150725 Jakushu Itteki-bunko Ooi Fukui pref Japan01s3

is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in

Fukui Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Fukui Prefecture has a population of 737,229 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,190 Square kilometre, km2 (1,617 sq mi). Fukui Prefecture border ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the town had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 8,102 and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

of 63 persons per km². The total area of the town was . It is one of the few Hiragana towns in Japan.

Geography

Ōi is located in the far southwestern corner of Fukui Prefecture, bordered by

Kyoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Kyoto Prefecture has a population of 2,561,358 () and has a geographic area of . Kyoto Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the northeast, Shiga Prefecture ...

to the south,

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

to the southeast and the heavily indented ria coast of Obama Bay (within

Wakasa Bay is a bay located in the Chūbu region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Kyoto Prefecture, and Fukui Prefecture. Geography Wakasa Bay is the area south of the straight line from Cape Kyoga on the west of Tango Peninsula to Cape Echizen on the e ...

) of

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

to the north. Parts of the town are within the borders of the

Wakasa Wan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park in Fukui and Kyōto Prefectures, Japan. Established in 1955, the central feature of the park is the ria coast of Wakasa Bay. In 2005 an area of of wetland in the Mikata Lakes was designated a Ramsar Site. Sites of ...

Neighbouring municipalities

** Obama ** Takahama *

** Takashima *

** Ayabe ** Nantan

Climate

Ōi has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Ōi is 14.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1949 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.34 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.9 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Ōi population statistics
/ref> the population of Ōi has declined over the past 30 years.

History

Ōi is part of ancient

Wakasa Province was a province of Japan in the area that is today the southwestern portion of Fukui Prefecture in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Wakasa''" in . Wakasa bordered on Echizen, Ōmi, Tanba, Tango, and Yamash ...

. During the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, the area was part of the holdings of Obama Domain. Following the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, it was organised into part of Ōi District in Fukui Prefecture. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, the villages of Saburi, Ōshima, and Hongō were established. These villages merged to form the town of Ōi on January 15, 1955. On March 3, 2006, the village of Natashō, from Onyū District, was merged into Ōi, which is since written with ''

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

'' instead of ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

''. Before the merger the town was written 大飯町.

Economy

The economy of Ōi, previously dependent on

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

, forestry and agriculture is now very heavily dependent on the

nuclear power industry Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

. The partial closure of the Ōi Nuclear Power Plant has since the 2011

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which ...

has adversely affected the local economy.

Education

Ōi has four public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

- Obama Line **

Highway

Maizuru-Wakasa Expressway * *

Sister cities

Tamsui District Tamsui District () is a seaside District (Taiwan), district in New Taipei City, Taiwan adjacent to the Tamsui River and overlooking the Taiwan Strait. The name of the district means "fresh water" in Chinese. Although modest in size (population ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Local attractions

Obama Domain Battery Sites The was a series of 30 Bakumatsu period coastal artillery battery sites erected by Obama Domain on the Sea of Japan coast along what is now the coasts of the city of Obama, Fukui, Obama and town of Ōi, Fukui, Ōi in the Hokuriku region of northe ...

, a National Historic Site

References

External links

* * Towns in Fukui Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Fukui-geo-stub