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

Kaifu District Kaifu may refer to: Places *Kaifu District, Changsha Kaifu District () is one of six urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, China. The district is bordered by Furong and Tianxin Districts to ...

Tokushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 682,439 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,146 Square kilometre, km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture b ...

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 6,142 in 3139 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 44 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Minami is located in the southeastern part of Tokushima 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 ...

. Located 50 km south of prefecture's capital, Tokushima city, Minami is over 33 km from east to west, and covers an area of approximately 140 km². It is bordered on the southwest by the Kaifu mountains and on the east by 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 ...

, making Minami a scenic town surrounded by mountains and sea. The Akamatsu and Hiwasa Rivers from the west to east, forming small-scale cultivated land and basins due to erosion plains and sedimentary plains. The mouth of the Hiwasa River is the most densely populated urban area, and also has a fishing port. Parts of the town are within the borders of the

Muroto-Anan Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a Quasi-National Park on the coast of Kōchi Prefecture and Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 1 June 1964 and has an area of . See also * List of national parks of Japan and of Japan are places of scenic beauty that are de ...

Neighbouring municipalities

* Anan * Kaiyō *

Mugi In cryptography, MUGI is a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) designed for use as a stream cipher. It was among the cryptographic techniques recommended for Japanese government use by CRYPTREC in 2003, however, has been dropped to "candidate" ...

* Naka

Climate

Minami 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 climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is high, but there is a pronounced difference between the wetter summers and drier winters. The average annual temperature in Minami is . The average annual rainfall is with June as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Minami was on 15 August 2024; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 27 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Minami in 2020 is 6,222 people. Minami has been conducting censuses since 1920.

History

As with all of Tokushima Prefecture, the area of Minami was part of ancient Awa Province. It was noted for ocean-borne shipping, especially of timber, from

Tosa Province was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...

to the

Kinai region is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kina ...

. In 935, the author of ''

Tosa Nikki The is a poetic diary written anonymously by the tenth-century Japanese poet Ki no Tsurayuki. The text details a 55-day journey in 935 returning to Kyoto from Tosa province, where Tsurayuki had been the provincial governor. The prose account o ...

'',

Ki no Tsurayuki was a Japanese author, poet and court noble of the Heian period. He is best known as the principal compiler of the ''Kokin Wakashū'', also writing its Japanese Preface, and as a possible author of the ''Tosa Diary'', although this was publish ...

stayed at Hiwasa port for four nights on his way back from Tosa to Kyoto. In 1223

Emperor Tsuchimikado was the 83rd emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 土御門天皇 (83)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession.Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan,'' pp. 86–87. Tsuchimikado's reig ...

, who had been exiled to Tosa due to the Jokyu War, was allowed to relocate to Yakuo-ji. 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

Tokushima Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Awa Province and Awaji Province in what is now Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Tokushima ...

ruled by the

Hachisuka clan The are descendants of Emperor Seiwa (850-880) of Japan and are a branch of the Ashikaga clan through the Shiba clan (Seiwa Genji) of the Minamoto clan. History Ashikaga Ieuji (13th century), son of Ashikaga Yasuuji, was the first to adopt the ...

from their seat at

Tokushima Castle was an Edo period Japanese castle located in the city of Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1957. Its Omotegoten Gardens are designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty. Hi ...

. In 1868, the Battle of Awa, a naval engagement of the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a coalition seeking to seize political power in the name of the Impe ...

took place offshore Minami. The village of Hiwasa was established within

Kaifu District, Tokushima is a district located in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, the district has an estimated population of 18,863 and a population density of . The total area is . Towns and villages *Mugi In cryptography, MUGI is a pseudorandom n ...

with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on January 1, 1907. The

1946 Nankai earthquake The 1946 Nankai earthquake (昭和南海地震 Shōwa Nankai jishin) was a great earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan. It occurred on December 21, 1946, at 04:19 JST (December 20, 19:19 UTC). The earthquake measured between 8.1 and 8.4 on the moment ...

caused great damage to the town. On March 31, 2006 Hiwasa merged with the neighboring town of Yuki to form the town of Minami.

Government

Minami 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 12 members. Minami, together with the other municipalities of Kaifu District, contributes two members to the Tokushima Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Tokushima 1st district Tokushima 1st district (徳島県第1区) is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan, located in Tokushima Prefecture on the island of Shikoku. The district was created in the electoral reform of 1994. Previously, all ...

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

Minami has an economy based on agriculture and

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

Education

Minami has three public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school; however the prefecture operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

Shikoku Railway Company The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has it ...

–

Mugi Line The is a railway line in southeastern Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku). It connects the prefectural capital of Tokushima with the town of Kaiyō in Kaifu District. The line's official ni ...

* - - - - -

Highways

Sister cities

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, sister city since 1969

Local attractions

* Yakuō-ji, 23rd temple on the

Shikoku Pilgrimage The or is a multi-site pilgrimage of 88 temples associated with the Buddhist monk Kūkai (''Kōbō Daishi'') on the island of Shikoku, Japan. A popular and distinctive feature of the island's cultural landscape, and with a long history, ...

*Ohama Beach *Hiwasa Sea Turtle Museum

Festivals

*Hiwasa Hachiman Jinja Autumn Festival - A two-day harvest festival held one weekend early October every year. On the first day, the eight neighborhoods in Hiwasa parade their portable shrines through the streets of the town while praying for the safety of the townspeople and success in fishing. On the second day about 50 men from each neighborhood carry the portable shrine onto the beach and finally into the ocean, quite literally, proceeding through the waves to the far end of the beach. Each neighborhood vies with the others to put on the most spectacular display and also to prove their strength and bravery by taking their shrine furthest through the ocean waves. The heavy wooden portable shrines, known as ''chosa'', each weigh about a tonne and four children ride atop the shrine drumming ''

taiko are a broad range of Traditional Japanese musical instruments, Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese language, Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various J ...

'' drums. On the first evening of the festival there is a night bazaar with various refreshments and traditional dancing and taiko drumming, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display. Records of this festival go back to 1795, but the festival in its current form was started in 1957.

In popular culture

In 2009/2010 Minami Town was one of the locations for NHK's TV drama 'Welkame' (ウェルかめ), which featured some of the towns beaches, its Autumn festival, and Minami's sea turtle museum. As a result, the town experienced an increase in domestic tourism.

References

External links

*
Minami official website
{{Tokushima Towns in Tokushima Prefecture Minami, Tokushima Populated coastal places in Japan