is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Aichi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,461,111 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the ...

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 city 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 87,651 in 36,997 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 3,188 persons per km². The total area of the city was .Ama City official home page
Ama is a member of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

’s Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC).

Geography

Ama is located in the far west of Aichi Prefecture in the middle of the Nōbi Plain. The city is at or below sea level. Ama is located 15 minutes from downtown Nagoya by car or train.

Climate

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

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa''). The average annual temperature in Ama is 15.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1699 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 28.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ama has been increasing rapidly over the past 50 years.

Neighboring municipalities

;

* Aisai *

Inazawa is a Cities of Japan, city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 135,580 in 54,999 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city was . Geography Inazawa is located in the flatlands o ...

* Kanie * Kiyosu *

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...

– Nakagawa-ku, Nakamura-ku * Ōharu * Tsushima

History

Origins

Ama was part of the former

Owari Province was a province of Japan in the area that today forms the western half of Aichi Prefecture, including the modern city of Nagoya. The province was created in 646. Owari bordered on Mikawa, Mino, and Ise Provinces. Owari and Mino provinces w ...

, and has been inhabited continuously since the Jomon period.

Ancient history

The temple of Jimoku-ji was founded in the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

by Empress Suiko.

Feudal period

From the

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

, it was a ''

shukuba were Stage station, staging post stations during the Edo period in Japan, generally located on one of the Edo Five Routes or one of its sub-routes. They were also called ''shuku-eki'' (宿駅). These stage stations, or "" developed around them, ...

'' on the Kamakura Kaidō. During the Sengoku period, it was the home of the ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...

'' Hachisuka Masakatsu, whose clan ruled from Hachitsuka Castle. It was also the birthplace of Fukushima Masanori, another Sengoku-period warlord.

Early modern period

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 ...

, it formed part of the holdings of the Owari Tokugawa of Owari Domain. From the Edo period, the area was known as a center for

Cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...

production.

Late modern period

During the early

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

, the area was organized into several villages under Ama District, Aichi Prefecture with the establishment of the modern municipalities system.

Contemporary history

Jimokuji, was elevated to town status in 1933, Miwa in 1958 and Shippō in 1966. The three towns, plus the town of Ōharu began

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

discussions in 2008; however, an agreement could not be made with Ōharu, which left the discussions later that year. The remaining three towns passed a referendum in 2009, and the new city of Ama was founded and created on March 22, 2010. The naming of the city came from one of the 6 candidates, (Nishi-Nagoya, Meinishi, Umibe, Kaitō, Ama, Nishi-Owari) and the name chosen from the votes was Meinishi, but the merger councils decided they want to keep the name “Ama”, despite it having the least votes. This resulted the referendum becoming meaningless.

Government

Ama 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 ...

city legislature of 22 members. The city contributes two members to the Aichi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Aichi District 9 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

Ceramic engineering

（ Owari Cloisonné）

Commerce

Due to its proximity to the Nagoya metropolis, Ama has developed into a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

and its population has grown rapidly.

Education

Ama has twelve public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government and two public high schools operated by the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

Conventional lines

;

Meitetsu * Tsushima Line：- - - -

Roads

Expressways

* Nagoya Daini Kanjo Expressway * Higashi-Meihan Expressway

Japan National Route

Local attractions

*Shippo Art Village *Site of Tokushima Castle * Jimoku-ji, Buddhist temple from the Asuka period

Notable people from Ama

* Nobutaka Hirano, volleyball player * Koki Kano, fencer * Hachisuka Masakatsu, Samurai * Fukushima Masanori,

Samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

* Maeda Matsu, Maeda Toshiie's wife * Yūko Mizutani (1964 - 2016), seiyū * Noboru Ogasawara, physician * Junichi Sato, anime director

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Aichi Prefecture