270px, Kaizuka CIty Hall is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

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 city 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 83,995 in 37,778 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 1900 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kaizuka is located in the southern part of Izumi Region in

, bordered by

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. I ...

to the northwest. The Kogi River flows from east to west, the Tsuda River forms the line between this city and Kishiwada City, and the Mide River is a city boundary with Izumisano City.

Nankai Main Line The is one of the two main railway lines of Japanese private railway company Nankai Electric Railway, together with Nankai Kōya Line, Kōya Line. The route is from Namba Station in south downtown of Osaka to Wakayamashi Station in Wakayama, Wa ...

and

Hanwa Line The is a commuter rail line in the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto Metropolitan Area, owned and operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The 61.3 km (38.1 mi) line runs between Osaka and Wakayama, Japan and has a 1.7 km branchline ...

run from south to north, and the Mizuma Railway runs from east to west. Mount Izumi Katsuragi is partly in Kaizuka territory.

Neighboring municipalities

Osaka Prefecture * Izumisano * Kishiwada * Kumatori Wakayama Prefecture * Kinokawa

Climate

Kaizuka 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 Kaizuka is 14.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1475 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 3.3 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kaizuka has increased steadily over the last century..

History

The area of the modern city of Izumisano was within ancient

Izumi Province :''The characters ''泉州'' are also used for the name of the Chinese city of Quanzhou''. was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of southern Osaka Prefecture. It bordered on Kii Province, Kii to the south, Yamato Province, Ya ...

. The area was a stronghold of Ishiyama Hongan-ji during the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. 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 ...

, much of the city area was controlled by the Osaka machi-bugyō and by

Kishiwada Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Izumi Province in what is now the southern portion of modern-day Osaka Prefecture. It was centered around Kishiwada Castle and was controlled by the ''fudai dai ...

. 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 ...

, the town of Kaizuka established within Minami District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889, along with the villages of Asogou, Shima, Kijima and Nishi-Katsuragi. Kita-Kogi and Minami-Kogi (within Hine District) were also formed. On April 1, 1896 the area became part of

Sennan District, Osaka is a district located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Population As of 2009, the district has an estimated population of 70,631 and a density of 991 persons per km2. The total area is 71.27 km2. Economy At one time Peach Aviation had its h ...

. Kaizuka annexed Asogou, Shima, Kita-Kogi, and Minami-Kogi on April 1, 1931, Kijima on April 15, 1935 and Nishi-Katsuragi on April 1, 1939. Kaizuka was elevated to city status on October 1, 1943.

Government

Kaizuka 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 18 members. Kaizuka contributes one member to the

Osaka Prefectural Assembly The is the legislature of Osaka Prefecture. As in all prefectures, it is elected to four-year terms by single non-transferable vote in multi- and single-member districts and is responsible for enacting and amending prefectural by-laws, approving ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Osaka 19th 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

Kaizuka has been famous for its production of wooden combs since ancient times. Made of

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...

, this remains an important handicraft and is the motif of the city's mascot character. The city economy is a mixture of industrial (textiles, steel wire and rope) and agriculture (onions, eggplant). Many residents commute to larger cities to the north, including

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its '' kofun'', keyhole-shaped burial mounds dating from the fifth century. The ''kofun ...

and Osaka. Taking advantage of the city's proximity to

Kansai International Airport Kansai International Airport (), commonly known as Kankū (; ), is the primary international airport in the Keihanshin, Greater Osaka Area of Japan and the closest international airport to the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. It is located on ...

, the Nishikinohama Industrial Park was constructed by reclaiming the offshore area of on the right bank of the mouth of the Kogi River.

Education

Kaizuka has 11 public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government and three public high schools operated by the Osaka Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one private high school. The Osaka Kawasaki Rehabilitation University is also located in Kaizuka.

Transportation

Airport

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, ...

–

* -

Nankai Electric Railway is a private railway in Japan, founded in 1884. The name ''Nankai'' (which means "South Sea") comes from the company's routes along the Nankaidō, the old highway that ran south from the old capital, Kyoto, along the sea coast. Nankai predate ...

* - Mizuma Railway - Mizuma Line * - - - - - - - - -

Highway

Hanshin Expressway The is a network of expressways surrounding Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto, Japan. History Operated by , it opened in 1962. Portions of the Hanshin Expressway about east of Fukae Station collapsed during the Kobe earthquake on 17 January 1995 ...

Hanwa Expressway * JP Expressway E71

Kansai-Kūkō Expressway * *

Local attractions

*Gansen-ji * Kōon-ji * Kumano Kodo *Mizuma-dera *Nishikinohama Beach *Okumizuma Onsen

Sports

The city is promoting volleyball because it used to be the home of called led by .Hirofumi Daimatsu - International Volleyball Hall of Fame
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Sister cities

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...

, United States, since 1965 *

Saint Helier St Helier (; Jèrriais: ; ) is the Capital city, capital of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. It is the most populous of the twelve parishes of Jersey, with a population of 35,822, over one-third of the island' ...

, Jersey

Notable people from Kaizuka

Aya Hisakawa is a Japanese voice actress and singer. In addition to releasing various solo CDs, Hisakawa is well known for her voice roles in anime and video games. Some of her major roles are Retsu Unohana in ''Bleach'', Sailor Mercury in ''Sailor Moon'', S ...

, voice actress, singer * Emma Haruka Iwao, computer scientist * Atsushi Kotoge, professional wrestler

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Osaka Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan