is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

located in

Shiribeshi Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. The subprefecture's capital is Kutchan. As of July 31, 2004, the estimated population was 256,184 and the area was 4,305.65 km2. Geography Municipalities Mergers History *18 ...

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

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 ...

. As of September 2016, the village had a

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 1,750, and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 21 persons per km². The total area is .

Etymology

The name of the town originates from the word "Hemoi-tomari" in the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu, is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isolate ...

. "Hemoi-tomari" is formed from two Ainu-language words, the first, "hemoi", meaning "

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...

", and the second, "tomari", meaning "

harbor A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

". In the

Japanese language 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 or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

the name of the town is written with a single

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

character, , meaning "anchored" or "at anchor". The written form of the name in Japanese is an

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

, or a kanji character used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words.

Geography

Tomari is situated on the western coast of the

Shakotan Peninsula The in Shiribeshi, on the west coast of Hokkaidō, Japan, is a mountainous peninsula which projects some into the Sea of Japan. The Shakotan Peninsula forms part of the Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-National Park. Geography The peninsu ...

along the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it h ...

. Tomari runs from east to west and from north to south. 70.57% of the village is forested, and has little arable land. Tomari is known for its view of the sunset on the

. The coast of the village is protected as part of

Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture of Hokkaido, Japan.List of ...

Neighboring towns and village

* Kamoenai * Furubira *

Kyōwa was a after ''Kansei'' and before ''Bunka.'' This period spanned the years from February 1801 through February 1804.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kyōwa''" ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'Deut ...

Economy

The village is known for fishing and seafood, including

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

(''uni''),

sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea (). They are marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. The number of holothuria ...

(''namako'') and

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

(''ika''). Tomari has been linked with energy and power generation since the beginning of the 20th century, giving it its current nickname of "Hometown of Energy". The village is famous for being the site of Hokkaido's only

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

plant, the

Tomari Nuclear Power Plant The is the only nuclear power plant in Hokkaidō, Japan. It is located in the town of Tomari in the Furuu District and is managed by the Hokkaido Electric Power Company. All of the reactors are Mitsubishi designs. The plant site totals 1,350,0 ...

. Its first reactor became operational in 1989, and its second in 1991. Tax revenue from the nuclear power plant has ensured that Tomari's local government, unlike most rural villages, operates at a consistent surplus.

History

Historically, the Kayanuma area of the village was a coal mining town. The town was first settled by the Japanese in 1601, and was incorporated as a village in 1880. The villages of Sakazaki, Okishinai, Horikatsubu, and Kayanuma were merged into Tomari in 1909.

Sister city

Ikata, Ehime is a small peninsula town located in Nishiuwa District, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 8,497 in 15638 households and a population density of 90 persons per km². The total area of the town is Following a rec ...

, Japan

Education

* Junior high school ** Tomari Junior High School * Elementary school ** Tomari Elementary School

References

External links

*
Official Website
Villages in Hokkaido {{Hokkaido-geo-stub