was 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 Minamisaku District,

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

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 ...

. It is the farthest point in the country away from the sea, although the nearby town of

Saku Saku may refer to: Places *Saku, Nagano, a city in Japan *Saku, Nagano (Minamisaku), a town in Japan *Saku Parish, a rural municipality in Harju County, Estonia **Saku, Estonia, a small borough in Saku Parish, Harju County, Estonia *Saku Constituen ...

claims to hold this distinction as well. As of 2003, the town has 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 15,731 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 189.05 persons per km². The total area is 83.21 km².

History

*c. 1875 The village of Yuhara absorbed the village of Yuharashinden in Saku District. *August 2, 1876 The villages of Tanokuchi and Kaminakagomi merged into the village of Taguchi. *c. 1879 Minamisaku District government enforced. The villages of Usuda, Shimootagiri, Katsuma, Kamiotagiri, Nakaotagiri, Nakaotagirishinden, Yuhara, Mibun, Shimogoe, Taguchi, Irisawa and Hirabayashi belongs to Minamisaku District. *April 1, 1889 The city, town, and village status enforced. **The village of Usuda absorbed the villages of Shimootagiri and Katsuma. **The villages of Kamiotagiri, Nakaotagiri, Nakaotagirishinden and Yuhara merged to form the village of Kirihara. **The village of Taguchi absorbed the villages of Mibun and Shimogoe, and the former village of Kiyokawa in the village of Tokiwa. **The villages of Irisawa and Hirabayashi merged to form the village of Aonuma. *June 30, 1951 The village of Usuda gained town status. *August 1, 1955 The town of Usuda absorbed the village of Kirihara. *September 30, 1956 The villages of Taguchi and Aonuma merged to form the village of Taguchiaonuma. *April 1, 1957 The town of Usuda absorbed the village of Taguchiaonuma. *April 1, 1959 Sohara, Haguroshita and Hirabayashi area from the former village of Taguchiaonuma broke off and went to the town of Saku. * April 1, 2005, Usuda, along with the town of Mochizuki, and the village of Asashina (both from

Kitasaku District is a district located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. As of December 1, 2005, the district has an estimated population of 40,041. The district has three towns * Karuizawa *Miyota * Tateshina District Timeline *On April 1, 2004, the village of ...

), was merged into the expanded city of

Town of star shine

* The people of Usuda declare Usuda to be "town of

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

shine" in 1995. There are some notable spots connected with stars, for example,

Usuda Deep Space Center Usuda Deep Space Center is a facility of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It is a spacecraft tracking station in Saku, Nagano, opened in October, 1984. The main features of the station are two large beam waveguide antennas, an older 64 ...

, Usuda Star Dome, Cosmo Tower, and Tatsuoka Castle Site (a

star fort A bastion fort or ''trace italienne'' (a phrase derived from non-standard French, literally meaning ''Italian outline'') is a fortification in a style that evolved during the early modern period of gunpowder when the cannon came to domin ...

). File:Cosmo Tower.jpg, Cosmo Tower File:Tatsuoka Castle 1975.jpg, Tatsuoka Castle Site

External links

* Dissolved municipalities of Nagano Prefecture Saku, Nagano {{Nagano-geo-stub