270px, Ōmijima coast 270px, Rice terraces in Yuya 270px, Misuzu Kaneko Memorial Museum 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 ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

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 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 31,518 in 15537 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 88 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Nagato is located in northwestern Yamaguchi. The north side faces the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

, and the coastline facing the open sea is eroded terrain. On the other hand, there are coves such as Fukagawa Bay and Senzaki Bay, which are surrounded by the island of Ōmijima and the mainland, and Aburaya Bay, which is surrounded by the Mukatsugu Peninsula, which are good natural harbors. Since the Mukatsugu Peninsula has little flat land, there are many terraced rice fields. The southern part of the city is on the western edge of the Chugoku Mountains, and snow can be seen in the mountainous areas. However, due to the influence of the Tsushima Current, it does not get extremely cold even in winter, and because the altitude is not so high, the number of snowy days is not so many. Nagato also encompasses Ōmijima Island in the Sea of Japan, which is connected by a large road bridge which connects the Senzaki Peninsula with the southern edge of the island. Much of the island is within the borders of the Kita-Nagato Kaigan Quasi-National Park.

Neighboring municipalities

Yamaguchi Prefecture * Hagi * Mine *

Shimonoseki file:141122 Shimonoseki City Hall Yamaguchi pref Japan01s3.jpg, 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a pop ...

Climate

Nagato 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 significant throughout the year, but is much higher in summer than in winter. The average annual temperature in Nagato is . The average annual rainfall is with July 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 Nagato was on 14 August 2018; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nagato in 2020 is 32,519 people. Nagato has been conducting censuses since 1920.

History

The area of Nagato was part of ancient

Nagato Province , often called , was a province of Japan. It was at the extreme western end of Honshū, in the area that is today Yamaguchi Prefecture. Nagato bordered on Iwami and Suō Provinces. History Although the ancient capital of the province was Shimono ...

. 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 Chōshū domain. After 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 ...

, the area was divided into eight villages within Ōtsu District, Yamaguchi with the creation of the modern municipalities system. Senzaki was raised to town status on April 15, 1914, followed by Fukagawa on November 1, 1928. The city of Nagato was established on March 31, 1954 by the merger of Fukawa and Senzaki, with the villages of Kayoi and Tawarayama. On March 22, 2005 the city annexed the villages of Yuya, Heki and Misumi with the district of Ōtsu dissolved by this merger.

Government

Nagato 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 18 members. Nagato conributes one member to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the

Yamaguchi 3rd district Yamaguchi 3rd district (山口県第3区) is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in Western Yamaguchi Prefecture and in ...

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 ...

. Between 1993 and 2022, Nagato was represented by former Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe (21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. ...

in the lower house of the diet. In the

2017 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members (down from 475) of t ...

, 76.25% of Nagato's proportional ballots were cast for either one of the two parties in the conservative ruling coalition (the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito) or one of the two minor LDP-allied conservative parties (

Party for Japanese Kokoro The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of National Diet, Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in Novemb ...

) and New Party Daichi), making it the most conservative city in the country for that election under this definition, and the second most conservative municipality overall behind Himeshima, Ōita.

Economy

The main industries in Nagato are

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, animal husbandry and food processing. Fujimitsu Corporation, a manufacturer of fish surimi products, is headquartered in the city. The tourism industry is also a major component of the local economy.

Education

Nagato has 12 public elementary school and five public junior high schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Board of Education. There are also one private high school.

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, ...

(JR West) -

San'in Main Line The is a railway line in western Japan, which connects Kyoto and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It is the major railway line of the San'in region, approximately paralleling the Japan Sea, crossing Kyot ...

* - - - - -

(JR West) -

(branch line) * -

(JR West) - Mine Line * - - -

Highways

San'in Expressway * * *

Noted people from Nagato

* Kan Abe, politician * Misuzu Kaneko, poet

References

External links

*
Nagato City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Nagato, Yamaguchi