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

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

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 64,690 in 26,510 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 500 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

History

The

Chiba clan The Chiba Clan (千葉氏 ''Chiba-shi'') was a Japanese '' gōzoku'' and samurai family descending from the Taira clan. The clan was founded by Chiba Tsuneshige, originally Taira Tsuneshige. The Chiba governed in Shimōsa Province, and the cla ...

, or branches of it, ruled the Shimōsa region for about 400 years 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 ...

. During the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

, the Chiba clan gained the protection of such powerful clans as the Odawara Hōjō clan, allowing them to get a stronger foothold over the area. They lost control when the Hōjō clan was overthrown in 1590 by

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. After that, General Kiso Yoshimasa settled in the region. He restored the Ajito Castle, which was the inspiration for the name "Asahi." When poet Nonoguchi Takamasa visited the area in 1852, he wrote a poem about the general, from which the name "Asahi," which can mean "rising sun," was taken: "from Shinano / adoring the rising sun / he came to the eastern land / and there remains the evidence of his earthly life" In 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 ...

, various agricultural changes in the region occurred. The first was the reclamation of the "Sea of Camellias", a vast lake, which was drained into the Pacific Ocean to create the fertile Higata Hachiman-goku. The second was spurred on by the arrival of agrarian scholar Ohara Yugaku in 1835 and other ''

kokugaku was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Edo period. scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of ...

'' scholars who helped to revive agriculture in the area. During this same time, while Iioka Sukegoro was helping to develop the fishing industry, fishermen from the

Kansai region The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropol ...

moved to the area to take advantage of the bountiful fishing grounds available. The town of Asahi was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to city status on July 1, 1954. On July 1, 2005, the city of Asahi, the town of Hikata (from Katori District), and the towns of Iioka and Unakami (both from Kaijo District) merged on equal terms to form the new Asahi city. In March 2011, the city was greatly affected by 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent

nuclear disaster A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, la ...

. Around 15 people were killed, 2,265 buildings were damaged, with 427 buildings destroyed, 716 people were left homeless, and heavy damage was done to the town's port and fishing boat fleet following the triple disaster.

Geography

Asahi is located in far northeastern Chiba Prefecture, approximately 50 kilometers from the prefectural capital at Chiba and 80 to 90 kilometers from central Tokyo. Located at the northern end of the Kujukuri Plain, the southern part faces Kujukuri Beach and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, and the

Shimōsa Plateau The is a plateau on the Kantō Plain in central Honshu, Japan. The plateau covers most of northern Chiba Prefecture. The plateau was historically richly agricultural, but in the 20th century the western and central Shimōsa Plateau became one of ...

extends to the northern part.

Surrounding municipalities

Chiba Prefecture *

Chōshi Chōshi (, ) is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,174 in 27,160 households and a population density of . The total area of the city is . Geography Chōshi is located in the northeastern part ...

* Katori *

Sōsa is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 35,674 in 14,688 households and a population density of 350 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Sōsa is located in far northeaster ...

* Tōnoshō

Climate

Asahi has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Asahi is 15.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1559 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.2 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Asahi has remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

Government

Asahi 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 council of 20 members. Asahi contributes one member to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Chiba 10th 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

The local economy is dominated by

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 ...

, agricultural and seasonal tourism to its beach resorts.

Agriculture

Asahi City's agricultural output is ranked first in Chiba Prefecture and ninth in Japan. The city's location on the coast of the

Bōsō Peninsula The is a peninsula that encompasses the entirety of Chiba Prefecture on Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It is part of the Greater Tokyo Area. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula covers ...

gives it easy access to abundant fishing grounds created by the intersection of the Japan Current and the Okhotsk Current. Iioka fishing port has the second highest volume of fish unloaded in Chiba Prefecture.

Flowers

* Cyclamens *

Garland Chrysanthemum ''Glebionis coronaria'', formerly called ''Chrysanthemum coronarium'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region. It is cultivated and naturalized in East Asia and in scattered locations i ...

Petunia ''Petunia'' is a genus of 20 species of flowering plants of South American origin. The popular flower of the same name derived its epithet from the French, which took the word , 'tobacco', from a Tupi–Guarani language. A tender perennial plan ...

Rapeseed Rapeseed (''Brassica napus'' subsp. ''napus''), also known as rape and oilseed rape and canola, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturall ...

* Transvaal (

Bellis perennis ''Bellis perennis'' (), the daisy, is a European species of the family Asteraceae, often considered the archetypal species of the name ''daisy''. To distinguish this species from other plants known as daisies, it is sometimes qualified or known a ...

)

Fruits, vegetables, and grains

Cherry tomato The cherry tomato is a type of small round tomato believed to be an intermediate genetic admixture between Solanum pimpinellifolium, wild currant-type tomatoes and domesticated garden tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes range in size from a thumbtip up ...

es *

Cucumber The cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.Mushrooms A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

Oriental pickling melon Oriental pickling melon, called ''wolgwa'' () in Korean, and ''shirouri'' (; ) in Japanese, is a group of nonsweet melon cultivars used in Asian cuisines. Use The melon is used as a vegetable in Asian cuisines. Japan In Japan, the melon is ...

Parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

* Slender green peppers *

Strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit is appreciated f ...

* Takami Melons *

Tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

es *

Zucchini Zucchini (; : ''zucchini'' or ''zucchinis''), courgette () or ''Cucurbita pepo'' is a summer squash, a Vine, vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and Fruit anatomy#Epicarp, epicarp (rind) are still soft a ...

Seafood and meat

Flounder Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They are demersal fish, found at the bottom of oceans around the world; some species will also enter estuary, estuaries. Taxonomy The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related speci ...

* Infant

Anchovies An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

* Inshore

Oysters Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of Seawater, salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in Marine (ocean), marine or Brackish water, brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly Calcification, calcified, a ...

Pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry, husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooke ...

Sardines Sardine and pilchard are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring suborder Clupeoidei. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century; a somewhat dubious etymology says it come ...

Education

Asahi has 15 public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education.

High schools

* Chiba Prefectural Asahi Agricultural High School * Chiba Prefectural Toso Technological High School

Junior high schools

* Daiichi Public Junior High School * Daini Public Junior High School * Hikata Public Junior High School * Iioka Public Junior High School * Unakami Public Junior High School

Elementary schools

* Chuou Public Elementary School * Chuwa Public Elementary School * Higata Public Elementary School * Iioka Public Elementary School * Kojou Public Elementary School * Kotoda Public Elementary School * Kyouwa Public Elementary School * Manzai Public Elementary School * Oumei Public Elementary School * Sangawa Public Elementary School * Takisato Public Elementary School * Tomiura Public Elementary School * Toyohata Public Elementary School * Tsurumaki Public Elementary School * Yasashi Public Elementary School

Transportation

Railways

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

–

Sōbu Main Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It connects Tokyo with the east coast of Chiba Prefecture, passing through the cities of Funabashi, Chiba, and Chōshi. Its name derives from the ...

* Higata -

Asahi Asahi (Japanese 朝日, 旭, or あさひ 'morning sun') may refer to: Places in Japan Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi ...

- Iioka - Kurahashi The

Shiosai The is a limited express train service in Japan operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It runs from and to on the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture. Station stops ''Shiosai'' services operate over the Sōbu Main Line, stoppi ...

Limited Express service stops at Asahi and Iioka stations.

Highways

City landmarks

Administered by Chiba Prefecture

* Chiba East Prefectural Library * General Sports Center, Toso Stadium * Iioka Gyobu Misaki Observatory and Lighthouse * Toso Culture Center

Administered by Asahi City

* Asahi Chuo Hospital * Asahi City Public Library * Asahi Sports-no-Mori Park * Asahi Park Golf Course * Fukuro Park * Iioka swimming area * Manzai Nature Park * Ohara Yugaku Memorial Hall and Historical Park * Taki-no-Sato Nature Park * Unakami Camp Park * Unakami Community Athletic Park * Yasashigaura swimming area (nicknamed "The Mecca of Surfing")

Temples and shrines

Ryufuku-ji Temple * Kamakazu Ise Daijin-gū * Kumano Shrine * Rai Shrine * Ryūfuku-ji *

Tamasaki Shrine is a Shinto shrine in the Ichinomiya neighborhood of the town of Ichinomiya in Chōsei District, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. It is the ''ichinomiya'' of former Kazusa Province. The main festival of the shrine is held annually on September 13, and ...

Other

* Kampo no Yado hotel and hot springs (run by

Japan Post Holdings is a Japanese publicly traded Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. It is mainly engaged in postal and logistics business, financial window business, banking business and life insura ...

)

Events

Annual

* Iioka Shiosai Marathon – first Sunday of February * Fukuro Park Cherry Blossom Festival - April 1 - May 5 * Asahi Iioka Port / Seafood Festival - end of May * Iioka Fireworks Festival – last Saturday of July * Iioka "YOU You" Festival – last Saturday and Sunday of July * Summer Fest at Yasashigaura - beginning of August * Citizens'

Tanabata , also known as the , is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milk ...

Festival – August 6 and 7 * Asahi Beach Sand Sculpture displays * Hebizono-deshimizu Cosmos Festival - beginning of October * Ikiiki Asahi Citizens' Festival - middle of October * Hikata Furusato Festival - middle of November * Unakami Industry Festival - end of November

Other

* 2010

National Sports Festival of Japan The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and Octob ...

Table Tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

tournament (Held at Sports-no-Mori Park from September 30 to October 4) * Goshinkosai Festival at Kumano Shrine (held every 12 years) * Goshinkosai Festival at Dairi Shrine (held every 33 years) * Miroku-sanbaso procession of Kurahashi (held every 20 years)

Sister cities

* Chino,

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 ...

, sister city * Nakagusuku,

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

, friendship city

Mascots

Asahi City uses characters from

Tetsuya Chiba is a Japanese manga artist. Considered a major figure in the history of manga, many of his early titles are still in print due to continued popularity. He is most famous for his sports stories, having been described as "the biggest contributor ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

works as official mascots, including Mukai Taiyo from "Ashita Tenki ni Naare" as the mascot of Asahi Park Golf Course. Framed art and messages from

can be seen in many public buildings. Tetsuya Chiba lived in Asahi (then Iioka-machi) during his childhood.

Noted people from Asahi

Noriko Arai is a paralympic track and field, athlete from Japan who competes mainly in T34 (classification), category T34 sprint events. Noriko competed in the 100m and 200m at three consecutive Paralympics. In her first two games in 1996 Summer ...

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

Hiromichi Ishige Hiromichi Ishige (石毛宏典, born September 22, 1956) is a retired Japanese professional baseball player and manager in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He played most of his career for the Seibu Lions. The 1986 Pacific League Most Va ...

, professional baseball player *

Shoya Tomizawa (10 December 1990 – 5 September 2010) was a Japanese motorcycle racer. After a successful career in the All Japan Road Race Championship, he switched to MotoGP and competed in the 250cc class during 2009. In the 2010 season he rode in the newly ...

, professional motorcycle racer

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cities in Chiba Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan