250px, Kashimana Kaihin Koen 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 45,997 in 18,455 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 221.6 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 34.1%. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Hokota is located in central Ibaraki Prefecture, approximately 90 kilometers northeast of Tokyo and within 30 kilometers of Mito City, the prefectural capital. The eastern side of the city faces 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 ...

and has a long shallow coastline from north to south. Most of the inland area is flat, and agriculture that takes advantage of the flat terrain and the mild climate is the core industry..

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Kashima * Namegata * Omitama * Ōarai

Climate

Hokota 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 light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Hokota is . The average annual rainfall is with October 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,Hokota population statistics
/ref> the population of Hokota has remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

History

The town of Hokota was created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The city of Hokota was established on October 11, 2005, from the merger of the former town of Hokota, and the villages of Asahi and Taiyō (all from Kashima District).

Government

Hokota 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 18 members. Hokota, together with neighboring Ōarai and Ibaraki, contributes two members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Ibaraki 2nd 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 r ...

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

The economy of Hokota is primarily agricultural, with melons as a major cash crop.

Education

* Hokota has ten public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Kashima Rinkai Railway The is a railway company in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. The Public-Private Partnerships In Japan, third sector company is abbreviated as KRT. It was founded in 1969 to transport freight to and from the coastal industrial area of Kashima, Ibaraki, ...

– Ōarai Kashima Line * - - - - -

Highway

* * *

Local attractions

*Otake Beach *Kashima Littoral Park

Notable people from Hokota

Tetsuya Asano is a former Japanese football player and manager. He played for the Japanese national team. Club career Asano was born in Hokota on February 23, 1967. After graduating from high school, torough Toyota Shukyu-Dan, he joined Japan Soccer Lea ...

, soccer player

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Hokota, Ibaraki