is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Nagano Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,007,682 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture ...

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 village 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 4,360 in 1742 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 76 persons per km². The total area of the village is .

Geography

Aoki is located in the center of Nagano Prefecture, in a basin surrounded by mountains on three sides. The village is at an average elevation of between 500 and 850 meters, with approximately 80% of the village area covered in mountains and forests. Around 10% of the village area is agricultural, with rice, mushrooms and horticulture as the main agricultural activities.

Climate

The village has a climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cold 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 Aoki is 10.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1103 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.8 °C.

Surrounding municipalities

*Nagano Prefecture ** Chikuhoku ** Matsumoto ** Ueda

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Aoki population statistics
/ref> the population of Aoki has been declining over the past 60 years.

History

The area of present-day Aoki was part of ancient

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

. The area was part of the holdings of Ueda Domain 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 modern village of Aoki was established on April 1, 1889 by the establishment of the municipalities system. A proposal to merge with the neighboring city of Ueda was rejected by voters in 2002.

Education

Aoki has one public elementary school and one public middle school. The village does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

Since the discontinuation of the Ueda Onsen Electric Railway's Aoki Line in 1938, the village has not had passenger railway service.

Highway

Sister City relations

* - Nagaizumi, Shizuoka, Japan * - Namche Bazaar,

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

* -

Shōbu, Saitama was a List of towns in Japan, town located in Minami-Saitama District, Saitama, Minamisaitama District, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Population As of 2003, the town had an estimated population of 21,837 and a population density, density of 797.8 ...

, Japan

Local attractions

*Daihō-ji, a Buddhist temple with a three-story pagoda that is a National Treasure of Japan * Tazawa Onsen