270px, Nachikatsuura town hall 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 Higashimuro District,

Wakayama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Wakayama Prefecture has a population of 876,030 () and a geographic area of . Wakayama Prefecture borders Osaka Prefecture to the north, and Mie Prefecture and Nara Prefecture to ...

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 14,420 in 7,622 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 79 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Nachikatsuura is located near the southern tip of the

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan and is located within the Kansai region. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. The peninsula has long been a sacred place in Buddhism, Shinto, and Shugendo, and many people wou ...

, in the southeastern tip of Wakayama Prefecture. It faces 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 east and its coastline is a typical ria coast with several good natural harbors. In particular, the port of Katsuura is located in a cove protected by the island of Nakanoshima at its entrance, so it is not affected by rough waves from the sea. The landscape is mountainous, with numerous

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

s. Parts of the city are within the limits of the Yoshino-Kumano National Park and are also within the Kumano area of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on the Kii Peninsula in Japan. Selection criteria The locations and paths for this heritage site were based on their historical and modern im ...

Climate

Nachikatsuura 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 Nachikatsuura is 16.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2,596 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 6.8 °C. The area is subject to

typhoon A typhoon is a tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere and which produces sustained hurricane-force winds of at least . This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, accounting for a ...

s in summer.

Demographics

The population of Nachikatsuura has decreased steadily over the past 60 years.Nachikatsuura population statistics
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History

The area of the modern town of Nachikatsuura was within the ancient

Kii Province , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato Pro ...

. Kumano Nachi Taisha, one of the Kumano Sanzan shrines, has been a destination for pilgrims since the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. The villages of Nachi and Katsuura were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Katsuura was raised to town status on May 1, 1908 and Nachi on August 1, 1934. On April 1, 1955, Nachi and Katsura merged with the neighboring villages of Ukuimura and Wakamura to form the town of Nachikatsuura. On January 11, 1960 the municipality annexed the villages of Shimosato farther south and Otamura inland up the Ota River.

Government

Nachikatsuura 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 10 members. Nachikatsuura contributes – collectively with the other municipalities of Higashimuro District – two members to the Wakayama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Wakayama 3rd 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 Nachikatsuura centers on

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 ...

, agriculture, and tourism.

Education

Nachikatsuura has seven public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school. Kinki University's Fisheries Research Institute, Uragami Experiment Station and its Aquatic Culture Seedling Center are located in Nachikatsuura.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

– Kisei Main Line * - - - - - <'> - -

Highways

Nachikatsuura-Shingū Road *

Local attractions

* Fudarakusan-ji * Kumano Kodō * Kumano Nachi Taisha * Nachi Falls * Nanki-Katsuura Onsen * Seiganto-ji * Shimosato Kofun

References

External links

* * Towns in Wakayama Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Nachikatsuura {{Wakayama-geo-stub