is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located on the island of

Tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New Tanegashima Airp ...

, in

Kagoshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,527,019 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 9,187 Square kilometre, km2 (3,547 Square m ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 14,151 in 7941 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

of 69 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Nishinoomote, located on the northern portion of Tanegashima, is bordered by the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

to the west and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the east, and by the Ōsumi Strait separating Tanegashima from the

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

mainland. The city also includes the offshore island of

Mageshima , is an eight square kilometre Japanese island forming part of the Satsunan Islands, which are usually classed with the Ōsumi Islands. It belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture and it is administered by the city of Nishinoomote on Tanegashima. Geogra ...

within its borders.

Surrounding municipalities

* Nakatane

Climate

Nishinoomote has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nishinoomote is 20.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2174 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 12.0 °C. The area is subject to frequent

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nishinoomote is as shown below:

History

The area of Nishinoomote was part of ancient

Tane Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Kagoshima Prefecture, roughly corresponding to Kumage Subprefecture. History Kofun burial mounds on Tanegashima and two very old Shinto shrines on Yakushima suggest that these islands were the south ...

, which was abolished in 824 and incorporated into

Ōsumi Province was a province of Japan in the area of southeastern Kyūshū, corresponding to the eastern half of modern Kagoshima Prefecture, and including the Ōsumi Islands . Ōsumi bordered on Hyūga to the northeast, and Satsuma Province to the nor ...

. Tanegashima became a part of Shimazu ''shōen'' in 1140. During the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a Han system, domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of ...

. Sugarcane was first cultivated in 1824. Kitatane Village was established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalites system. It was elevated to town status on April 1, 1926 and renamed Nishinoomote. Towards the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the town was garrisoned by a 12,000-man force from the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

and was thus subjected to bombing by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in 1945. It was elevated to city status on October 1, 1958.

Government

Nishinoomote 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 14 members. Nishinoomote, collectively with the other municipalities of Kumage District, contributes two members to the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the

Kagoshima 4th 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 re ...

of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

The economy of Nishinoomote is based largely on agriculture (sugar cane, sweet potatoes), livestock (cattle, pigs, etc.), and fisheries.

Education

Nishinoomote has ten public elementary high schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Kagoshima Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Seaport

Nishinoomote Port is a regional transportation hub, with frequent ferry service to Kagoshima, Tokyo, Kobe, and Osaka, as well as Okinawa and the other Osumi islands.

Highway

Sister cities

Isa, Kagoshima file:Koriyama Hachiman Shrine Isa.JPG, 290px, Koriyama Hachiman Shrine file:RIMG0228.JPG, 290px, Kiso Falls in Isa is a Cities of Japan, city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 22,998 in 12567 househo ...

, since November 10, 1962 *

Sakai, Osaka is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its ''kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun' ...

, since October 18, 1986 *

Nagahama, Shiga is a Cities of Japan, city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 116,043 in 46858 households and a population density of 120 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Nagahama is located ...

, since October 8, 1987 *

Vila do Bispo Vila do Bispo () is a municipality (''concelho'') in the Portuguese Algarve. It has 5,717 inhabitants in an area of 179.06 km2. History The first references to this region referred to the ''Aldeia do Bispo'' in the 14th century, in a char ...

, Portugal, since October 1, 1993 (in recognition of the fact that it was

Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; 1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' (), his autobiographical memoir, which was published posthumously in 1614. The historical accura ...

, a Portuguese explorer, who claimed to be the first European to set foot on Japan, and did so on Tanegashima in 1543.)Flagspot.net

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Kagoshima Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan