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 ...

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

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 32,144 in 11,412 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 144.5 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 35.9%. The city's total area is .

Geography

Namegata is in south-central Ibaraki Prefecture, bordered by

Lake Kasumigaura is the second-largest lake in Japan, located 60 km to the north-east of Tokyo. In a narrower sense and officially, Lake Kasumigaura refers to a waterbody with an area of 167.63 km2. In a wider sense, Lake Kasumigaura can also refer ...

to the east and Lake Kitaura to the west. It is about 70 kilometers from central Tokyo and about 40 kilometers from the prefectural capital at Mito.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Itako * Hokota * Kashima * Kasumigaura * Omitama

Climate

Namegata has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Namegata is 14.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1410 mm, with September being the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Namegata population statistics
/ref> the population of Namegata has declined over the past 40 years.

History

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 ...

, portions of what later became the city of Namegata were controlled by the Asō Domain, a feudal domain under the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. The towns of Asō and Tamazukuri were created by establishing the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The village of Kitaura was established on April 1, 1955, and elevated to town status on October 1, 1997. The three towns merged to form the city of Namegata on September 2, 2005.

Government

Namegata 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. Namegata contributes one member to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. Regarding national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 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 Namegata is primarily agriculture, with

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

on Lake Kasumigaura taking a predominant role.

Education

Namegata has 16 public elementary schools, four public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

*Namegata does not have any commercial passenger rail service.

Highway

* *

Local attractions

Namegata has many attractions, including: * Hitachi Seaside Park * Kasumigaura Fureai Land * Namegata Farmers Village * Sairen-ji Temple

Noted people from Namegata

* Hiromi Nagasaku, actress, singer *

Fukushiro Nukaga is a Japanese politician who is serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Japan), Speaker of the House of Representatives since October 2023. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party, he has been a ...

, politician * Hideaki Ozawa, a professional football player

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture 2005 establishments in Japan Populated places established in 2005