270px, Hayakawa Town Hall 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

Yamanashi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Yamanashi Prefecture has a population of 787,592 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,465 km2 (1,724 sq mi). Yamanashi Prefecture borders Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

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 ...

. As of 2020, 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 1,098 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 2.97 persons per km².Hayakawa population statistics
/ref> The total area of the town is . It has the smallest population of any town in Japan. Hayakawa is on the list of

The Most Beautiful Villages in Japan is a Japanese nonprofit organization of listing some of the most beautiful villages and towns in Japan. The association is active on enhancement and protection of Japanese rural heritage, cultural fairs, and branding and promotion of regional, ...

, established in 2005.

Geography

Hayakawa is located in far southwestern Yamanashi Prefecture. The Hayakawa River, a tributary of the

Fuji River The is a river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi and Shizuoka Prefectures of central Japan. It is long and has a drainage basin, watershed of . With the Mogami River and the Kuma River (Japan), Kuma River, it is regarded as one of the three mos ...

runs through the town. Some 96% of the town's area is covered by forest and mountains.

Neighboring municipalities

Shizuoka Prefecture *

Aoi-ku, Shizuoka is one of three wards of the city of Shizuoka in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, located in the northern part of the city. Aoi-ku borders Suruga-ku in the south and Shimizu-ku to the southeast; the west faces Shimada, Fujieda and Kawanehon a ...

Yamanashi Prefecture * Fujikawa * Minami-Alps * Minobu

Climate

The town 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 Hayakawa is 13.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1655 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.5 °C.Hayakawa climate data
/ref>

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Hayakawa has declined by more than 80% over the past 50 years. Over 40% of the town population shares the surname of "Mochizuki".

History

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 ...

, all of Kai Province was ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil war ...

'' territory under direct control of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. During the cadastral reform of 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 villages under Minamikoma District, Yamanashi. The town of Hayakawa was created on September 23, 1956 through the merger of five villages of Goka, Suzurishima, Miyakogawa, Misato and Nishiyama.

Education

Hayakawa has two public elementary schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government. The village does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

The town has no passenger rail service. The nearest train station is Minobu Station on the Minobu Line, with bus services very infrequently.

Highway

Hayakawa is not served by any national highway.

Culture

Until relatively recently, the village of Narada in Hayakawa was home to a language island known as the

Narada dialect The Narada dialect (Japanese: 奈良田方言 ''narada hogen'') was a Japanese dialect spoken in the village of Narada, Hayakawa, located in Yamanashi Prefecture. Having formerly been isolated for centuries from surrounding areas, the dialect wa ...

. Although the dialect is not in use anymore, it has had an effect on the accents of the current natives of the area.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Yamanashi Prefecture