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 ...

located in

Aomori , officially Aomori City (, ), is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,945 in 136,781 households, and a population density of 321 people per squa ...

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 5,913 in 2829 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 20 persons per km². Its total area is .

Geography

Higashidōri occupies the northeastern coastline of

Shimokita Peninsula The is the remote northeastern cape of the Japanese island of Honshū, stretching out towards Hokkaido. Overview It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, Tsugaru Strait to the north and Mutsu Bay to the west and south. Shaped like an ...

, facing 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 ...

to the east and

Tsugaru Strait The is a strait between Honshu and Hokkaido in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean. It was named after the western part of Aomori Prefecture. The Seikan Tunnel passes under it at its narrowest point 12.1 miles ...

to the north, with

Cape Shiriya is a headland on the northeastern point of the island of Honshu in Japan. It is located within the borders of the town of Higashidōri, Aomori in northern Shimokita Peninsula, and is part of the Shimokita Hantō Quasi-National Park. The cape i ...

forming a boundary between the two waters. The low Shimokita Hills run north-south through the center of the village. Mount Kuwabata, the highest point in the village at an elevation of 402 meters. To the west of the Shimokita Hills is the Tanabe Plain, which borders Mutsu City. There are large sand dunes and several swamps near the eastern coast, and many rivers flow to the sea. Hamlets are scattered throughout the coastline of the village, which does not have a well-defined center. Parts of the village are within the limits of the

Shimokita Hantō Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in the Shimokita Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of far northern Honshū in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. The park, consists of several discontinuous l ...

. In the year 2002, the Ministry of the Environment classified some

tidal flat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal ...

s of the Higashidōri shoreline to be one of the 500 Important Wetlands in Japan and an important wintering place for

Brent geese The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after ...

Neighbouring municipalities

Aomori Prefecture * Mutsu *

Rokkasho is a List of villages in Japan, village in Aomori Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 9,845 in 4988 households, and a population density of 40 persons per km². The total area of the village is . Geography Rokkasho ...

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Climate

The village has a cold

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 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 ...

''Dfb'') characterized by short, cool summers and long, cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Higashidōri is 8.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1268 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 21.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around -3.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Higashidōri peaked around the year 1960 and has declined over the past 60 years.

History

The area around Higashidōri was inhabited by the ''

Emishi The were a group of people who lived in parts of northern Honshū in present-day Japan, especially in the Tōhoku region. The first mention of the Emishi in literature that can be corroborated with outside sources dates to the 5th century AD, ...

'' people, with archaeological remains dating to 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 ...

. 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 was controlled by the

Nambu clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Genji of Kai Pr ...

Morioka Domain 300px, Ruins of Morioka Castle was a '' tozama'' feudal domain of Edo period Japan. It was ruled throughout its history by the Nanbu clan. It was called during the early part of its history. It was located in northern Mutsu Province, Honshū ...

, but was a sparsely populated area with scattered fishing hamlets. With the establishment of the modern municipalities system on 1 April 1889, Higashidōri Village was proclaimed from the merger of twelve small hamlets, although the village administrative center was kept within the town hall of neighboring Tanabu Town (now part of the city of Mutsu). In 1988, to celebrate its 100th anniversary as a village, a village hall was finally built within the borders of Higashidōri.

Government

Higashidōri 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 ...

village council of 14 members. Higashidōri is part of Shimokita District which, together with the city of Mutsu, contributes three members to the Aomori Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Aomori 1st district Aomori 1st district (青森県第1区, ''Aomori-ken dai-ikku'' or simply 青森1区, ''Aomori-ikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan. It is located in Northern Aomori and covers 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 ...

Education

Higashidōri has one public elementary school and one public middle school operated by the town government. The village does not have a high school.

Economy

The economy of Higashidōri was traditionally almost completely dependent on

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 ...

. However, since the 1980s, there has been massive investment from

Tōhoku Electric Power Company is an electric utility, servicing 7.6 million individual and corporate customers in six prefectures in Tōhoku region plus Niigata Prefecture. It provides electricity at 100 V, 50 Hz, though some areas use 60 Hz. Tohoku Electric Power ...

and

Tokyo Electric Power Company is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, an ...

towards the construction of the Higashidōri Nuclear Power Plant and related support facilities. In addition, the Iwaya

Wind Farm A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...

, with a total generation capacity of 32.5 MW, is the largest in Japan.Eco Power home page
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Transportation

Railway

Higashidōri has no passenger railway service. The nearest train station is

Shimokita Station is a railway station in the city of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East).It was formerly also the terminal station for the Shimokita Kōtsu Company's , which closed in 2001 and was replaced by a bus ...

on the

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 ...

Ōminato Line The is a railway line operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Noheji Station and Ōminato Station on the Shimokita Peninsula in eastern Aomori Prefecture. Station list :●: All rapid service trains stop, ○: Some r ...

Highway

Local attractions

Hamashiriya Shell Mound The is an archaeological site consisting of a series of Shell middens and the remains of an adjacent settlement located in the village of Higashidōri on the Shimokita Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of far northern Japan. I ...

, a National Historic Site *

Sarugamori Sand Dunes is a large area of sand dunes located to the east of the village of Higashidōri in northeastern Aomori Prefecture, facing the Pacific Ocean. They are also known as the because of their location on Shimokita Peninsula. Geography Measuri ...

Shiriyazaki Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the outermost extremity of Cape Shiriyazaki, the northeasternmost point of Honshu, in Higashidōri, Aomori Prefecture, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Higashidori, Aomori Villages in Aomori Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Higashidōri, Aomori