250px, Hananuki valley 250px, Takado Beach 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

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 27,522 in 11,651 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 140 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 36.2%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Located in northern Ibaraki Prefecture, Takahagi is bordered by the

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

to the east, and by

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

to the northwest.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture *

Kitaibaraki file:Izura-beach2011.jpg, 250px, Izura coast of Kitaibaraki is a Cities of Japan, city in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 41,750 in 17,034 households and a population density of 220 persons per km². The perce ...

Hitachi () is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Ni ...

* Hitachiōta Fukushima Prefecture *

Hanawa is a Japanese singer and comedian raised in Saga City. He plays the bass guitar. He rose to fame in Japan for a comical song about Saga Prefecture and its oddities. TV commercials * Yukiguni Maitake bean sprouts Sprouting is the natural ...

Climate

Takahagi has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Takahagi is 13.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1429 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Takahagi population statistics
/ref> the population of Takahagi has declined in recent decades.

History

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 ...

, Takahagi was the '' jōkamachi'' of

Matsuoka Domain , also known as was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Hitachi Province (modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Matsuoka Castle in what is now the city of Takahagi, Ibaraki. With the e ...

, one of the feudal domains 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 Hitachi Province, ruled b the Nakamura clan, the hereditary '' karō'' of

Mito Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was associated with Hitachi Province in modern-day Ibaraki Prefecture.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 ...

on April 1, 1889, the town of Matsubara, and the villages of Matsuoka, Takaoka, Kurosaki and Kushigata was established within

Taga District, Ibaraki was a Districts of Japan, district located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. On November 1, 2004, the town of Jūō, Ibaraki, Jūō was merged into the neighboring and expanding city of Hitachi, Ibaraki, Hitachi. Therefore, the Taga Distric ...

). Matsuoka was raised to town status on April 17, 1928. Matsubara was renamed Takahagi on October 1, 1937. Takahagi merged with Matsubara, Takaoka and Kurosaki on November 23, 1954 and was raised to city status. The city suffered considerable damage in the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

Government

Takahagi 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 14 members. Takahagi, together with neighboring Kitaibaraki, contributes two members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Ibaraki 5th 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 r ...

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

Takahagi was once part of the Jōban

coal field Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s, but the mines were exhausted by the 1960s. Since that time, the economy had been oriented towards light manufacturing and food processing. Agriculture and commercial fishing also play subordinate roles.

Education

Takahagi has four public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. There is also one private high school

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is 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 ...

–

Jōban Line The Jōban Line ( ja, 常磐線, ) is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma, ...

Highway

* – Takahagi Interchange * *

Local attractions

*Matsuoka Castle ruins *Hanazono-Hananuki Prefectural Nature Park *Hananuki Dam *Takado Beach

Noted people from Takahagi

Jinzō Matsumura was a Japanese botanist. Biography Matsumura was born in Ibaraki Prefecture, of a samurai family. He took a great interest in botany as a young man. In 1883, he had been made assistant professor of botany in the University of Tokyo under Ryō ...

, botanist

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Takahagi, Ibaraki