270px, Shirahama Beach 270px, Kannoura fishing port 270px, Street in None 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 ...

located in Aki District,

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

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 2,226 in 1363 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 30 persons per km².The total area of the town is .

Geography

Tōyō is located in northeastern tip of Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

. It is situated on a mountainous area of the

ria A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. Definitions Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...

coast of 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 ...

, with the main urban area being strip of hamlets along the coastal highway. Much of the town is within the borders of the

Muroto-Anan Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park on the coast of Kōchi Prefecture and Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 1 June 1964 and has an area of . See also * List of national parks of Japan and in Japan are places of scenic beauty designated ...

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Muroto * Kitagawa Tokushima Prefecture * Kaiyō

Climate

Tōyō has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

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'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is high, but there is a pronounced difference between the wetter summers and drier winters.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tōyō has been decreased rapidly since the 1960s.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Tōyō was part of ancient

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syste ...

. The name of Aki District appears in

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 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 cap ...

. 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its history by t ...

ruled by the

Yamauchi clan The Yamauchi clan (山内氏) were a family of rulers over what was then the Tosa Province which spanned the southern half of Shikoku island. The province was given to the family in 1600 after Yamauchi Kazutoyo led troops under Tokugawa Ieyasu a ...

from their seat at

Kōchi Castle is an Edo Period Japanese castle in the city of Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is located at Otakayama hill, at the center of Kōchi city, which in turn is located at the center of the Kōchi Plain, the most prosperous area of former ...

. The villages of Kannoura (甲浦村) and None (野根村) were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. Kannoura was raised to town status on April1, 1916, followed by None on February 11, 1938. The two towns merged on July 1, 1959 to form the town of Tōyō. In 2007, Yasuoki Tashima, the former mayor of the town, brought national and worldwide attention when he applied to host Japan's high level

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

repository in Tōyō without the knowledge or approval of the town assembly. The plan was met with resistance from the town council, the governors of both and Kōchi and Tokushima Prefecture, as well as outrage by local residents. He lost a subsequent election and resigned.Japan town dumps mayor - and nuclear waste site , U.S. , Reuters
/ref>

Government

Tōyō 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 ...

town council of nine members. Tōyō, together with the city of Muroto, contributes one member to the

Kōchi Prefectural Assembly Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...

. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kōchi 1st district 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

In addition to the

commercial fishery Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...

industry, Tōyō's economy is centered on forestry and fruit tree cultivation. In the past,

bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish in the family Scombridae – a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of ...

fishing and

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

were important, but now the main fishing industry is coastal fishing. The upper reaches of the None River are rainy areas and are noted for wood production.

Education

Tōyō has two public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

The Asa Kaigan Railway's

Asatō Line The is a Japanese railway line connecting Kaifu Station, Kaiyō, Tokushima, Kaiyō and Kannoura Station, Tōyō, Kōchi, Tōyō. Together with Shikoku Railway Company, JR Shikoku's Mugi Line, it has the official nickname . This is the only railwa ...

passed through the town, but its

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

Kannoura Station is a railway station on the Asatō Line in Tōyō, Aki District, Kōchi Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the third sector Asa Kaigan Railway and bears the station number "TK30". DMV commenced operation from 2021, so this station has bec ...

closed in 2020 when the line was covert from rail to

Dual-mode vehicle A dual-mode vehicle (DMV) is a vehicle that can operate on conventional road surfaces as well as a railway track or a dedicated track known as a " guideway". The development of these vehicles started together with personal rapid transport syst ...

operations.

Highways

* *

Local attractions

References

External links

*
Tōyō official website
Towns in Kōchi Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Kochi-geo-stub