290px, Kitakamiyama Village Hall 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 Yoshino District,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

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 380 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 1.4 persons per km². The total area of the village is .

Geography

Kitakamiyama is located in the mountainous area in the southern part of Yoshino County. It is a mountain village rich in nature, with the ridge of the Omine Mountains to the west and the Daidaka Mountains and Odaigahara to the east. Wasamatayama Ski Resort, one of two ski resorts in the prefecture, is located in the north. There are many narrow roads, and it is not easy to access the village by any route other than National Route 169. Approximately 97% of the village's area is covered by forest.

Climate

Kamikitayama 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 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 ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than most parts of Honshū. There is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kamikitayama is . The average annual rainfall is with September the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Kamikitayama was on 17 August 2020; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 28 February 1981.

Demographics

The population has been consistently declining over the last 50 years. The village has an ageing population.

History

The area of Kamikitayama was part of ancient

Yamato Province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

. The village of Kitakamiyama was established on April 1, 1889, with the creation of the modern municipalities system.

Government

Kamikitayama 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 eight members. Kamikitayama, collectively with the other municipalities of Yoshino District, contributes two members to the Nara Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the village is part of the Nara 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 local economy is based on tourism and forestry. Due to the terrain, there is very little agriculture.

Education

Kitakamiyama has one public combined elementary/junior high school operated by the village government. The village does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railways

Kamikitayama has no passenger railway service. The nearest train station is Yamato-Kamiichi Station on the Kintetsu Yoshino Line in Yoshino.