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

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

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 50,828 in 19,979 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 334 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Suzaka is located in northern Nagano Prefecture on the

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

where the Matsukawa River joins the

Chikuma River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

Surrounding municipalities

*Nagano Prefecture ** Ueda **

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

Obuse is a town located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 10,999 in 3832 households, and a population density of 580 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Geography Obuse is located in northern Nagano Pr ...

** Takayama *

Gunma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima ...

** Tsumagoi

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by 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 Suzaka is 10.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1189 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 23.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around -2.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Suzaka has remained relatively stable over the past 40 years.

History

Suzaka is located in former

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

and was 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 Suzaka Domain under 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 ...

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 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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

cadastral reform of April 1,1 1889, the modern town of Suzaka was established. Suzuka annexed the village of Hitaki on December 1, 1936 and the villages of Hino and Toyosu on February 11, 1954. Suzaka was elevated to city status on April 1, 1954. On January 1, 1955, Suzaka annexed the neighbouring villages of Inoue and Takahe, followed by the village of Azuma on April 30, 1971.

Government

Suzaka 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 legislature of 20 members.

Economy

The city was noted in the

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 ...

for its silk industry. After World War II, an electronics industry was established. Fujitsu Corporation has a plant in Suzaka.Fujitsu official home page
/ref> The city is also noted for apples and grapes, and the Prefectural Agricultural Research Station is located in Suzaka.

Education

Suzaka has eleven public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high schools operated by the Nagano Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

* 20px

Nagano Electric Railway The is a private railway based in Nagano, Japan. The company and its line are commonly referred to as . It originally operated three lines, but only the Nagano Line between Nagano — Suzaka — Shinshū-Nakano — Yudanaka remains ...

** - - -

Highway

Jōshin-etsu Expressway The is a national expressway in Japan. It is owned and operated by East Nippon Expressway Company. Naming is a kanji acronym consisting of 3 characters, each representing the former names of the prefectures that the route traverses. consist ...

* *

International relations

* -

Siping, Jilin Siping (), formerly Ssupingkai (), is a prefecture-level city in the west of Jilin province, People's Republic of China. Located in the middle of the Songliao Plain and at the intersection of Jilin, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, Siping covers an a ...

, China, friendship city since May 12, 1994

Local attractions

* Garyu Park, one of Japan's Top 100 Sakura Spots *

Yonako Falls , literally "Yonako Large Waterfalls" The Yonako Falls is so called locally, but is elsewhere often referred to as the "Yonago Falls" because the two "Yonako" Kanji characters (米子) are pronounced as "Yonago" for Yonago, Tottori, a better known ...

, one of

Japan's Top 100 Waterfalls is a list of waterfalls in Japan compiled by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment in 1990. Background According to the Japanese government, there are 517 named waterfalls in Japan. Many of these waterfalls are located in remote mountain l ...

* Suzaka Municipal Zoo

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Nagano Prefecture