270px, Inami port and old town 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

Hidaka District There are 2 districts in Japan with the same name. * Hidaka District, Wakayama * Hidaka District, Hokkaido {{disambig ...

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

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 8,026 in 3333 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 71 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Inami is located in central Wakayama Prefecture, bordered by the Kii Channel to the southwest. The area is mostly forest at the western end of the Kii Mountains. The coastal areas are warm due to the influence of the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black Current or is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

, and are cultivated. The mountain area has a high elevation and snowfall can be seen in winter. The Kirime River, Innami River, and Oji River flow through the town.

Neighboring municipalities

Wakayama Prefecture * Gobō * Hidakagawa * Minabe * Tanabe

Climate

Inami 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 Inami is 15.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2077 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 6.1 °C. The area is subject to

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s in summer.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Inami population statistics
/ref> the population of Inami has been decreasing rapidly over the past 40 years.

History

The area of the modern town of Inami was within ancient

Kii Province , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato Pro ...

, and was noted as a fishing port 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 ...

. The village of Inami was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was elevated to town status on April 14, 1900. The neighboring village of Inahara was annexed on September 30, 1956, followed by the village of Kirimegawa and Azumi on August 1, 1957.

Government

Inami 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 12 members. Inami collectively with the other municipalities of

Hidaka District There are 2 districts in Japan with the same name. * Hidaka District, Wakayama * Hidaka District, Hokkaido {{disambig ...

, contributes three members to the

Wakayama Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefe ...

. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Wakayama 3rd district Wakayama 3rd district is a former constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature), located in Wakayama Prefecture and consisted of Arida, Gobo, Shingu, and Tanabe cities and the Arida, Hidaka, Higashi ...

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 Inami is centered on forestry and agriculture. The town is famous for its

snow pea The snow pea is an edible-pod pea with flat pods and thin pod walls, in contrast to snap pea pods, which are round with thick walls. It is eaten whole, with both the seeds and the pod, while still unripened. Names The common name snow pea ...

umeboshi ''Umeboshi'' (Japanese language, Japanese: wiktionary:梅, 梅干し, pronounced , ) are pickled (brined) ''ume'' fruits common in Japanese cuisine, Japan. The word ''umeboshi'' is often translated into English as 'salted Japanese plums', 'J ...

and watermelons.

Education

Inami has four public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

–

Kisei Main Line The is a railway line that parallels the coastline of the Kii Peninsula in Japan between Mie Prefecture and Wakayama Prefecture. The name takes the ''kanji'' characters from the names of the old provinces of and . The line is operated by Cen ...

* - -

Highways

Hanwa Expressway * *

References

External links

*
Wakayama official town website
Towns in Wakayama Prefecture Inami, Wakayama Populated coastal places in Japan {{Wakayama-geo-stub