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 in

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

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 48,972 in 20698 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 452 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

History

The shores of Lake Suwa have been inhabited since at least the

Japanese Paleolithic The is the period of human inhabitation in Japan predating the development of pottery, generally before 10,000 BC. The starting dates commonly given to this period are from around 40,000 BC, with recent authors suggesting that there is good evi ...

period. The Suwa clan ruled the area since the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

, and the area developed as a

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

for Suwa Domain under 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 ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

and as a post station on the Kōshū Kaidō highway. In the post-

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 Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

cadastral reforms of April 1, 1889, the village of Kamisuwa was established. Kawasuwa was elevated to town status on April 20, 1891. After merger with the villages of Shiga and Toyoda (from Suwa District), Kamisuwa was elevated to city status on August 10, 1941, changing its name to Suwa.

Geography

Suwa is located in central Nagano Prefecture, bordered on the north and west by Lake Suwa, approximately 100 kilometers south of the prefectural capital of Nagano city, and two hours by car from either central

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

Surrounding municipalities

*Nagano Prefecture ** Chino ** Ina ** Minowa ** Nagawa ** Okaya **

Shimosuwa is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 20,055 in 8864 households, and a population density of 300 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Geography Shimosuwa is located in central Nagan ...

** Tatsuno

Climate

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

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Dfa''). The average annual temperature in Suwa 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 .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Suwa peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

Government

Suwa 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 legislature of 15 members.

Economy

The Suwa region is the leading industrial area of Nagano and was once known as "The Oriental Switzerland" in Japan for its highly developed precision machinery industry. Seiko Epson Corporation, a manufacturer of information-related equipment and

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, and semiconductors. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch in 1969. Seiko is ...

timepieces, is headquartered in Suwa. The area is also a popular tourist destination, noted for its

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

resorts.

Education

Suwa has seven public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools and one combined middle/high school operated by the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education. The Japanese Red Cross Society Suwa School of Nursing is also located in the city. Colégio Sal e Luz, a Brazilian school, was previously located in Suwa.Escolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão
(). Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. February 7, 2008. Retrieved on October 13, 2015. It moved to Okaya.Escolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão

Archive
. Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. Retrieved on October 13, 2015.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

- Chūō Main Line **

Highway

* Chūō Expressway *

International relations

* - Amboise, France, sister city since March 4, 1987 * - Kundl, Tirol, Austria * -

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, US, sister city since September 23, 1974 * - Wörgl, Tirol, Austria

Local attractions

* Onbashira (literally, "the honored log") festival held every six years (in the years of the Tiger and the Monkey). As part of the event, very large trees up in the hills are felled and brought down into the valley, pulling them with ropes and sliding them down hills. To demonstrate their bravery, young men from the area ride on the logs as they hurtle down the slopes. * Sunritz Hattori Museum of Arts * Takashima Castle (高島城 Takashima-jō). The castle is also known as ’The Floating Castle of Suwa’ (諏訪の浮城 Suwa-no-uki-shirō) or Shimazaki Castle (島崎城 Shimazaki-jō).

In popular media

Suwa forms the backdrop for much of Sayo Masuda's '' Autobiography of a Geisha''. The characters Sanae Kochiya, Kanako Yasaka, and Suwako Moriya from the ''

Touhou Project The , also known simply as , is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by Indie game, independent Japanese Doujin soft, soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. The team's sole member, ZUN (video game developer), Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, ha ...

'' originate from this area.

Notable people from Suwa

* Sakuhei Fujiwhara, meteorologist * George Iida, movie director, author * Mari Kaneko, female karateka and

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

(MMA) fighter * Akira Kinoshita, photographer *

Kenichi Mikawa is a Japanese singer and TV personality, known for his outspoken views and style. Mikawa was born in Suwa, Nagano as . He recorded a number of hit songs as a male ''enka'' singer in the 1960s and 1970s. The most well-known of his songs includ ...

, singer * Tetsuzan Nagata, general in the Imperial Japanese Army

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Nagano Prefecture