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 Sorachi Subprefecture,

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 ...

. It is Japan's smallest city by population.

History

It was formerly a prosperous

coal mining 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 ...

city, but has declined greatly since the closing of the coal mines. The population hit a maximum of 46,000 in 1948, and has been decreasing every year since. Efforts to transform Utashinai from a gritty coal mining town to an

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...

destination have met with mixed success. The town has adopted a Swiss theme as part of its tourist oriented strategy and many new buildings are

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

chalet style. A medium-sized ski hill, Kamoidake, attracts a decent crowd of locals and hosts frequent ski meets, while a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circ ...

resort called Tyrol, after the Austrian region, is known throughout Hokkaido for the quality of its water. However, despite these new projects, Utashinai continues to experience

population decline A population decline (also sometimes called underpopulation, depopulation, or population collapse) in humans is a reduction in a human population size. Over the long term, stretching from prehistory to the present, Earth's total human population ...

and economic stagnation. The high school closed in 2007, with students now traveling to Sunagawa, Akabira or Takikawa for their secondary education.

Timeline

*1890 - Sorachi Coal Mine opened, founding of Utashinai. *1897 - Utashinai

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 ...

split away from Nae Village (now the city of Sunagawa). *1900 -

Ashibetsu is a city located in Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. As of September 2016, the city had an estimated population of 14,260 and a density of 16 persons per km2. The total area is 865.02 km2. History Ashibetsu was once a prosperous ...

Village splits off. *1906 - Utashinai becomes a Second Class Municipality. *1919 - Utashinai becomes a First Class Municipality. *1922 -

Akabira is a city located in central Sorachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. The name is Ainu for "mountain ridge". As of October 2022, the city has a population of 9,081 people living in 5,503 households. The total area is 129.88 km2. The city ...

Village split off. *1940 - Utashinai becomes 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 ...

. *1949 - Part of the town splits off into Kamisunagawa Town. *July 1, 1958 - Utashinai becomes a city. *1971 - Sumitomo closes Utashinai Mine. *1988 - Kamiutashinai Mine closed. *1995 - Sorachi Mine closed. *2003 - Mid-Sorachi Merger Conference established. *2004 - Merger Conference disbanded.

Geography

Penkeutashunai River, a tributary of Ishikari River, flows through Utashinai. There is Mount Kamoi on the northwest of the city.

Name

The name is derived from the

Ainu Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

''ota-us-nay'' () meaning "River connected to a sandy beach".

Demographics

As of December 31, 2020, the city had an

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 3,019, with 1,788

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s, 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 62 persons per km². The total area of the city is 55.99 km². The population of Utashinai has been declining very rapidly for the past 80 years.

Culture

Mascot

Utashinai's mascot is . He is a sheep who moved from Switzerland to Japan. He carries an alphorn. He is unveiled in 1998.

References

External links

Official Website
Cities in Hokkaido {{Hokkaido-geo-stub