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 ...

Iwate Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture (behind Hokkaido) at , with a population of 1,165,886 (as of July 1, 2023). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Pre ...

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 of 5,468 in 2279 households, and a population density of 9 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Nishiwaga town official statistics
/ref> The total area was .

Geography

Nishiwaga is located in the far southwestern corner of Iwate Prefecture, in the river valley of the Waga River, surrounded by the 1000-meter peaks of the

Ōu Mountains The are a mountain range in the Tōhoku region of Honshū, Japan. It is the longest range in Japan and stretches south from the Natsudomari Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture to the Nasu volcanoes at the northern boundary of the Kantō region. T ...

on three sides. The area is noted for its extremely heavy snowfall in winter. The Yuda Dam is located in Nishiwaga and the Yuda Onsenkyō Prefectural Natural Park is located completely within its borders.

Neighboring municipalities

Akita Prefecture * Daisen * Higashinaruse * Misato * Semboku * Yokote Iwate Prefecture * Hanamaki * Kitakami * Ōshū * Shizukuishi

Climate

Nishiwaga 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 ''Dfa'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Nishiwaga is 8.9 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1561 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 21.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around -4.1 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Nishiwaga population statistics
/ref> the population of Nishiwaga has declined over the past 60 years and is now less than half of what it was a century ago.

History

Waga District was under the control of the

Nanbu clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan who ruled most of northeastern Honshū in the Tōhoku region of Japan for over 700 years, from the Kamakura period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Nanbu claimed descent from the Seiwa Ge ...

of Morioka Domain 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 villages of Yuda and Sawauchi were established with the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Yuda was elevated to town status on August 1, 1964. Nishiwaga was founded on November 1, 2005 from the merger of the town of Yuda and the village of Sawauchi. This merger occurred under pressure from the national government of Japan and in the face of steady but significant depopulating trends in rural Japan in general. The new town's name came as the result of a competition open to entries from all residents of the former Yuda Town and Sawauchi Village, in preparation for the merger. The final decision was made by a vote of representatives from both municipalities. The chosen name, literally "West-Waga Town," reflects the status of the new town as comprising the western portion of Waga District.

Government

Nishiwaga 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 ...

town council of 12 members. Nishiwaga and the city of Nishiwaga Kitakami contribute four seats to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Iwate 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 local economy is based on agriculture and forestry, and seasonal tourism.

Education

Nishiwaga has two public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Iwate Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are in ...

(JR East) - Kitakami Line * -

Highway

* – Kitakami IC, Kitakami-Nishi IC *

Local attractions

Nishiwaga has many natural ''

onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

'' hot springs ("yukko" in the local dialect). There are several natural hot springs baths operated by the municipality, and inexpensive monthly passes are available to residents. There is also a hot spring heated sand bath ("suna-yukko") at one of the sites. Many traditional bed and breakfast inns operate in these areas, usually with their own private hot spring facilities, some of which are open to day visitors for a fee. The area is also home to rare old-growth

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

forests found in few other places in Japan. The Waga River, a major tributary of the Kitakami River and from which the county and current town derive their names, originates high up in the folds of Waga-dake, a peak along the Ou Range which forms the prefectural boundary between Iwate Prefecture (on the eastern, Nishiwaga side) and Akita Prefecture (to the west). The mountains of Nishiwaga Town have drawn interest from local hikers and outdoors enthusiasts, as well as hikers and ecotourists from as far away as Tokyo. In the southeastern section of Nishiwaga Town the Waga River is restrained by the Yuda Dam, which creates a variable depth man-made lake called Kinshu Lake.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Iwate Prefecture