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 Iwami District, Tottori 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 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 10,998 in 4429 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 90 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Iwami lies entirely within the San'in Kaigan Geopark. Iwami is San'in Kaigan's biggest international beach resort.

Geography

Japan Tottori Iwami post typhoon DSC01735

Located in eastern Tottori, Iwami faces the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

to the north. The surrounding landscape is dominated by low-lying hills and slopes; much of the built town and residential areas are located in flatter land between the heights. The north of the town borders onto Uradome Beach, though much of the rest of the coast consists of rough rocky outcrops and small inlets and bays. 15 km of this, collectively known as the Uradome Coast, is part of the Sanin Kaigan National Park. The Gamō River runs through the centre of the town. Iwami is around 30 minutes by train from the prefectural capital of Tottori City, and is the third stop by train heading east on the Tottori-Hamasaka line.

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

and Iwami's sister town of Shin'onsen are relatively nearby as well. Weather in Iwami can be quite changeable, with summer temperatures peaking at over 30 degrees Celsius in August and dropping as low as -2 degrees in January and February. Whilst relatively tectonically stable for Japan, the area is prone to the occasional

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 ...

during the season.

Neighbouring municipalities

* Shin'onsen Tottori Prefecture * Tottori

Climate

Iwami has a Humid climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Iwami is . The average annual rainfall is with December as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 22 August 2018, and its record low is , reached on 9 February 2018.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Iwami has been decreased steadily since the 1950s.

History

The area of Iwami was part of ancient Inaba 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings of Tottori Domain ruled by a branch of the Ikeda clan from their seat at Tottori Castle. Iwami District, Tottori was established after the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

and divided into several villages with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1,1896. The town of Iwami was established on July 1, 1954 by the merger of two towns (Uradome and Iwai) and seven villages.

Government

Iwami 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 twelve members. Iwami contributes one member to the Tottori Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Tottori 1st 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 majority of the town's working population is connected with the

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 ...

industry, notably

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

fishing boats or

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

. Agriculture is also important, with the most common crop being rice. Iwami also has a locally renowned onsen (hot spring), the Iwai onsen.

Education

Iwami has three public elementary schools and one junior high school operated by the town government, and one public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

operated by the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education.

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, ...

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

* - -

Highways

San'in Kinki Expressway * *

Sister cities

* Shin'onsen, Japan, since July 1, 1964 *

Kunigami is a List of villages in Japan, village in Kunigami District, Okinawa, Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and Municipalities ...

, Japan, since July 16, 2023

Local attractions

* Iwai temple ruins, National Historic Site *Iwami Onsen * Uradome Coast, National Place of Scenic Beauty

Culture

Iwami served as the model for the fictional town of Iwatobi, the setting for the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series '' Free!''. Iwami has used the series to promote tourism to the town.

Noted people from Iwami

* Komakichi Matsuoka, politician

References

External links

*
Iwami official website
{{Authority control Towns in Tottori Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Iwami, Tottori