Kashiwa, Chiba
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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 Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , 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 435,578 in 199,926 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 3800 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . The name of the city is written with a single ''
kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
'' character: , a reference to '' Quercus dentata'', commonly known in English as the Japanese emperor oak or daimyo oak.


Geography

Kashiwa is located on the Shimōsa Plateau in the far northwestern corner of Chiba Prefecture, about 30 kilometers from the prefectural capital at Chiba and 25 to 35 kilometers from central Tokyo. It is separated from Ibaraki Prefecture to the north by the
Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...
. Located on the Kanto Plain, the city is flat, with an elevation of between 5 and 32 meters above sea level.


Neighboring municipalities

*Chiba Prefecture ** Abiko ** Inzai ** Kamagaya ** Matsudo ** Nagareyama ** Noda ** Shiroi * Ibaraki Prefecture ** Moriya ** Toride


Climate

Kashiwa 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 Kashiwa is 14.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1358 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.9 °C.


Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kashiwa has been increasing rapidly over the past 70 years.


History


Early history

Kashiwa has been settled since ancient times, and was historically part of Shimōsa Province. The area around Kashiwa was the site of the Battle of Sakainehara in 1478 early in the Sengoku period (1467 – 1573). 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 ...
(1603 – 1868), the area was '' tenryō'' territory controlled directly by the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
. The shogunate established a number of horse ranches which provided war horses for the army of the shogunate. The Tokugawa shogunate put much effort into draining the marshy areas of Lake Tega (Lake Teganuma) during the Edo period as part of large-scale
land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...
carried out across Japan. Kashiwa was developed as a post station on the Mito Kaidō, which connected the capitol at Edo with Mito in present-day Ibaraki Prefecture.


Modern history

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 ...
in 1868, Kashiwa Village was created in Chiba Prefecture on October 1, 1889, with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. Kashiwa was connected to Tokyo by rail in 1896, and rail construction during the
Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
(1868 – 1912) established the area as a commercial center. Kashiwa became a town on September 15, 1926. Kashiwa, like much of northern Chiba Prefecture, saw the development of numerous military installations in the 1930s, notably after the Mukden Incident in 1931. The Imperial Japanese Army established Kashiwa Air Field and Kashiwa Military Hospital, and Kashiwa became a military town. The air field was abandoned after the end of World War II, but the hospital continues to exist as the Kashiwa Public Hospital. On September 1, 1954, Kashiwa absorbed neighboring Kogane Town and Tsuchi and Tanaka villages to form the new city of . However, many politicians in Kogane Town were vehemently opposed to the merger, and forced its dissolution on October 15, 1954, with most of former Kogane Town merging with Matsudo city instead. On November 1, 1954, Fuse Village broke away from Tokatsu, eventually joining Abiko Town to form the city of Abiko. The remaining portion of Tokatsu was renamed Kashiwa on November 15, 1954. On December 25, 1955, a fire of unknown origin destroyed the former Kashiwa City Hall, and burned down most of the center of the city. In the 1960s, Kashiwa was designated for reconstruction with a special fund from the central government, which included Japan's first pedestrian decks, completed at Kashiwa Station in 1973. Also during this period, new town developments greatly expanded the city's population. On April 1, 2008, Kashiwa was designated as a core city, with increased local autonomy. In August 2010, the city population exceeded 400,000 people.


Government

Kashiwa has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 36 members. Kashiwa contributes five members to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Chiba 8th district and the Chiba 13th 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

Kashiwa is a regional commercial center and a
bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
for nearby Chiba and Tokyo. Due to its good transportation connection with Tokyo, an estimated 42.3% of the working population (2015 census) commute to Tokyo for work. The city has a mixed industrial base, with food processing industries forming an important portion of the economy. Nikka Whisky Distilling, Asahi Soft Drinks, and Ito Ham all have production facilities in Kashiwa. There is some residual agriculture of turnips, onions and spinach.


Education


Universities

* Chiba University, Kashiwa Campus * Kaichi International University * Kashiwa Campus, University of Tokyo * Nishōgakusha University * Reitaku University


Primary and secondary education

*Kashiwa has 42 public elementary schools and 20 public middle schools operated by the city government, and three private combined middle/high schools and one combined middle/high school operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education. The city has eight public high schools operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education and two private high schools. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped. *There is a private school, Rugby School Japan.


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 ...
Jōban Line * - - Tōbu Railway - Tobu Urban Park Line * - - - - - Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company - Tsukuba Express * -


Highways

* * * *


Sports

Kashiwa is home to the professional football team Kashiwa Reysol and the women's
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
team Eneos Sunflowers.


Sister cities

Kashiwa is twinned with: * Ayase, Japan, since 1967 * Camden, Australia, since 1997 * Chengde,
Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...
, China, since 1983 * Guam, United States, since 1991 * Torrance,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, United States, since 1973


Notable people

* Shigeyuki Furuki, professional baseball player * Fumio Imamura, Olympic race walker * Naoki Ishikawa, professional soccer player * Shintaro Katsu, actor and singer, died in Kashiwa. * Kirinji Kazuharu, sumo wrestler * Masato Kobayashi, professional kickboxer * Yuri Mitsui, actress, model * Yōko Oginome, singer * Takeshi Okano, manga artist *
Yoshitaka Sakurada is a former Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, who served as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. He formerly served as Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Fourth Abe ...
, politician(former Minister of State for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic game). * Megumi Urawa, voice actress * Kazunori Yamauchi, video game designer * Kotoshōhō Yoshinari, sumo wrestler


References


External links


Official Website

Kashiwa International Relations Association Website
{{Authority control Cities in Chiba Prefecture Populated places established in 1954 1954 establishments in Japan