270px, Makinohara 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 western

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

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 45,813 in 16980 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 410 persons per km². The total area of the city was .

Geography

Makinohara is located in south-central Shizuoka Prefecture. It is bordered by

Suruga Bay Suruga Bay (駿河湾, ''Suruga-wan'') is a bay on the Pacific coast of Honshū in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is situated north of a straight line from Omaezaki Point to Irōzaki Point at the tip of the Izu Peninsula and surrounded by Hon ...

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 rises gradually to the Makinohara Plateau in the west. The area has a temperate maritime climate, characterized by hot, humid summers and mild winters, with the warm Kuroshio Current off shore providing a moderating effect.

Surrounding municipalities

Shizuoka Prefecture *

Omaezaki 270px, Omaezaki City Hall is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Omaezaki is located at the tip of Omaezaki Peninsula on Japan's Pacific coast. , the city had an estimated population of 32,422 in 12,095 households and a population d ...

* Kikugawa * Shimada *

Yoshida Yoshida (written: 吉田 lit. "lucky ricefield") is the 11th most common Japanese surname. A less common variant is 芳田 (lit. "fragrant ricefield"). Notable people with the surname include: * Ai Yoshida, Japanese sailor *, Japanese idol, singe ...

, Haibara District

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Makinohara has been relatively steady over the past 50 years.

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and relatively mild winters (

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Makinohara is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

History

The area of present-day Makinohara was part of former Tōtōmi Province. During 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 town of

Sagara Sagara may refer to: People * Sagara (ethnic group), a people of Tanzania * Sagara (Vedic king), Ikshvaku dynasty * Sagara clan, a clan of 16th century Japan * Sekihotai (Sagara Souzou), a leader of the Sekihotai military unit during the Boshin ...

was the castle town of Sagara Domain. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system in the early

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 ...

on April 1, 1889, Sagara was incorporated as a town within Haibara District. The city of Makinohara was established on October 11, 2005, from the merger of the towns of Haibara and

(both from Haibara District).

Government

Makinohara 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 legislature of 16 members. The city contributes one member to the Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly.

Economy

The local economy of Makinohara is dominated by the production of green tea, and to a lesser extent by commercial fishing, and manufacturing of automobile components for Suzuki Motors (Sagara Plant). Fuji Dream Airlines has its headquarters in Makinohara.

Education

Makinohara has seven public elementary schools operated by the city government and one shared between Makinohara and Kikugawa, and three shared between Makinohara and

. The city likewise operates two public junior high schools and shares operated with one junior high school with Kikugawa and one with Omaezaki. The city has two public high schools operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Although both the Tokaido Shinkansen and the Tokaido Main Line pass through Makinohara, the city has no passenger railway services. The nearest train station is Kikugawa Station in neighboring Kikugawa or

Kanaya Station } is an interchange station, interchange train station, railway station in the city of Shimada, Shizuoka, Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). The station is also used by the Ōigawa Railw ...

in neighboring Shimada.

Highway

Tōmei Expressway The is a national expressway on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is operated by Central Nippon Expressway Company. The expressway is designated as E1 under the "2016 Proposal for Realization of Expressway Numbering", because it parallels N ...

- Makinohara Interchange * *

Airport

Shizuoka Airport, which opened in 2009, straddles the border between Makinohara and Shimada.

Local attractions

* Sagara Oil field, Japan's only oil field on the Pacific coast. Hand-pumping began in 1873, and the following year,

Nippon Oil , formerly , or NOC or ''Shin-Nisseki'' (新日石) is a Japanese petroleum company. Its businesses include exploration, importation, and refining of crude oil; the manufacture and sale of petroleum products, including fuels and lubricants; and ...

opened the first mechanical pumping operation in the country at Sagara. Operations ceased in 1955, and in 1980 the field was made into the "Yuden no Sato" Park, operated by the Shizuoka Prefectural government.
* Sagara Castle ruins

Sister city relations

* - Kelso, Washington, USA * - Matsukawa, Nagano (Shimoina), Japan * - Sannohe, Aomori, Japan * - Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto, Japan

Notable people from Makinohara

Umetaro Suzuki was a Japanese scientist, born in what is now part of Makinohara, Shizuoka, Japan. He was a member of the Imperial Academy, and a recipient of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Order of Culture. His research was among t ...

, scientist, pioneer in vitamin research *

Takuma Edamura Takuma Edamura (枝村匠馬 ''Edamura Takuma'', born 16 November 1986 in Makinohara, Shizuoka, Japan) is a Japanese footballer. Career Edamura was born in Shizuoka Prefecture. Having worked his way through the youth ranks of his local Shimizu ...

, professional soccer player

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Shizuoka Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Makinohara, Shizuoka