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

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 75,212 in 33,421 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 958 persons per km². The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 31.1% in July 2020. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Ryūgasaki is located in southern Ibaraki Prefecture, in the low-lying flatlands south of Lake Kasumigaura. The Kokai River runs through the western part of the city, and the basin is dotted with tributaries and lakes. Lake Ushiku, despite its name, is entirely within the city of Ryūgasaki.

Surrounding municipalities

Ibaraki Prefecture * Inashiki * Kawachi * Tone * Toride * Tsukuba * Tsukubamirai * Ushiku

Climate

Ryūgasaki 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 Ryūgasaki is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Ryūgasaki has recently plateaued after several decades of growth.

History

The name "Ryūgasaki" can be traced back to 1182 when the samurai clan ruling the territory adopted "Ryūgasaki" as their family name. The northern half of the city was an exclave of Sendai 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 region joined in 1869 before merging with

in 1875. The southern portion of the city was part of Kitasōma District in

Shimōsa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture as well as the bordering parts of Saitama Prefecture and Tokyo (the parts that used to be located east of the lower reaches of the old Tone River prior to the ...

, as the boundary between Shimōsa and

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

had been established in the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...

as the

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

. However, by 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 ...

, the course of the river had shifted, leaving the area of present-day southern Ryūgasaki on the northern bank of the river. This area was transferred to Ibaraki Prefecture in 1875 The town of Ryūgasaki was created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The city was formed on March 20, 1954, when the aforementioned town merged with: , , , , and . In February 1955, the city grew to its present size when a proportion of merged with the city. In 1974, the city adopted the

Swan Swans are birds of the genus ''Cygnus'' within the family Anatidae. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe (biology) ...

, the

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

, and Platycodon grandiflorus as its city symbols for bird, tree and flower respectively.

Government

Ryūgasaki 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 22 members. Ryūgasaki, together with neighboring Tone, contributes two members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 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 ...

. The 20th and current mayor is Isamu Hagiwara, who assumed the position on January 18, 2022. Issei Nakayama was the seventeenth to nineteenth mayor, beginning in January 2010.

Economy

New Central Airlines, a

commuter airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional airliner, regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract Mainline ...

, is headquartered in the city, on the grounds of Ryūgasaki Airfield, although no commercial flights are scheduled from the city.路線外運行
" New Central Airlines. Retrieved on February 21, 2010. "お問い合わせは〒301－0806 茨城県竜ヶ崎市半田町3177 竜ヶ崎飛行場内"

Education

* Ryutsu Keizai University * Ryūgasaki has 11 public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government. There are one public middle school and three public high schools operated by the Ibaraki Prefectural Board of Education as well as one private high school.

Transportation

Railway

JR East 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 ...

–

Jōban Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line officially begins at Nippori Station in Arakawa, Tokyo before the line officially ends at Iwanuma Station in Iwanuma, Miyagi. However, following ...

* Kantō Railway - Ryūgasaki Line * - -

Highway

Airport

* Ryūgasaki Airfield – however, no scheduled commercial services

Local attractions

Noted people from Ryūgasaki

* Yuta Nakayama, professional football player * Akiyo Noguchi, retired professional rock climber, olympic bronze medalist, seven-time IFSC Climbing World Cup champion * Isao Okano, judoka, Olympic gold medalist * Nana Suzuki, model * Kisenosato Yutaka, the 72nd ''

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ('' rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the o ...

'' in sumo wrestling

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryugasaki, Ibaraki Cities in Ibaraki Prefecture Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki