260px, Hasunuma Seaside Park 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

Chiba Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama ...

, 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 50,321 in 22,397 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 . The total area of the city is .

Geography

Sanmu is located in the northeastern part of Chiba prefecture, about from the prefectural capital of Chiba and about from the center of Tokyo. It is included in the urban employment area of Tokyo metropolis. Most of the city is located in the flatlands of the Kujūkuri Plain, which runs from the center to the south of Kujūkuri Beach, one of Japan's leading sandy beaches, and faces the Pacific Ocean for about .

Surrounding municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Kujūkuri * Shibayama *

Tōgane is a Cities of Japan, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 57,780 in 26,907 households and a population density of 650 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Tōgane is home to the ''K ...

* Tomisato * Yachimata * Yokoshibahikari

Climate

Sanmu 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 Sanmu is 14.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1550 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.8 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Sanmu peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

History

The area of Sanmu was part of ancient Kazusa Province. The city of Sanmu was established on March 27, 2006, from the merger of the towns of Sanbu, Matsuo and Narutō, and the village of Hasunuma (all from Sanbu District). The ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' for the city name are the same as for the former town of Sanbu, but is pronounced differently. Sanmu was damaged by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

as a result of the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

, with 43 buildings destroyed and 438 buildings partially destroyed, but with only one fatality.

Government

Sanmu 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 20 members. Sanmu contributes one member to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of

Chiba 11th district Chiba 11th district (千葉県第11区, ''Chiba-ken dai-jūikku'' or simply 千葉11区, ''Chiba-jūikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in the eastern portion of Chiba Pre ...

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

Due to mixed plantings of

Japanese red pine ''Pinus densiflora'', also called the Japanese red pine, the Japanese pine, or Korean red pine, is a species of pine tree native to East Asia and Siberia. In China, the plant is known as 赤松 (pinyin: chì sōng, literally "red pine"). Distrib ...

, Japanese cypress, and Japanese cedar, Sanmu was a center of wood production until 1923 at the end of the Taishō period. Many in the town remain active in the

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked b ...

and

carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. C ...

trade.

Small-scale agriculture A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

in Sanmu produces a variety of fruits and vegetables, but the town is noted for

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), goober pea, pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large ...

s. The town also attracts tourists to its numerous

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown Hybrid (biology), hybrid plant cultivated worldwide for its fruit. The genus ''Fragaria'', the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. The fruit ...

farms. Sanmu serves as a

bedroom community 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 ...

for nearby Chiba and Tokyo, and housing development continues in the city.

Education

Sanmu has 13 public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education

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 ...

–

Sōbu Main Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in Japan. It connects Tokyo with the east coast of Chiba Prefecture, passing through the cities of Funabashi, Chiba, and Chōshi. Its name derives from the ...

* - -

–

Tōgane Line The is a railway line in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, owned and operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It connects Ōami Station in the city of Ōamishirasato, Chiba, Ōamishirasato and Narutō Station in the city of Sanmu, Chiba, Sanmu. ...

Highway

* * * *

Noted people from Sanmu

* Kumiko Asō, actress *

Itō Sachio was the pen-name of , a Japanese '' tanka'' poet and novelist active during the Meiji period of Japan. Biography Itō was born in what is now Sanmu city, Chiba prefecture, as the younger son to a farming family. He attended the ''Meiji Hōrit ...

, Writer * Aoi Yuki, actress

Gallery

File:Kujyūkuri-Beach01.JPG, Aerial view of Sanmu and Kujūkuri Beach File:Chiba-r111.JPG, Street view of Sanmu File:Naruto Sta. reform.jpg, Narutō Station File:Choshoji hondo 2.jpg, Hondō of Fudō-in Chōshō-ji File:Choshoji niomon.jpg, Niōmon of Fudō-in Chōshō-ji

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Chiba Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan