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 ori ...

in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , 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 using a ...

of 28,971 in 12,989 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 480 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Ogawa is located in central Saitama Prefecture in the Ogawa basin and is surrounded by the Sotochichibu Mountains.

Surrounding municipalities

Saitama Prefecture * Ranzan * Tokigawa * Yorii * Higashichichibu

Climate

Ogawa has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ogawa is 14.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1746 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ogawa peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

History

The village of Ogawa was created within Hiki District, Saitama with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Ogawa annexed the neighboring villages of Okawa, Takezawa and Yawata on February 1, 1955. Tokigawa and Tamagawa merged to form the town of Tokigawa.

Government

Ogawa 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 16 members. Ogawa, together with the towns of Tokigawa, Ranzan and Namekawa, contributes one member to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Saitama 10th 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 of the Diet of Japan.

Economy

The town used to be famous for Japanese traditional papermaking (

washi is traditional Japanese paper. The term is used to describe paper that uses local fiber, processed by hand and made in the traditional manner. ''Washi'' is made using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (''E ...

Education

Ogawa has six public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education. File:Takezawa Elementary School 20170211.jpg, Takezawa Elementary School in Ogawa

Transportation

Railway

JR East -

Hachikō Line The Hachikō Line is a 92.0 km (57.2 mi) regional railway line owned and operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is located within Tokyo, Saitama, and Gunma Prefectures in Japan. It connects Hachiōji Station in Hachi ...

* -

Tōbu Railway is a Japanese commuter railway and ''keiretsu'' holding company in the Greater Tokyo Area as well as an intercity and regional operator in the Kantō region. Excluding the Japan Railways Group companies, Tobu's rail system is the second long ...

Tōbu Tōjō Line The is a 75.0 km suburban railway line in Japan which runs from Ikebukuro Station in Toshima, Tokyo to Yorii Station in Yorii, Saitama, operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway. Its official name is the , but it is referred to ...

* - File:Takezawa Station 20170211.jpg, Takezawa Station in February 2017 File:Tobu-Takezawa Station east entrance 20170211.jpg, Tōbu-Takezawa Station in February 2017

Highway

* *

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Saitama Prefecture Hiki District, Saitama Ogawa, Saitama