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 Ibaraki 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 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 67,197 in 28,873 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 634 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 31.5%. The total area of the city is . Kashima is the home of the J. League's

Kashima Antlers The are a professional association football, football club based in Kashima, Ibaraki, Japan. They currently play in the J1 League, the top tier of Japanese professional football leagues. The club has financial backing from Mercari, a Japanese ...

. Its home field, Kashima Soccer Stadium, was used as a site during the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The city is also the site of the Kashima Shrine, one of the oldest

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

s in eastern Japan, and considered the birthplace of many influential styles of Japanese swordsmanship ('' Kenjutsu'').

Geography

Kashima is located in southeastern Ibaraki Prefecture, bordered by the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

to the east and Lake Kitaura (

Lake Kasumigaura is the second-largest lake in Japan, located 60 km to the north-east of Tokyo. In a narrower sense and officially, Lake Kasumigaura refers to a waterbody with an area of 167.63 km2. In a wider sense, Lake Kasumigaura can also refer ...

) to the west, with a width of less than 10 kilometers from east-to-west. It is approximately 110 kilometers to the northeast of Tokyo.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Hokota * Itako * Kamisu * Namegata

Climate

Kashima has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kashima is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kashima has recently plateaued after a long period of growth.

History

Kashima was developed from the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

together with the '' ichinomiya'' of

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

, Kashima Shrine. 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 Kashima was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889 within Kashima District. In 1954, Kashima annexed with the neighboring villages of Takamatsu, Toyosu, Toyosato and Namino. Kashima merged with the village of Ono on September 1, 1995 and was elevated to city status.

Government

Kashima 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 20 members. Kashima contributes one member to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 2nd 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

Kashima is the central city of the Kashima Industrial Zone, and it has a large

industrial park An industrial park, also known as industrial estate or trading estate, is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more heavyweight version of a business park or office par ...

with about 1500 factories, especially petrochemical and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

plants. The Japanese government created this zone in 1963, and the development was mostly completed in 1973. Agriculture and commercial fishing also play a part in the local economy.

Education

Kashima has 12 public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education. There are also one private middle school and two private high schools. * Seishin Gakuen Women's Junior College (1984–2003)

Sports

is the local J. League football club.

Transportation

Railway

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

– Kashima Line * - KRT logo

- Kashima Rinkai Railway Ōarai Kashima Line * - - - - -

Highway

* *

Seaport

* Port of Kashima

Sister cities

* Seogwipo,

Jeju Province Jeju Province (; ), officially Jeju Special Self-Governing Province (Jeju language, Jeju: ; ), is the southernmost Provinces of South Korea, province of South Korea, consisting of eight inhabited and 55 uninhabited islands, including Marado, Udo ...

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, since November 2003 * Yancheng, Jiangsu Province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, since November 2008

Local attractions

* Kashima Shrine

Notable people

* Tsukahara Bokuden, swordsman * Harumi Hanayagi, actress * Yuichi Nemoto, former soccer player * Ryuta Sasaki, former soccer player * Hitoshi Sogahata, soccer player * Juri Takahashi, singer, dancer, K-pop idol and former J-pop idol, member of

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

girlgroup

Rocket Punch Rocket Punch (; or as RCPC) was a South Korean girl group formed and managed by Woollim Entertainment in 2019. The group consisted of six members: Yeonhee, Suyun, Yunkyoung, Sohee, and Dahyun. Former member Juri Takahashi, Juri departed from th ...

Gallery

File:Kamisu Ibaraki.JPG, Port of Kashima with Kamisu in the foreground File:Kashima Soccer Stadium 1.jpg, Kashima Soccer Stadium File:Kashima Shrine main torii at dusk - sept 22 2015.jpg, The Torii Gate at the entrance of Kashima Shrine File:Monument for Kashima Antlers near Kashima Shrine.JPG, Monument for Kashima Antlers near Kashima Shrine

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan