270px, :Nakagawa River from Shironohashi Bridge 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

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

, Japan. The city was founded on October 1, 2018, making it the newest city in Japan. , 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 49,400 in 21613 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 660 persons per km². The total area is .

Geography

Nakagawa is adjacent to the south side of Fukuoka City and the west side of Kasuga City, and forms part of the Fukuoka metropolitan area. The flatland area in the northern part of the city, centered around Hakataminami Station near Fukuoka City has developed as a

commuter town 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 ...

, but other areas are farmland and mountainous, with areas such as Minamihata Dam and Gokayama Dam.

Neighboring municipalities

Fukuoka Prefecture * Chikushino *

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

* Kasuga * Ōnojō Saga Prefecture * Miyaki * Tosu * Yoshinogari

Climate

Nakagawa 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 Nakagawa is . The average annual rainfall is 1766 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Nakagawa climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Nakagawa is as shown below. When looking at the city as a whole, the population is steadily increasing, but while the population is increasing in some areas in the north due to urbanization, other areas, which make up the majority of the area, are experiencing serious depopulation and aging.

History

The area of Nakagawa is believed to be the part of the

Yayoi period The Yayoi period (弥生時代, ''Yayoi jidai'') (c. 300 BC – 300 AD) is one of the major historical periods of the Japanese archipelago. It is generally defined as the era between the beginning of food production in Japan and the emergence o ...

Nakoku was a stateIn Japanese, the character 国/國, read as ''koku'' (in on'yomi) or ''kuni'' (in kun'yomi), can be translated as "country" or "province" which was located in and around modern-day Fukuoka City, on the Japanese island of Kyūsh ...

, mentioned in ancient Chinese documents. It was later part of ancient Chikuzen 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 under the control of Fukuoka 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 villages of Andoku, Iwato, and Minamihata were established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889.These three villages merged on April 1, 1956 to form the town of Nakagawa. It was raised to city status on October 1, 2018.

Government

Nakagawa 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 17 members. Nakagawa contributes one member to the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Fukuoka 5th 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

Nakagawa is a regional commercial center, and is largely a

for neighboring Fukuoka.The central and southern parts of Nakagawa City are mainly rice paddies, but due to recent acreage reduction policies, an increasing number of farmers are turning to upland farming, and are focusing on cultivating a root vegetable called yacon.

Education

Nakagawa has seven public elementary schools and three public junior high schools and one public high school operated by the Fukuoka Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

Nagakawa has no passenger railway service. The

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, ...

Hakata-Minami Station is located on the border between Kasuga and Nakagawa, but the station and its platform are within the Kasuga area. The station building, rotary, and bus terminal are located in Nakagawa City, and the area around the station is more urbanized on the Nakagawa side than on the Kasuga side. In addition, although the

Kyushu Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed railway network. It is an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen from Honshu connecting the city of Fukuoka (Hakata Station) in the north of Japan's Kyushu Island to the city of Kagoshima (Kagoshima-Chuo Sta ...

passes through Nakagawa, and the Sanyo Shinkansen Hakata General Vehicle Depot (commonly known as "Hakuso") straddles border between Kasuga and Nakagawa, there is no Shinkansen station within Nakagawa city borders.

Highways

Local attractions

* Antoku Ōzuka Kofun, National Historic Site

References

External links

*
Nakagawa official website
Cities in Fukuoka Prefecture Populated places established in 2018 2018 establishments in Japan {{Fukuoka-geo-stub