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

Fukushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,771,100 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata 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 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 17,471 in 6348 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 240 persons per km². The total area of the town was .

Geography

Miharu is located in Tamura District in north-central Fukushima prefecture. The town is located in an hilly region of the Abukuma Mountains, with peaks of 300–500 meters. *Lakes: Miharu Dam

Neighboring municipalities

* Fukushima Prefecture **

Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 321,938 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 425 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city and ...

** Motomiya ** Nihonmatsu ** Tamura

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Miharu has declined modestly from 1960 levels.

Climate

Miharu has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Miharu is 11.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1282 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.2 °C, and lowest in January, at around -0.3 °C.Miharu climate data
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History

The area of present-day Miharu was part of ancient Mutsu 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 the

castle town A castle town is a settlement built adjacent to or surrounding a castle. Castle towns were common in Medieval Europe. Some examples include small towns like Alnwick and Arundel, which are still dominated by their castles. In Western Europe, ...

of Miharu Domain, a 50,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

'' han ruled by the Akita clan from 1645 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 ...

. It was subsequently organized as part of Nakadōri region of Iwaki Province. Miharu town was established with the formation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. On April 1, 1955, Miharu annexed the neighboring villages of Ogisawa, Nakazuma, Nakago, Sawaishi and Kurita, all from Tamura District.

Economy

The economy of Miharu is primarily agricultural, with some chemical and light manufacturing.

Education

Miharu has six public elementary schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Fukushima Board of Education. *Fukushima Prefectural Tamura High School

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 ...

- Ban'etsu East Line *

Highway

* Ban-etsu Expressway *

International relations

Rice Lake, Wisconsin Rice Lake is a city in Barron County, Wisconsin, Barron County in northwest Wisconsin, United States, on the shore of Rice Lake (Barron County, Wisconsin), the lake with the same name. The city is a commercial and tourist center for the surround ...

, United States, since August 21, 1987

Noted people from Miharu

* Kōno Hironaka, politician * Junko Tabei, mountaineer

Local attractions

*Site of Miharu Castle * Miharu Daijingu Shrine (三春大神宮) *Takizakura Park - The name "Miharu" in Japanese means three springs. In most parts of Japan, plum, peach, and cherry trees blossom at different times, but in Miharu, they blossom almost simultaneously. Miharu is home of the Takizakura, or "waterfall cherry tree", is over 1,000 years old and brings tourists from all over Japan to see it in the springtime. It is registered as a living national treasure by the Japanese government.