270px, Yabu City Hall 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

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

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 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 using a ...

of 22,177 in 9236 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 52 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Yabu is located in the northern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the

Kinki region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolit ...

.The

Maruyama River The Maruyama River is a river in Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefectu ...

flows from the southeast to the northeast in the eastern part of the city, and the Yoka and Sekinomiya neighborhoods are located along the Yagi River, which is a tributary of the Maruyama River, and the Yabu and Oya areas are located along the Oya River. Part of the city is within the borders of the Hyōnosen-Ushiroyama-Nagisan Quasi-National Park, including Mount Myōken (1139 meters), and

Mount Hyōno is a mountain on the border of Yabu, Hyōgo Prefecture, and Wakasa, Tottori Prefecture, in Japan. It is the highest mountain in Hyōgo Prefecture. This mountain is one of the 200 famous mountains in Japan. Other names of this mountain are Suga ...

the city's highest elevation at 1510 meters.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hyōgo Prefecture * Asago *

Kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

Shis Shis ( ar, شيص) is the name of a settlement to the East of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the westernmost district of Khor Fakkan Municipality. The village of Shis was previously accessed only by a track leading from the East Coast ...

ō * Toyooka Tottori Prefecture * Wakasa

Climate

Yabu 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 ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Yabu is 12.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1936 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around 0.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Yabu population statistics
/ref> the population of Yabu has declined steadily over the half century.

History

The area of the modern town of Yabu was within ancient

Tajima Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Hyōgo Prefecture. Tajima bordered on Tango and Tanba to the east, Harima to the south, and Inaba to the west. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō system, Tajimao was ...

.In 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 ...

, it was mostly ''

tenryō 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 ...

'' territory under direct administration 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 ...

, with a small portion under the control of

Izushi Domain was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Tajima Province in what is now the northern portion of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered initially around Izushi Castle in what is now th ...

. Following the

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 ...

, it was initially part of "Toyooka Domain" before merging with Hyōgo Prefecture in 1876. The village of Hirotani and Takinoya created within Yabu District, Hyōgo with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Hirotani was raised to town status on April 15, 1927 and merged with Takinoya to form the town of Myōjin on September 1, 1956. Myōjin changed it name to Yabu on March 31,1957. On April 1, 2004, Yabu, merged with the towns of Oya, Sekinomiya and Yoka (all from Yabu District) to form the city of Yabu.

Government

Yabu 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 ...

city council of 16 members. Yabu, together with the city of Asago contributes one member to the

Hyogo Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Hyogo Prefecture. The assembly's 87 members are elected every four years in 40 districts by single non-transferable vote. Nine of the electoral districts correspond with the wards of Kobe city and the rema ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo 5th 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

Yabu has a economy based primarily on agriculture, and is known for its production of garlic and "Tajima beef".

Education

Yabu has eight public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, and ...

–

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

* -

Highway

* * *

Local attractions

Yagi Castle 270px, Aerial photograph showing the relative locations of the old castle, new castle and Kamakura-period mansion is a late Kamakura period Japanese castle located in the Yōka neighborhood of the city of Yabu, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Its ru ...

ruins, National Historic Site * Miidani Kofun Cluster, National Historic Site

References

External links

*
Yabu official website
Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture Yabu, Hyōgo {{Hyogo-geo-stub