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 Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , 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 142,655 in 73353 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), 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 ...

of 11,000 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Moriguchi borders the northeastern part of Osaka City and faces the

Yodo River The , also called the Seta River (瀬田川 ''Seta-gawa'') and the Uji River (宇治川 ''Uji-gawa'') at portions of its route, is the principal river in Osaka Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. The source of the river is Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefectur ...

on the north. It is formed in a "U" shape around Kadoma City. Originally, there were many low-lying areas and many lotus root fields, but the area is now almost completely urbanized.

Surrounding municipalities

Osaka Prefecture *

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

( Higashiyodogawa-ku, Asahi-ku, Tsurumi-ku) *

Settsu is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As of 2017, the city has an estimated population of 85,290 and a population density of 5,664 people per km². The total area is 14.88 km². Surrounding municipalities *Osaka Prefecture **Higa ...

* Kadoma * Neyagawa

Climate

Moriguchi has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Moriguchi is 15.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1475 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Moriguchi population statistics
/ref> the population of Moriguchi rose rapidly to the 1970s,and has since started a slow decline.

History

The area of the modern city of Moriguchi was within ancient Kawachi Province. The place name "Moriguchi" first appears in historical records in 1373. 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 characte ...

, Moriguchi-juku was a post station on the Ōsaka Kaidō, an extension of the Tōkaidō between

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

and Kōraibashi in Osaka. The town of Moriguchi was established within Matta District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On April 1, 1896 the area became part of Kitakawachi District, Osaka. The town of Izumi was created on April 1, 1933 by the merger of Kokufu,Gosho and Hakata. On November 1, 1946 Moriguchi merged with the town of Sango to form the city of Moriguchi.

Government

Moriguchi 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 22 members. Moriguchi contributes one member to the

Osaka Prefectural Assembly The is the legislature of Osaka Prefecture. As in all prefectures, it is elected to four-year terms by single non-transferable vote in multi- and single-member districts and is responsible for enacting and amending prefectural by-laws, approving t ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Osaka 6th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy

Moriguchi is a satellite city to

, with a large percentage of the local population commuting to the Osaka metropolis for work. The head offices and factory of

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...

and its subsidiary

Sanyo , stylized as SANYO, is a Japanese electronics company and formerly a member of the ''Fortune'' Global 500 whose headquarters was located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo had over 230 subsidiaries and affiliates, and was founded by ...

straddle the border of Moriguchi and neighboring Kadoma, which has attracted many there are many subcontracting parts companies.

Education

Moriguchi has 13 public elementary schools, seven public middle schools and one combined elementary/middle school operated by the city government and three public high school operated by the Osaka Prefectural Department of Education. There are also three private high schools. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped. Two private colleges,

Kansai Medical University is a private university in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1928, and it was chartered as a women's medical college in 1947. In 1954 it became coeducational. Organization This university has following organi ...

and Osaka International University are located in Moriguchi.

Transportation

Railway

Keihan Electric Railway , known colloquially as the , , or simply , is a major Japanese private railway operator in Osaka, Kyoto, and Shiga Prefectures. The transit network includes seven lines; four main lines with heavy rolling stock, two interurban lines, and a funic ...

–

Keihan Main Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by Keihan Electric Railway. The line runs between Sanjō Station in Kyoto and Yodoyabashi Station in Osaka. There are through services to the Keihan Ōtō Line and the Keihan Nakanoshima Line. Trains fro ...

* - - 16px Osaka Metro - 16px

Tanimachi Line The is a rapid transit line of Osaka Metro, running from Dainichi Station in Moriguchi to Yaominami Station in Yao through Osaka. Its official name is , while the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau refers to it as , and in MLIT publicat ...

* - 18px Osaka Monorail - Main Line *

Highway

Kinki Expressway * Hanshin Urban Expwy Sign 0012

Hanshin Expressway Moriguchi Route * * *

Sister and friendship city relations

* Tōyō, Kōchi, Japan - Friendship city agreement concluded in 1981 * Takashima, Shiga, Japan - Friendship city agreement concluded in 1981 (with former Adogawa town) * Katsuragi,

Wakayama, Japan is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 944,320 () and has a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture ...

- Friendship city agreement concluded in 2005 (with former Hanazono town) *

New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the capi ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

- Sister city agreement concluded in 1963 *

Zhongshan Zhongshan (; ) is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is now part of the Guangzhou–Shenzhen conurbation with 65,565,622 ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China - Friendship city agreement concluded in 1988

Local attractions

* Moriguchi-juku

Notable people from Moriguchi

Ayaka , known simply as Ayaka, is a female Japanese singer, songwriter and record producer formerly signed to Warner Music Japan. Born in Osaka, she moved to Tokyo to pursue a singing career. She married actor Hiro Mizushima on February 22, 2009. B ...

, musician * Ryoji Morimoto, actor

References

External links

*
Moriguchi City official website
Cities in Osaka Prefecture Moriguchi, Osaka {{Osaka-geo-stub