260px, Kozaki Shrine 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

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

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 5,884 in 2471 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 300 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Etymology

The name of the town of Kōzaki in the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

is formed from two ''

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 ...

'' characters. The first, , means ''

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 ...

'', the Japanese term for god, spirit, or a natural force; and the second, means "cape" or "small peninsula".

Geography

Kōzaki is located in far northern Chiba Prefecture, approximately 40 kilometers from then prefectural capital at Chiba and 60 to 70 kilometers from central Tokyo. The town faces 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 ...

to the north, and sits on the lowlands of the river to the north and the

Shimōsa Plateau The is a plateau on the Kantō Plain in central Honshu, Japan. The plateau covers most of northern Chiba Prefecture. The plateau was historically richly agricultural, but in the 20th century the western and central Shimōsa Plateau became one of ...

to the south. Kōzaki is part of Ōtone Prefectural Natural Park.

Neighboring municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Katori * Narita Ibaraki Prefecture * Inashiki * Kawachi

Climate

Kōzaki 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 Kōzaki is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1414 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Kōzaki population statistics
/ref> the population of Kōzaki has remained relatively steady over the past 70 years.

History

Kōzaki was historically part of

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture as well as the bordering parts of Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo (the parts that used to be located east of the lower reaches of the old Tone River prior to the ...

until the formation of Chiba Prefecture at the beginning of 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). Kōzaki and Yonezawa villages were founded on April 1, 1889 within Katori District of Chiba Prefecture with the creation the modern municipalities system. Kōzaki was elevated to town status on March 12, 1890. On January 5, 1955, Yonezawa merged into the town of Kōzaki.

Government

Kōzaki 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 13 members. Kōzaki, together with the city of Katori and town of Tako, contributes two members to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Chiba 10th 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

Kōzaki is a regional commercial center with some light manufacturing industries. Some 28% of the workforce commutes to the city of Narita per the 2010 census.

Education

Kōzaki has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government. The town does not have a public high school; however, the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education operates one special education school for the handicapped.

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 ...

–

Narita Line The Narita Line () is the name for a combination of three railway lines located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The main line connects Sakura Station (Chiba), Sakura Station and Matsugishi Stati ...

Highway

* – Kōzaki Interchange *

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kozaki, Chiba Towns in Chiba Prefecture Populated places established in 1955 1955 establishments in Japan Kōzaki