270px, Aerial photograph of central Kōnan 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 Kōchi 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 33,076 in 15350 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 49 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Kōnan is located in southeastern Kōchi Prefecture on the island of

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. It faces Tosa Bay on 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 south.

Neighbouring municipalities

Kōchi Prefecture * Aki * Geisei *

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

* Nankoku

Climate

Kōnan 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 snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kōnan is 15.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2190 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in Kitagawa, at around 25.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.9 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kōnan population statistics
/ref> the population of Kōnan declined by roughly 25 percent from 1950 to 1970 but subsequently rebounded, peaking again around 2010.

History

As with all of Kōchi Prefecture, the area of Kōnan was part of ancient Tosa Province. 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 ...

, the area was part of the holdings of

Tosa Domain The was a Han (Japan), feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Tosa Province in what is now Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. It was centered around Kōchi Castle, and was ruled throughout its ...

ruled by the Yamauchi clan from their seat at Kōchi Castle. The area was organized into villages within Kami District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Akaoka was raised to town status on February 15, 1899, followed by Noichi on February 1, 1926, Yasu on January 1, 1943, and Kagami on April 1, 1955. The city of Kōnan was created by the merger of these four towns and the village of Yoshikawa on March 1, 2006. On the same day, the remaining municipalities of Kami District merged to form the city of

, and the district was abolished as a result.

Government

Kōnan 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 22 members. Kōnan contributes two members to the Kōchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the village is part of Kōchi 1st 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

Kōnan economy is centered on agriculture.

Education

Kōnan has seven public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Kōchi Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

Tosa Kuroshio Railway - Asa Line * - - - -

Highways

Kōchi-Tōbu Expressway *

Local attractions

Heritage sites

Notable temples

* Dainichi-ji (Temple No. 28 in the Shikoku 88 Temples Pilgrimage) * Enichi-ji (houses three Buddhist statues that are important cultural properties)

Notable shrines

* Suruda Hachimangu Shrine

Tourist sites

Natural properties

* Tenshin Great Cedar (National Natural Monument])

Cultural buildings

Ekingura Art Museum

* Shikoku Automobile Museum
Ryoma History Museum

Other sites

* Teikokado Drawbridge
YaSea Park

Festivals and events

- Held annually on the third weekend of July
Dorome Festival
- Held annually in April

Notable people from Kōnan

* -

Manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

* - Personal physician to the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

* Mika Iwakawa- Boxing champion * - Sumo wrestler * - Horse racing

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase (horse racing), steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used ...

* Shoma Morita- psychiatrist and founder of Morita therapy * Masataka Murata- Physician who specialized in syphilis and leprosy * - Shipwreck survivor on uninhabited Tori-shima (Izu Islands) * - Former Chairman of Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance

References

External links

*
Kōnan City official website
Cities in Kōchi Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Kōnan, Kōchi {{Kochi-geo-stub