270px, Hiji Town Hall 270px, Hiji Castle ruins 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 Hayami District,

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,081,646 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, K ...

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 28,025 in 12811 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 380 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Hiji is located in central Ōita Prefecture, at the southern tip of the Kunisaki Peninsula, about 25 kilometers north of the prefectural capital at Ōita City. It occupies the northern shore of

Beppu Bay is an arm of the western end of the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. Beppu Bay is located on the northeast coast of Kyushu in Ōita Prefecture. The city of Ōita, Ōita, Ōita lies on its southern coast and the city of Beppu, Ōita, Beppu at its west ...

Neighbouring municipalities

Ōita Prefecture * Beppu * Kitsuki * Usa

Climate

Hiji 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 Hiji is 16.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1623 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.6 °C, and lowest in January, at around 5.6 °C. Hiji climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Hiji is as shown below

History

The area of Hiji was part of ancient Bungo Province. 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 mostly under control of

Hiji Domain 270px, Kinoshita Toshimasa, final ''daimyō'' of Hiji Domain 270px, Stone walls of Hiji Castle was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now central Ōita Prefecture. It was centered around Hiji Castle ...

and was ruled by the Kinoshita clan, relatives of

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: ...

. The town of Hiji within Hayami District, Ōita was established on May 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. on March 31, 1954 Hiji expanded through a merger with the town of Toyooka and villages of Ogami, Kawasaki, and Fujiwara in Hayami District.

Government

Hiji 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 16 members. Hiji contributes one member to the Ōita Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Ōita 3rd 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 economy of Hiji has traditionally been centered on agriculture and commercial fishing, with

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 ...

from Beppu Bay a notable local speciality. The area has been designated as a new industrial urban development area in the Ōita area and as a technopolis in the northern Kunisaki area of the prefecture, and many companies are moving into the area. The population has increased significantly as a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

for Ōita City and Beppu City.

Education

Hiji has five public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Ōita Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railways

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Nippō Main Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, in southern Japan, operated by Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). Also known as the Fukuhoku Nippo Line, The line connects Kokura Station in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima Station in Kagoshima, Kagoshima, K ...

* - - -

Highways

Ōita Expressway * JP Expressway E10

Higashikyushu Expressway * * *

Places of interests

The town has a

trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious o ...

monastery and is also the home of

Sanrio is a Japanese entertainment company. It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the ''kawaii'' ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture. Their products include stationery, school supplies, gifts, and Fashion accessory, a ...

's Harmonyland

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

Noted people from Hiji

* Megumi Asaoka, singer, actress

References

External links

*
Town of Hiji
Towns in Ōita Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Hiji, Ōita {{Oita-geo-stub