomiya was famed for its production 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 ...
''. 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 ...
, the area was ''
tenryō
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 ...
'' territory under the direct administration of 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 town of Nishinomiya was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Nishinomiya was a center of the culture from the 1910s to 1940s in which has been dubbed "
Hanshinkan Modernism
identifies the modernist arts, culture, and lifestyle that developed from the region of Japan centered primarily on the Hanshinkan conurbation between Osaka and Kobe, the ideally terrained area between the Rokkō Range and the sea (Kobe's Nad ...
". This included the opening of the
Kōshien Stadium opened on April 1, 1924. Nishinomiya was elevated to city status on April 1, 1925. The city expanded with the annexation of the town of Imazu and villages of Shiba and Taishi in April 1933, the village of Koto in February 1941, the village of Kawaragi in May 1942, and the villages of Naruo, Yamaguchi and Shiose in April 1951. The January 17, 1995
Great Hanshin earthquake
The , or Kobe earthquake, occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, including the region known as Hanshin. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had ...
caused widespread damage in Nishinomiya.
Government
Nishinomiya 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 ...
city council of 41 members. Nishinomiya contributes seven members to the Hyōgo Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Hyōgo 2nd district and Hyōgo 7th districts 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
In terms of industry, food and beverages (especially ''sake'', which is a traditional industry) are a major portion of the local economy. The city is also located on a corner of the Hanshin industrial zone.
*
Furuno
(commonly known as Furuno) is a Japanese electronics company whose main products are marine electronics, including marine radar systems, fish finders, and navigational instruments. The company also manufactures global positioning systems an ...
, a global
electronics company, whose main products include
marine electronics Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some electronics devices. Therefore, the majority of these types o ...
and
medical equipment
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
, has its headquarters in the city.
Agriculture
Since most of the farmland is in the urban district, Nishinomiya agriculture is in a difficult situation; it worsens every year. Efforts are being made to improve farming to make it profitable by growing such marketable products as soft vegetables for the big markets of Osaka and Kobe. Other efforts include effective land use by growing crops in greenhouses using hydroponic techniques and development of techniques for safe products.
Residential districts
Nishinomiya is situated between the major cities of Kobe and Osaka. Luxury neighborhoods are common in this city, especially in areas near Ashiya. Some of the shopping malls in Nishinomiya are the Lalaport Koshien and the Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens.
Education
Universities and colleges
*
Konan University
is a university on the slopes of Mount Rokkō in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan. A private university with approximately 10,000 students, it offers a wide variety of programs to Japanese students, as well as an international exchange program th ...
Nishinomiya Campus "Konan Cube"
*
Kwansei Gakuin University
, colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 ...
, a private university founded by American missionaries in the nineteenth century.
*
Otemae University
Otemae University ( ja, 大手前大学 Ōtemae Daigaku) is a liberal arts oriented school that began in 1946. It is in the Kansai region of Japan and has three campuses: one in Itami, one in Osaka, and a co-educational university in Nishinomi ...
*
Kobe College (Women's university)
*
Seiwa College was a private university in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan which was consolidated with in 2009.
The predecessor of the school was founded in 1880 as a Congregational Women's Seminary in Kōbe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōg ...
and Junior College
*Hyogo College Of Medicine
*
Mukogawa Women's University
is a private university located near Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan, founded in 1939. It has an international branch campus in Spokane, Washington, USA: Mukogawa U.S. Campus.
History
* Feb 25, 1939 Educational Corporation Mukog ...
and Junior College
*Shukugawa Gakuin Junior College
*Koshien Junior College
Primary and secondary schools
Nishinomiya has 40 public elementary schools and 19 public middle schools operated by the city government, and nine public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Board of Education. There are also two private elementary schools, seven private middle schools and seven private high schools. In addition, the city also operates one. and the prefecture operates two, special education school for the handicapped.
Transportation
Railways
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, and ...
-
Kobe Line
* - -
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, and ...
-
Fukuchiyama Line
* - -
Hankyu
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...
-
Hankyu Kobe Main Line
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Gro ...
* -
Hankyu
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...
-
Hankyu Imazu Line
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Gro ...
* - - - -
Hankyu
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...
-
Hankyu Kōyō Line
, trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region and is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group ...
* - -
Hanshin Electric Railway
is a Japanese private railway company of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group that links Osaka and Kobe. It also owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team.
The first character for Kobe (神戸) and the second character for Osaka (大阪) combine to form the ...
-
Hanshin Main Line
{{BS-map
, title=Route map
, title-bg=orangered
, title-color=white
, collapsible=yes
, collapse=yes
, map=
{{BS, , , Lines are of Hanshin unless noted, }
{{BS5, , hBHF, , , tBHF, , , {{STN, Osaka/{{STN, Kitashinchi}
{{BS5, , hSTR, exKBHFa, tKACC ...
* - - - - -
Hanshin Electric Railway
is a Japanese private railway company of Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group that links Osaka and Kobe. It also owns the Hanshin Tigers baseball team.
The first character for Kobe (神戸) and the second character for Osaka (大阪) combine to form the ...
-
Hanshin Mukogawa Line
is a branch line of the Hanshin Electric Railway Main Line in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan with no through service. The line is single-tracked, but is double-tracked at all stations except Suzaki Station. The route follows the we ...
* - - -
Highways
*
Meishin Expressway
*
Chūgoku Expressway
The (part of Asian Highway Network ) is an expressway in Japan, which extends from Suita, Osaka to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. It connects Kansai and Chūgoku regions in western Honshu, Japan's main island. Other major cities along the expressway ...
*
*
*
*
Sister and friendship cities
*Sister cities
**
Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
since September 1961 (U.S.,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
)
*Friendship cities
**
Londrina
Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and fourth largest in the southern regi ...
since May 1977 (Brazil,
Paraná)
**
Shaoxing
Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...
since July 1985 (China,
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
)
** District of
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne (, oc, Òlt e Garona) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019.[Agen
The communes of France, commune of Agen (, ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. It lies on the river Garonne southeast of Bordeaux.
...]
since April, 1992 (France,
**
Burlington
Burlington may refer to:
Places Canada Geography
* Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Burlington, Nova Scotia
* Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington"
* Burlington, Prince Edward Island
* Burlington Bay, no ...
(U.S.,
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
)
**
Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...
**
Amami since October 1981 (Japan,
Kagoshima
, abbreviated to , is the capital city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is the largest city in the prefecture by some margin. It has been nicknamed the "Naples of the Eastern wor ...
) (formerly
Naze
The Naze is a headland on the east coast of England. It is on the coast of Essex just north of Blackwater and projects into the North Sea. This area is south of the double estuary of the River Stour and River Orwell at Harwich and just nor ...
)
**
Yusuhara since March 1991 (Japan,
Kōchi)
Local attractions
![Hanshin Koshien Stadium 2007-4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Hanshin_Koshien_Stadium_2007-4.jpg)
*
Hirota Shrine - Hirota Shrine was called by aristocrats in Kyoto. That is the origin of the city name.
*
Hyogo Performing Arts Center
The is a performing arts center in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station operated by Hankyu Corporation. The Center was opened in 2005 to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Great Hanshin earthq ...
*
Kannō-ji
Kannō-ji ( ja, 神呪寺) is a Buddhist temple in the middle of Mount Kabutoyama in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. The other name of the temple is Kabutoyama-daishi (甲山大師).
Objects of Worship
The original object of worship at this templ ...
*
Koshikiiwa Shrine
is a Shinto shrine in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. The other name of this shrine is Ebisu Daijingū. The focus of this shrine is a megalith called 'Koshiki-iwa', literally, 'Rice Steamer Rock', because ancient Japanese thought the shape resembled ...
*
Nishinomiya Shrine
is a Shinto shrine in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. It is the head shrine of the Ebisu sect of Shinto, and it is said that there are about 3,500 shrines under it. Locals call the shrine "Ebessan".
History
It is not clear when this shrine was es ...
*Mondo-yakujin (Tōkō-ji)
*
Kitayama Botanical Garden
*
Mount Kabuto
{{nihongo, Mount Kabuto, 甲山, Kabuto-yama is a mountain in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo, Japan. It is located in the east end of the Rokko Mountains, and the height is 309.2m.
Outline
Mount Kabuto is a famous picnic spot in the Kansai metropolitan ...
In Popular Culture
*Much of
Grave of the Fireflies
is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film based on a 1967 short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, and animated by Studio Ghibli for Shinchosha Publishing.
The film stars , , and . Set in the city o ...
is set in Nishinomiya.
*Nishinomiya is the setting for the popular light novel, manga, and anime series ''
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', and has since been followed ...
''.
Notable people from Nishinomiya
*
Mana Ashida
is a Japanese actress, '' talent'' and singer. Ashida's first appearance was in Asahi Broadcasting Corporation's ''ABC Short Movie 2'', though she rose to prominence after acting in the television drama ''Mother''. She became the youngest lead s ...
– teen actress
*
Aimyon
is a Japanese singer and songwriter. She is from Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture. Her agency is ENS Entertainment, and her label is unBORDE under Warner Music Japan.
Career
Aimyon was influenced to become a singer-songwriter in part because ...
– singer-songwriter
*
Nagaru Tanigawa
is a Japanese author. He is a graduate of the law school at Kwansei Gakuin University. He is best known as the creator of the '' Haruhi Suzumiya'' series for which he won the grand prize at the eighth annual Sneaker Awards and has been adapted i ...
– author of the light novel series
Haruhi Suzumiya
is a Japanese light novel series written by Nagaru Tanigawa and illustrated by Noizi Ito. It was first published in 2003 by Kadokawa Shoten in Japan with the novel ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', and has since been followed ...
*
Yuichiro Nagashima
is a Japanese retired kickboxer, mixed martial artist, known for his career in K-1.
Biography
Yuichiro Nagashima was born in 1984 in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyogo. He started learning Judo when he was an elementary school. He continued training ...
–
kickboxer
Kickboxing is a combat sport focused on kicking and punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is practiced for self-defense, general ...
*
Ryūsui Seiryōin
is a Japanese novelist, active in mystery and various other fields. He was born in 1974, in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. He won the 2nd Mephisto Prize in 1996 while in Kyoto University, and started to work as a novelist. After that, Ryusui publis ...
– novelist
*
Kaoru Betto
was a Nippon Professional Baseball player. After playing for the Ōsaka Tigers for two years, Betto played for the Mainichi Orions from 1950 to 1957. In his first season with the Orions, Betto won the NPB's first Pacific League MVP Award and help ...
- baseball player
*
Hiro Matsushita
, also known by , is a Japanese businessman and former racing driver. Matsushita is the first and only Japanese driver to win the Toyota Atlantic Championship (Pacific) in 1989 and also the first Japanese driver to race at the Indy 500. He is th ...
– Businessman, former driver in
Champ Car
Champ Car World Series (CCWS) was the series sanctioned by Open-Wheel Racing Series Inc., or Champ Car, a sanctioning body for American open-wheel car racing that operated from 2004 to 2008. It was the successor to Championship Auto Racing Teams ...
series. Chairman of
Swift Engineering
Swift Engineering Inc. is an American spacecraft engineering firm that builds autonomous systems, helicopters, submarines, spacecraft, ground vehicles, robotics, and composite parts. Swift used to produce racing cars for open-wheel racing series ...
&
Swift Xi
*
Hōsei Yamasaki – comedian
*
Eizo Sakamoto
is a Japanese musician, singer and songwriter who was born in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture. He is most famous for being the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Anthem. In the 1990s he started up the band Animetal which performed heavy metal co ...
– heavy metal musician
*
Kaoru
Kaoru is a Japanese given name for males or females.
Name Meanings
The name's
meaning varies depending on its written form:
*薫/郁/芳 — "fragrance", common for both males and females
*馨/香 — "fragrance", more common for females
...
– lead guitarist of
Dir En Grey
Dir En Grey (stylized as DIR EN GREY and previously as Dir en grey) is a Japanese Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in February 1997 and currently signed to Firewall Div., a sub-division of Free-Will. With a consistent lineup of guitari ...
*
Yuya Matsushita
is a Japanese pop and R&B singer and actor under Japanese Dream Records. His debut single " foolish foolish" was released on November 26, 2008. He had his first breakthrough as Sebastian Michaelis in the ''Black Butler'' musical and since then, ...
– singer and actor
*
Mina – American-born Japanese singer based in South Korea, member of Twice (Originally from
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
,
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
)
*
Akira Tozawa
Akira Tozawa (戸澤 陽, ''Tozawa Akira'', born July 22, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is a former WWE Cruiserweight Champion and WWE 24/7 Champion, winning the ...
– professional wrestler
*
Rika Kihira – figure skater
*
Daisuke Inoue
is a Japanese businessman best known as the inventor of a karaoke machine. Inoue, a musician in his youth employed in backing businesspeople who wanted to sing in bars, invented the machine as a means of allowing them to sing without live ba ...
- inventor of the
karaoke machine
Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...
Gallery
File:Nishinomiya_City_Scenery.jpg, Nishinomiya cityscape
References
External links
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Nishinomiya City official website
{{Authority control
Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture
Port settlements in Japan
Populated coastal places in Japan