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 central

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

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 ...

, bordering on

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

to the west. , 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 77,022 in 34,658 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 590 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Nabari is located in the hilly Iga region of northwestern Mie Prefecture.

Neighboring municipalities

Mie Prefecture * Iga * Tsu Nara Prefecture * Soni * Uda * Yamazoe

Climate

Nabari 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 Nabari is 13.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1439 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.5 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Nabari population statistics
/ref> the population of Nabari grew rapidly from the 1950s, but has slightly decreased since the year 2000.

History

The area around Nabari is part of ancient

Iga Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan located in what is today part of western Mie Prefecture.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Iga" in . Its abbreviated name was . Iga is classified as one of the provinces of the T� ...

, and Nabari developed from the

Asuka period The was a period in the history of Japan lasting from 538 to 710, although its beginning could be said to overlap with the preceding Kofun period. The Yamato period, Yamato polity evolved greatly during the Asuka period, which is named after the ...

as a post station on the Ise Kaidō highway from Asuka and Heijō-kyō to the

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the solar goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami and the grain goddess Toyouke-hime (Toyouke Omikami). Also known simply as , Ise Shrine is a shrine complex composed of many Shi ...

s. It is mentioned in ancient works, including the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

''. Nabari Town in Nabari District in Mie Prefecture was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Nabari District was merged with Iga District in 1896 to form Naga District. The city of Nabari was established on March 31, 1954 by the merger of Nabari town with the neighboring villages of Takigawa, Minowa and Kunitsu. Voters rejected a proposal to merge with the neighboring city of Iga in February 2003.

Government

Nabari 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 14 members. Nabari contributes two members to the Mie Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Mie 2nd 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

The economy of Nabari is mixed, with agriculture (especially for fruits) and ''

sake Sake, , or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indeed any East Asi ...

'' production, along with light manufacturing and chemicals production predominant. Due to its proximity to Osaka and Nara, the city is also increasing becoming a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

Education

* Kogakkan University – Nabari branch campus *Nabari has 14 public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high schools operated by then Mie Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

20px

Kintetsu Railway , referred to as and officially Kinki-Nippon Railway, is a Japanese passenger railway company, managing infrastructure and operating passenger train service. Its railway system is the largest in Japan, excluding Japan Railways Group. The railw ...

–

Osaka Line The is a railway line in Japan owned by Kintetsu Railway, connecting Osaka and Mie Prefecture via Nara Prefecture. The line is the longest double-tracked railway of non-JR operators. Together with the Nagoya Line, this line forms the route for ...

** - - -

Highway

* *

Sister cities

Suzhou Suzhou is a major prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. As part of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, it is a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou rapidly grew in size by the ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

, China

Local attractions

* Akame Forty-eight Waterfalls. Asides from being a popular hiking spot, the waterfalls are rumored to be the training location for

ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

hundreds of years ago. * Kuroda House. The Kuroda House was a large manor operated by Todaiji Temple from the Heian to the Muromachi period. * A statue based on the character of

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...

can be found near Kanonji Temple, its mysterious nature attracted the attention of online outlets and fans of the franchise

Notable people from Nabari

* Die (musician), guitarist *

Mina Fukui is a Japanese former actress, television personality and gravure model from Nabari, Mie Prefecture. She worked under the Horipro talent agency. Career Even though she had been featured as a guest or assistant in several shows during the 19 ...

, model * Michiyo Heike, singer, songwriter * Kentaro Kuwahara, professional baseball player * Edogawa Rampo, Author

References

External links

*
Nabari City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Mie Prefecture