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 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, Tochigi Prefecture ...
,
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 n ...
. , 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 usi ...
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 RosenberPopu ...
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 conti ...
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 Miyagi ...
to the northwest.
Surrounding municipalities
Ibaraki Prefecture
*
Kitaibaraki
*
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...
*
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
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population ...
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 freez ...
(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 character ...
, Takahagi was the '' jōkamachi'' of Matsuoka Domain, 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 ...](_blank)
on April 1, 1889, the town of Matsubara, and the villages of Matsuoka, Takaoka, Kurosaki and Kushigata was established within Taga District, Ibaraki). 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 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peni ...
.
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 multi ...
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 ...
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 paral ...
.
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 ar ...
– 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 Ry� ...
, botanist
References
External links
Official Website
{{Authority control
Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture
Populated coastal places in Japan
Takahagi, Ibaraki