250px, Ruins of Koizumi Castle 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

Gunma Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fuk ...

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 41,918 in 19,773 households, 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 2300 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Approximately 20 percent of the total population are foreign citizens, mostly

Japanese Brazilians are Brazilians, Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese people, Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. Japanese immigration to Brazil peaked between 1908 and 1960 ...

, who work at many factories in the town. Since 1990, Japanese descendants from foreign countries have been permitted to stay in Japan freely. It is estimated that 15 percent of the population speak Portuguese as their native language, and as of 2007, Ōizumi has the highest concentration of Brazilians of any city in Japan. More recently, Nepalese and other Asians have begun settling in the town.

Geography

Ōizumi is located in the extreme southern corner Gunma prefecture, bordered by

Saitama Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

to the south. 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 River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

flows through the southern part of the town.

Surrounding municipalities

* Chiyoda * Ōra * Ōta

* Kumagaya

Climate

Ōizumi has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by hot summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Ōizumi is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1263 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ōizumi has grown significantly over the past 100 years.

History

The villages of Ōkawa and Koizumi were created within Ōra District, Gunma Prefecture on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system after 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 ...

. Koizumi was elevated to town status on July 25, 1902. On March 31, 1957 Koizumi merged with the village of Ōkawa and was renamed Ōizumi. Plans to merge with neighboring Chiyoda in 2004 and with Ōta in 2008 were rejected by the local town assembly.

Government

Ōizumi 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

town council of 14 members. Ōizumi, together with the other municipalities in Ōra District contributes three members to the Gunma Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Gunma 3rd district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Ōizumi has an industrial base, with manufacturing facilities including plants from Ajinomoto,

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

, Toppan, Maruha Nichiro and

Fuji Heavy Industries , formerly , is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate primarily involved in both terrestrial and aerospace transportation manufacturing. It is best known for its line of Subaru automobiles. Founded in 1953, the company was named ...

(which was previously the plant of the Nakajima Aircraft Company), located in the town.

Education

Ōizumi has four public elementary schools and three public junior high schools operated by the town government, and two public high schools operated by the Gunma prefecture Board of Education. Prefectural high schools: * * Municipal junior high schools: * Kita (North) Junior High School ( 大泉町立北中学校) * Minami (South) Junior High School ( 大泉町立南中学校) * Nishi (West) Junior High School ( 大泉町立西中学校) Municipal elementary schools: * Higashi (East) Elementary School ( 大泉町立東小学校) * Kita (North) Elementary School ( 大泉町立北小学校) * Minami (South) Elementary School ( 大泉町立南小学校) * Nishi (West) Elementary School ( 大泉町立西小学校) International schools: * Instituto Educacional Centro Nippo-Brasileiro – Brazilian schoolEscolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão

Archive
. Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. Retrieved on October 13, 2015. * Instituto Educacional Gente Miúda – Brazilian school The city formerly housed the Escola da Professora Rebeca, another Brazilian international school.Escolas Brasileiras Homologadas no Japão

Archive
. Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo. February 7, 2008. Retrieved on October 13, 2015.

Transportation

Railway

Tōbu Railway – Tōbu Koizumi Line * – –

Highway

Sister cities

Guaratinguetá Guaratinguetá is a municipality in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 122,505 (2020 est.) in an area of 752.64 km2. It is locate ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil

Local attractions

* Ainohara remains (間之原遺跡) of

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

(3500 BC-3000 BC) * Koizumi Castle ruins (小泉城跡) * Koizumi shrine (小泉神社) * Ryusenji temple (竜泉寺)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oizumi, Gunma Brazilian communities Towns in Gunma Prefecture Ōizumi, Gunma Ethnic enclaves in Japan