260px, Kozaki Shrine is 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 o ...

located in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to t ...

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 town 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 5,884 in 2471 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 300 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Etymology

The name of the town of Kōzaki in the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

is formed from two ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequ ...

'' characters. The first, , means ''

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 ...

'', the Japanese term for god, spirit, or a natural force; and the second, means "cape" or "small peninsula".

Geography

Kōzaki is located in far northern Chiba Prefecture, approximately 40 kilometers from then prefectural capital at Chiba and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. The town faces the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the Kantō ...

to the north, and sits on the lowlands of the river to the north and the

Shimōsa Plateau The is a plateau on the Kantō Plain in central Honshu, Japan. The plateau covers most of northern Chiba Prefecture. The plateau was historically richly agricultural, but in the 20th century the western and central Shimōsa Plateau became one ...

to the south. Kōzaki is part of Ōtone Prefectural Natural Park.

Neighboring municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Narita * Katori Ibaraki Prefecture *

Inashiki is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 39,127 in 14,733 households and a population density of 191 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 37.1%. The total area o ...

Kawachi Kawachi ( or ) may refer to: Places * Kawachi Province, one of the old provinces of Japan * Kawachi, Kumamoto, a former town in Kumamoto Prefecture * Kawachi, Osaka, a former city in Osaka Prefecture * Kawachi, Ibaraki, a town in Ibaraki Prefect ...

Climate

Kōzaki 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 Kōzaki is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1414 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kōzaki population statistics
/ref> the population of Kōzaki has been remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

History

Kōzaki was historically part of

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area modern Chiba Prefecture, and Ibaraki Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Shimōsa''" in . It lies to the north of the Bōsō Peninsula (房総半島), whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from ...

until the formation of Chiba Prefecture at the beginning of 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 ...

(1868 – 1912). Kōzaki and Yonezawa villages were founded on April 1, 1889 within Katori District of Chiba Prefecture with the creation the modern municipalities system. Kōzaki was elevated to town status on March 12, 1890. On January 5, 1955, Yonezawa merged into the town of Kōzaki.

Government

Kōzaki 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 ...

town council of 13 members. Kōzaki, together with the city of Katori and town of Tako, contributes two members to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Chiba 10th 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

Kōzaki is a regional commercial center with some light manufacturing industries. Some 28% of the workforce commutes to the city of Narita per the 2010 census.

Education

Kōzaki has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a public high school; however, the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

–

Narita Line The Narita Line ( ja, 成田線, ) is the name for a combination of three railway lines located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The main line connects Sakura Station and Matsugishi Station ( ...

Highway

* – Kōzaki Interchange *

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozaki, Chiba Towns in Chiba Prefecture Populated places established in 1955 1955 establishments in Japan Kōzaki