270px, Kōhoku 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 Kishima District,

Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of roughly 780,000 and has a geographic area of . Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasaki Prefect ...

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 ...

. It is known as a crossroads for

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

and

national highways National Highways (NH), formerly Highways England and before that the Highways Agency, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in Eng ...

, and as such has dubbed itself "the navel of

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

". , 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 9586 in 3715 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 750 persons per km². The total area of the town is

Geography

*Mountains: The northern part of the city is gradually mountainous. *Rivers:

Rokkaku River } The is a river on the island of Kyushu, flowing through the Saga Prefecture. The river rises on the slopes of Mount Jinroku (神六山, 447 m), located in the Takeo city. In the mountains it joins Takeo River, then flows through the Shiroishi ...

, Ushizu River

Adjoining Municipalities

Saga Prefecture * Ogi * Ōmachi * Shiroishi * Taku

Climate

Kōhoku 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 Kōhoku is 16.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1902 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 27.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around 6.5 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kōhoku is as shown below. Saga Prefecture population by municipality
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History

The area of Kōhoku is part of ancient

Hizen Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of the Saga Prefecture, Saga and Nagasaki Prefecture, Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen Province, Ch ...

. 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 ...

it was part of the holdings of

Saga Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period Tokugawa Shogunate. It encompassed most of what are now Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures and was ruled from Saga Castle in what is now the urban center of the city of Saga. It was ruled through its histo ...

until 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 village of Oda, Yamaguchi and Sarushi were established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. The three villages merged on April 1, 1932 to form the village of Kōhoku. Kōhoku gained town status on April 1,1952. On September 30, 1956 part of the village of Teisen (砥川村) from Ogi District merges with Kōhoku

Government

Kōhoku 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 10 members. Kōhoku, together with the other municipalities in Kishima District contributes two members to the Saga Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the

Saga 2nd district Saga 2nd district (佐賀県第2区, ''Saga-ken dai-niku'' or simply 佐賀2区, ''Saga-niku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in Saga Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan ...

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 overwhelming based on agriculture and livestock raising.

Education

Kōhoku has one public elementary school and one public junior high schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Nagasaki Main Line The , or simply known as the Nagasaki Line, is a railway line owned by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) connecting Tosu Station in Saga Prefecture to Nagasaki Station in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. There is a separate branch of this line ...

Sasebo Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, Japan, operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). It connects Kōhoku Station in Kōhoku, Saga Prefecture to Sasebo Station in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. It is part of the route connecting Sasebo wi ...