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

Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefectur ...

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 310,259 in 142162 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 1500 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Yokkaichi is located in north-central of Mie Prefecture, part of the northeastern

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. Overview The area south of the “ Central Tectonic Line” is called , and is home to reef-like coral communities which are among ...

. It stretches the width of Mie Prefecture, and is bordered by

Ise Bay is a bay located at the mouth of the Kiso Three Rivers between Mie and Aichi Prefectures in Japan. Ise Bay has an average depth of and a maximum depth of . The mouth of the bay is and is connected to the smaller Mikawa Bay by two channels: ...

on 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 Shiga Prefecture to the northwest.

Neighboring municipalities

Mie Prefecture *

Kuwana is a city located in Mie Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 141,045 in 60,301 households and a population density of 1000 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kuwana is located in northern Mie P ...

* Suzuka * Inabe * Komono * Asahi * Kawagoe * Tōin Shiga Prefecture * Kōka

Climate

Yokkaichi 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 light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Yokkaichi is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Yokkaichi has increased steadily over the past 60 years.

History

The area around modern Yokkaichi has been settled since prehistoric times. Numerous

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

burial mounds have been discovered, and the area was one of the battle sites of the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710 (or 592 to 645), although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after ...

Jinshin War. However, until the end of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

, the area was sparsely settled, and the site of Yokkaichi was only a small port village. The area developed during the

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle b ...

and by the Azuchi–Momoyama period, the port was developed and a regular market was opened on the 4th, 14th, and 24th day each month. Thus, the city is named Yokkaichi: "yokka" means fourth day, and "ichi" means market. After the

Honnō-ji Incident The was an attempt to assassinate Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at the Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto on 21 June 1582, resulting in the suicide by '' seppuku'' of both Nobunaga and his son Oda Nobutada. The unprotected Nobunaga was ambushed by ...

during which warlord

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

was assassinated,

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

fled from Yokkaichi port by sea to his castle at

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

. Under 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 ...

, Yokkaichi was '' tenryō'' territory controlled directly by the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

'' and administered by a '' daikan'' based at the Yokkaichi Jin'ya. Throughout 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 ...

, the area prospered as

Yokkaichi-juku was the forty-third of the fifty-three stations (''shukuba'') of the Tōkaidō connecting Edo with Kyoto in Edo period Japan. It was located in former Ise Province in what is now part of the city of Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Hist ...

, the forty-third station on the Tōkaidō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto. However, the city was largely destroyed by the Ansei great earthquakes. 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 ...

, Yokkaichi Town was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889 and was designated the capital of Mie Prefecture. Yokkaichi's port advanced remarkably during the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

, primarily under the guidance of Inaba Sanuemon, a resident merchant interested in increasing trade in the Yokkaichi and Ise area by modernizing the port facilities. Starting in 1872, the project took 12 years to complete due to typhoons and difficulties in financing the project. This led to the port city being designated an Official International Port in 1899 The primary trade items shipped through Yokkaichi were originally seed oil,

Banko ware is a type of Japanese pottery ( Stoneware) traditionally from Yokkaichi, Mie. It is therefore also known as Yokkaichi-Banko ware. It is believed to have originated in the 18th century. Most products are teacups, teapots, flower vase A vas ...

, and Ise tea; but now it has developed into a port that handles cotton, wool, glass, and heavy equipment. Yokkaichi was elevated to city status on August 1, 1897. From 1939, Yokkaichi became a center for the chemical industry, with the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

constructing a large refinery near the port area. Yokkaichi was one of the first cities bombed by the United States during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, when on April 18, 1942, the city was attacked by aircraft from the Doolittle Raid. During the final stages of World War II, on June 18, 1945, 89

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 ...

bombers dropped 11,000 incendiary bombs destroying 35% of the urban area and killing 736 people. This attack on Yokkaichi was followed by another eight air raids until August 8, 1945, killing another 808 people. From 1960 to 1972, the city residents suffered health problems caused by the emission of SOx into the atmosphere from local petrochemical and chemical plants. In Japan, a disease called ''Yokkaichi zensoku'' (

Yokkaichi asthma refers to cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary emphysema, and bronchial asthma in humans and various environmental changes usually attributed to sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions which appeared as smog over the ...

) derives its name from the city, and it is considered one of the Four Big Pollution Diseases of Japan. Yokkaichi attained special city status on November 1, 2000, with increased local autonomy. On February 7, 2005, the town of Kusu (from Mie District) was merged into Yokkaichi.

Government

Yokkaichi 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 34 members. Yokkaichi contributes seven members to the Mie Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between Mie 2nd district and Mie 3rd 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 paral ...

Economy

Yokkaichi is a manufacturing center that produces

(a kind of

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a c ...

and stoneware),

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

, cotton

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

, chemicals, tea,

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement mixe ...

, and computer parts such as

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

subsidiary Yokkaichi Toshiba Electronics.

Education

Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University in Sep

;Universities * Yokkaichi University * Yokkaichi Nursing and Medical Care University * Humanitec Junior College ;Primary and secondary education Yokkaichi has 38 public elementary schools and 22 public middles schools operated by the city government and there are three private middle schools. The city also operates one special education school for the disabled. The city has ten public high schools operated by the Mie Prefectural Board of Education and five private high schools. Ten prefecture also operates two special education schools for the disabled. ;International schools * — Brazilian schoolEscolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão
(). Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. Retrieved on October 13, 2015. * — North Korean school

Transportation

Railway

JR Tōkai – Kansai Main Line * - - - - 20px

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as , is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railway network connects Osaka, Nara, Ky ...

– Nagoya Line * - - - - - - - - - 20px

–

Yunoyama Line The is a railway line of the Rail transport in Japan#Major private railways, Japanese private railway company Kintetsu Railway, connecting Kintetsu-Yokkaichi Station (Yokkaichi, Mie, Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture) and Yunoyama-Onsen Station (Komono, ...

* - - - - - Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway – Utsube Line *Asunarou Yokkaichi - - - - - - - Yokkaichi Asunarou Railway – Hachiōji Line * - 20px

Sangi Railway is a private railway company in Mie Prefecture, Japan, which also operates bus lines. The company was founded in 1928 and its initial line, the Sangi Line, originally functioned as a freight line transporting cement, but in recent years it beca ...

– Sangi Line * - - - - - -

Highway

* * * * * * * * * *

Seaports

*Yokkaichi Port

Local attractions

Festivals and events

*Amagasuka Ishidori Festival *Great Yokkaichi Festival *Matsubara Ishidori Festival

International relations

Yokkaichi has two sister cities and one sister port. *

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, U.S. - October 7, 1963 *

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, China - October 28, 1980 * Sydney Port, Australia - October 24, 1968

Notable people from Yokkaichi

* Goseki Kojima, manga artist * Masayo Kurata, voice actress *

Miki Mizuno is a Japanese actress. She played the role of villain in the horror film '' Carved'' as the Kuchisake-Onna a malevolent vengeful spirit who killed many children. Career Mizuno starred in Takanori Tsujimoto's action films ''Hard Revenge Milly'' ...

, actress *

Fumio Niwa was a Japanese novelist with a long list of works, the most famous in the West being his novel ''The Buddha Tree'' (Japanese ''Bodaiju'', "The Linden", or "The Bodhi Tree", 1956). He was ordained as a Shin Buddhist priest in his youth, but aban ...

, author * Toshiya Fujita, movie director *

Katsuya Okada is a Japanese politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Japan from January to December 2012. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan, he was the President of the Democratic Party, and previously of the Democratic Party of Japan. ...

, politician *Takuya Okada, chairman emeritus of AEON Group * Katsuaki Watanabe, president of Toyota Motor Corporation * Satoshi Saida, wheelchair tennis player * Naoki Segi, movie director * Shuu Shibutani, professional wrestler *Mayu Mukaida, amateur wrestler Her coach is Shoko Yoshimura. *

Yoriko Shono , born 16 March 1956, is a Japanese writer who describes her writing as 'avant-pop'. Biography Yoriko Shono (real name Yoriko Ishikawa) was born in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, grew up in Ise and studied in the Law Department at Ritsumeikan Univ ...

, writer * Ōzutsu Takeshi, sumo wrestler * Ui Shigure, light novel artist and virtual YouTuber

References

External links

*
Yokkaichi Information, Movie, and Community Portal
TranslatablePage

* {{Authority control Cities in Mie Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan