270px, Shirahama Beach 270px, Kannoura fishing port 270px, Street in None is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Aki District, Kōchi 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 town 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 2,226 in 1363 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 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 List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. It is situated on a mountainous area of the ria coast of the

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

, 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.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Kitagawa * Muroto Tokushima Prefecture * Kaiyō

Climate

Tōyō has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

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 ...

''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 decreased rapidly since the 1960s.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Tōyō was part of ancient Tosa Province. The name of Aki District appears in

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 ...

. During 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), 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 ...

ruled by the Yamauchi clan from their seat at Kōchi Castle. 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 April 1, 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. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

town council of nine members. Tōyō, together with the city of Muroto, contributes one member to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Kōchi 1st district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

In addition to the commercial fishery 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, which 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 hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

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 Asa may refer to: People and fictional characters * Asa (given name), a given name, including a list of people and fictional characters so named * Asa people, an ethnic group based in Tanzania * Aṣa, Nigerian-French singer, songwriter, and reco ...

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

passed through the town, but its terminus, Kannoura Station closed in 2020 when the line was converted 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 Track (rail transport), railway track or a dedicated track known as a guideway. The development of these vehicles started together with personal ...

operations.

Highways

* *

Local attractions

* Muroto-Anan Kaigan Quasi-National Park

References

External links

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