260px, Katsuragi Town Hall 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 Ito District,

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

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 16,170 in 7137 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 110 persons per km². The total area of the town is . The town was named after the nearby Katsuragi Mountains.

Geography

Katsuragi is long and narrow from north to south, and is located in the northeastern part of Wakayama prefecture. The Kinokawa River flows from east to west in the former Katsuragi Town area, and the Kishi River flows from east to west in the Shinshiro area at the southernmost tip of the former Katsuragi Town. In addition, the Arita River runs through the former Hanazono village area. The terrain is sandwiched between the Kii Mountains and the Izumi Mountains, forming a basin.

Neighboring municipalities

Wakayama Prefecture * Hashimoto * Kinokawa * Kudoyama * Kōya * Kimino * Aridagawa Osaka Prefecture * Kawachinagano * Izumi * Kishiwada Nara Prefecture * Nosegawa

Climate

Katsuragi 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 Katsuragi is 13.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1771 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.3 °C. The area is subject to

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 ...

s in summer.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Katsuragi population statistics
/ref> the population of Katsuragi has decreased steadily over the past 70 years.

History

The town of Katsuragi was founded by the merger of the town of Ito and Myōji and the village of Miyoshi (all from Ito District) on July 1, 1958. On October 1, 2005 the village of Hanazono, from Ito District, was merged into Katsuragi.

Government

Katsuragi 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 14 members. Katsuragi, collectively with the other municipalities of Ito District contributes one member to the Wakayama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Wakayama 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

Katsuragi is one of the largest agricultural areas in Wakayama, and agriculture, horticulture and food processing dominate the local economy.

Education

Katsuragi has five public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government and two public high schools operated by the Wakayama Prefectural Department 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, ...

– Wakayama Line * - - - -

Highway

Keinawa Expressway * * * *

Local attractions

* Niutsuhime Shrine, National Historic Site and World Heritage Site * Kōyasan chōishi-michi, National Historic Site and World Heritage Site

Notable people from Katsuragi

* Hirofumi Hirano, politician * Nenji Kobayashi, actor

References

External links

*
Katsuragi official website
{{Wakayama Katsuragi, Wakayama Towns in Wakayama Prefecture