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 ...

located in Hakui District,

Ishikawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,096,721 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,186 Square kilometre, km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Pr ...

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

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 20,845 in 8090 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 84 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Shika occupies the southwestern coastline of

Noto Peninsula The Noto Peninsula (, ''Noto-hantō'') is a peninsula that projects north into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Honshū, the main island of Japan. Before the Meiji era, the peninsula belonged to Noto Province. Th ...

, facing the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

on the west. It is one and a half hours from

Kanazawa is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Etymology The name "Kanazaw ...

by car. Shika 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 mild summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Shika is 13.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2405 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 25.7 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.5 °C. Part of the town is within the limits of the

Noto Hantō Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park covering a portion of Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture and Toyama Prefecture in Japan. It is rated a protected landscape (category V) according to the IUCN. in the northern half of Ishikawa Prefecture, extends a ...

Neighbouring municipalities

*Ishikawa Prefecture ** Anamizu ** Hakui ** Nakanoto ** Nanao ** Wajima

Climate

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shika has declined over the past 50 years.

History

The area around Shika was part of ancient

Noto Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is today the northern part of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, including the Noto Peninsula (''Noto-hantō'') which is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. Noto bordered on Etchū Province, E ...

. During the

Sengoku Period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

(1467–1568), the area was contested between the

Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in batt ...

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...

and

Maeda clan The was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan through Sugawara no Kiyotom ...

, with the area becoming part of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.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 ...

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 ...

. Following 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 area was organised into

Hakui District, Ishikawa is a Districts of Japan, district located in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district has an estimated population of 39,888 with a population density, density of 111.35 persons per km2. The total area is 358.23 km2. Municipalitie ...

, and the village of Shika was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Shika was raised to town status on February 1, 1936. On September 1, 2005, the former town of Togi was annexed by Shika. On January 9, 2015, a resident reported a wooden boat to the local police, which was washed up on the shore. Due to

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

characters on the boat it was suspected to be from

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

. The police arrested one man on the boat, who claimed he had left North Korea unintended in mid-December 2014 when conducting an inspection of the boat. On January 1, 2024, the region experienced intense shaking due to the

2024 Noto earthquake On 1 January 2024, at 16:10 Japan Standard Time, JST (07:10 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC), a 7.6 (7.5) earthquake struck north-northeast of Suzu, Ishikawa, Suzu, located on the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The Fault (geolog ...

. The town experienced the highest possible intensity on the Shindo scale - 7, and a person was killed. It was also among the first to receive a major tsunami warning since the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number) * One of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *''Eleven'', a 1970 collection of short stories by Patricia Highsmith *''Eleven'' ...

Economy

Once a centre for the garment manufacturing industry, the local economy is now dominated by the presence of the

Shika Nuclear Power Plant The is a nuclear power plant located in the town of Shika, Ishikawa, Japan. It is owned and operated by the Hokuriku Electric Power Company. It consists of two units with a total capacity of on a site that is 1.6 km2 (395 acres). Both un ...

operated by Hokuriku Electric Power Company.

Commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

and agriculture are also important to the local economy.

Education

Shika has two public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Ishikawa Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railway

*The town has no passenger railway service since the closure of the Hokuriku Railway's Noto Line on June 25, 1972.

Highway

Sister cities

Karawang Karawang (Kota Karawang or Karawang Kota) is the capital of the Karawang Regency of West Java, Indonesia. It is 32 miles east of Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( ...

West Java West Java (, ) is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to t ...

, Indonesia, friendship city since January 25, 1999 *

Colwood, British Columbia Colwood is a city on Vancouver Island to the southwest of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, Canada. Colwood was incorporated in 1985 and has a population of approximately 19,000 people. Colwood lies within the boundaries of the Greater Vi ...

, Canada, friendship city since May 11, 1999

Local attractions

*Fukura Lighthouse, built in 1867, the oldest wooden lighthouse in Japan *Mount Takatsume *Noto Kongo coastline

Notes

External links

* (some English content) {{Authority control Towns in Ishikawa Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan