is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Suntō District of

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

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 town 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 32,453 in 14058 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 3,700 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Shimizu is located at the northern end of

Izu Peninsula The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The peninsul ...

. Both the

Kakita River The is a river flowing through the town of Shimizu in the Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. The Kakita River is a tributary of the Kano River. At only , it is the shortest Class 1 River in Japan.

and the

Kano River The is an A class river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The Kano River originates from Mount Amagi in central Izu Peninsula and follows a generally northern path into Suruga Bay at Numazu is ...

flow through the town. The area has a temperate

maritime climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

with hot, humid summers and mild, cool winters.

Neighboring municipalities

*Shizuoka Prefecture **

Numazu is a city located in eastern Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 189,486 in 91,986 households, and a population density of 1,014 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Numazu is at the nor ...

Mishima Mishima may refer to: Places * Mishima, Fukushima, a town in Fukushima Prefecture * Mishima, Kagoshima, a village in Kagoshima Prefecture * Mishima, Niigata, a town in Niigata Prefecture * Mishima, Shizuoka, a city in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan ...

Nagaizumi 270px, Nagaizumi Town Hall is a town located in Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 43,568 in 18154 households and a population density of 1,600 persons per km². The total area of the town wa ...

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shimizu has been increasing over the past 70 years.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (

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, notabl ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Shimizu is 15.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1925 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.8 °C.

History

Shimizu is located in the far eastern portion of former

Suruga Province was an old province in the area that is today the central part of Shizuoka Prefecture. Suruga bordered on Izu, Kai, Sagami, Shinano, and Tōtōmi provinces; and was bordered by the Pacific Ocean through Suruga Bay to the south. Its abbrevia ...

, and was largely ''

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 direct control 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 ...

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 characteriz ...

. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system of the early

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 ...

in 1889, the area was reorganized into the village of Shimizu within

Suntō District, Shizuoka is a rural district located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of July 2012, the district has an estimated population of 94,229 and a population density of 550 persons per km2. The total area was 171.4856 km2. Towns and villages Suntō Distr ...

through the merger of 11 small hamlets. Shimizu attained town status in 1963. There have been numerous unsuccessful attempts 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 ...

Shimizu into neighboring Numazu (1966, 1967, 1996, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007).

Economy

The economy of Shimizu is largely based on agriculture. The town also serves as a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for the industrial zones in neighboring Numazu and Mishima.

Education

Shimizu has three public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the town government. The town has one public high school operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Shimizu does not have any passenger railway service.

Highway

Mascot

Shimizu's mascot is . He is a elf who lives in the Kakita River. He wears a

Mount Fuji , or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...

-like hat and a cape with

and Mishimabaikamo flower motifs. His uniform has a pocket that can store green rice (a special kind of rice) and several books. Depending on the season, he changes his hat (white and green for spring, green for summer, white and brown for fall and white for winter) and his gloves and boots (red for spring, blue for summer, brown for fall and white for winter). His job is a park ranger. As a park ranger, he must protect the Kakita River (and nature in general) while making everyone's dreams come true. Because of his handsome looks as a park ranger, he is nicknamed the . He is unveiled on 11 May 2013.

Sister cities

Miaoli City Miaoli City (Wade–Giles: ''Miao²-li⁴''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-sṳ''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-chhī'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Miaoli County, Taiwan. Miaoli has a relatively h ...

, Taiwan, since 2003 *

Squamish, British Columbia Squamish (; Squamish language, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, ; 2016 census population 19,512) is a community and a district municipality in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, located at th ...

, Canada

Notable people from Shimizu, Shizuoka

Suguru Iwazaki is a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan's Central League. Iwazaki is a 6-foot tall left-handed pitcher, and wears jersey No. 67. His surname is often misread as "Iwasaki" rather than "Iwazaki". Early b ...

, Japanese

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

pitcher for 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 Railway ...

in Japan's

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

Momoko Sakura (8 May 1965 – 15 August 2018) was the pen name of a Japanese manga artist from Shimizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. She was best known as the creator of the long-running manga ''Chibi Maruko-chan''. Biography Miki Miura, was born 8 May 1965. She rev ...

, Japanese

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

(''

Chibi Maruko-chan is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Momoko Sakura. The series depicts the simple, everyday life of Momoko Sakura, a young girl everyone calls ''Maruko'', and her family in suburban Japan in the year 1974. Maruko is a tro ...

'') *

Yoshio Mochizuki was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature), and a Minister of the Environment. A native of Shimizu, Shizuoka and graduate of Chuo University, he was elec ...

Japanese politician Politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary constitutional monarchy, in which the Emperor is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government and the head of the Cabinet, which d ...

of the Liberal Democratic Party, a former member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(national legislature), and a

Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of the environment) is a cabinet position charged with protecting the natural environment and promoting wildlife conservation. The areas associated with the duties of an ...

* Kwon Hyi-ro,

Zainichi Korean comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

murderer who brought public attention to discrimination against the

s in

* Yuki Sato, Japanese

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires endurance, stamina as well as mental strength. Within e ...

* Kosuke Kato, former Japanese professional

baseball pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a ...

Carlos Amano is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by the ring name . Amano made her debut for JWP Joshi Puroresu in December 1994 and early on began also making appearances for the Gaea Japan promotion, where she most notably became one o ...

, Japanese retired

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

(Real Name: Rieko Amano,

Nihongo is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic languages, Japonic or Japanese-Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyu ...

: 天野理恵子, ''Amano Rieko'') *

Masatoshi Kurata was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Shimizu, Shizuoka, and a graduate of the University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is ...

of the Liberal Democratic Party and a former member of the

in the

(national legislature) * Koichi Takemasa,

, member of the

in the

(national legislature) and a member of the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic Part ...

* Junya Sano, Japanese

road bicycle racer Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common ...

Mariko Suga is the wife of former Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She is the sister of one of her husband's co-workers. References

Living people Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Spouses of prime minist ...

, wife of

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

Prime Minister of Japan The prime minister of Japan (Japanese: 内閣総理大臣, Hepburn: ''Naikaku Sōri-Daijin'') is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its Ministers of Stat ...

Atsuto Uchida is a Japanese former professional footballer turned coach who played as a right-back. Uchida started his career with Kashima Antlers, making his debut in 2006 at the age of 17. After four years and three J1 League Titles, Uchida moved to Germa ...

, Japanese professional

Football Player A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

Local attractions

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Towns in Shizuoka Prefecture