290px, Hokkaido Pref Route 445 in Bifuka 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 ...

Kamikawa Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido 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 ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

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 3,665 in 2016 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 5.5 people per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Bifuka is located in a valley in the north central region of the island of Hokkaido. The town is surrounded by mountains. The

Teshio River The is a river in Hokkaido, Japan. At , it is the second-longest river on the island (after the Ishikari) and the fourth-longest in the country (after the Shinano, Tone, and Ishikari). A Class A river, the Teshio is the northernmost major rive ...

flows roughly northwest through Bifuka.

Neighboring municipalities

Bifuka borders six other municipalities, which span Kamikawa,

Okhotsk Okhotsk ( rus, Охотск, p=ɐˈxotsk) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Okhotsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk. Population: ...

, and Sōya subprefectures: Kamikawa Subprefecture *

Nayoro 280px, Nayoro city center is a city in Kamikawa Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 24,702, and a population density of 46 people per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography The main rivers in the ...

* Otoineppu * Nakagawa * Horokanai Okhotsk Subprefecture * Ōmu Sōya Subprefecture * Esashi

Climate

Nakagawa 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 ''Dfb'') characterized by cold summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nakagawa is 4.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1337 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 18.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around -9.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, Bifuka has undergone significant population decline over the past half-century.

History

The area of Bifuka has been inhabited since the

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 ...

, and was the site of a ''kotan'' was built by the

Ainu people The Ainu are an Indigenous peoples, indigenous ethnic group who reside in northern Japan and southeastern Russia, including Hokkaido and the Tōhoku region of Honshu, as well as the land surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, such as Sakhalin, the Ku ...

. On June 1, 1920 Chiebun Village (now part of Nayoro City) was divided, and Shimonayoro Village is renamed Bifuka Village. In the first census in October 1, 1920, Bifuka Village has 2,045 households and 10,991 inhabitants. It was raised to town status on April 1, 1923.

Government

Bifuka 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 eight members. Bifuka, collectively with the other municipalities of Kawakami sub-prefecture, contributes three members to the Hokkaidō Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the

Hokkaidō 6th district is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in the prefecture ''(-dō)'' of Hokkaidō and consists of Hokkaido's Kamikawa Subprefecture. The CDP lost the ...

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 main industries are agriculture,

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

, and forestry.

Sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

, raised in

fish farms Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It is a particular type of aquaculture, which is the controlled cultivation and harvesting of aquat ...

is a local specialty.

Education

Bifuka has one public elementary schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school ( Hokkaido Bifuka High School) operated by the Hokkaidō Board of Education. The prefecture also operates a special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railways

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to by its official abbreviation: . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a smart c ...

Sōya Main Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) in Hokkaido. The line connects Asahikawa Station in Asahikawa and Wakkanai Station in Wakkanai, and is the northernmost railway line in Japan. The name c ...

: The Soya Main Line previous had - - - within Bifuka, but all were closed between 2021 and 2024.

Highways

* *

Sister city relations

Ashcroft, British Columbia Ashcroft is a village municipality that straddles the Thompson River in the Thompson Country region of south central British Columbia, Canada. East of British Columbia Highway 1, BC Highway 1 and on British Columbia Highway 97C, BC Highway 97C, t ...

Local attractions

* Bifuka Sturgeon Museum, a small facility which maintains eight species of

sturgeon Sturgeon (from Old English ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''str̥(Hx)yón''-) is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the ...

. Sturgeon were found in the Teshio River as far as Bifuka until the

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 ...

. *Bikuka Ski Resort

Culture

Mascots

Bifuka's mascot are and . They are pumpkins who are best friends. Both wear hats made of birch trees. However, Bifuka-kun is a green pumpkin who wears a tie that resembled a sturgeon while Mimi-chan is an orange pumpkin who carries a bag that resembled a sturgeon.

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bifuka, Hokkaido Towns in Hokkaido Bifuka, Hokkaido