270px, Shūnan city center 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 ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

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 137,019 in 6828 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 210 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Shūnan is located in south-central Yamaguchi Prefecture, bordered by the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

to the south. Together with the cities of Kudamatsu and Hikari, with which it has strong ties in terms of industry, economy, and population exchange; the three cities are informally called the "Shunan District". The coastal area is part of the Seto Industrial Complex, with many chemical plants, refineries and heavy industry. The northern part, on the other hand, is part of the Chugoku Mountains, dotted with rural areas.

Neighbouring municipalities

Shimane Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a ge ...

* Yoshika Yamaguchi Prefecture *

Hikari may refer to: Places * Hikari Station, a station on Sanyō Main Line in Hikari, Yamaguchi * Hikari, Chiba, a former town in Sousa District, Chiba, Japan * Hikari, Yamaguchi, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan People * Hikari (name), people a ...

Hōfu file:Hofu City Hall 2021-08 ac (2).jpg, 270px, Hōfu City Hall file:Hofu city center area Aerial photograph.2010.jpg, 270px, Aerial photograph of central Hōfu file:Hofu-tenmangu, roumon-1.jpg, 270px, Hōfu Tenman-gu is a Cities of Japan, city ...

Iwakuni file:20100724 Iwakuni 5235.jpg, 270px, Kintai Bridge file:Iwakuni city center area Aerial photograph.2008.jpg, 270px, Iwakuni city center is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of ...

Kudamatsu 270px, Kudamatsu city center is a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 56,892 in 26829 households and a population density of 640 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kudamatsu ...

* Yamaguchi

Climate

Shūnan 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 climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with very warm summers and cool winters. The average annual temperature in Shūnan is 13.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1834 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.4 °C.Shūnan climate data
/ref>

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Shūnan has been steady for the past 50 years.

History

The area of Shūnan was part of an ancient

Suō Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of ancient Japan in the area that is today the eastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture. Suō bordered on Aki Province, Aki, Iwami Province, Iwami, and Nagato Province, Nagato Provinces. Its abbreviated form na ...

. Its name is derived from the first character (周) of the name of the former

(周防国), and the character for south (南), reflecting its location, comprising much of the southern part of the old province. 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 area was part of the holdings of

Tokuyama Domain 270px, Viscount Mōri Motoisha, son of the last ''daimyo'' of Tokuyama was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, in what is now southeastern Yamaguchi Prefecture. A subsidiary domain of Chōshū Domain, it was cent ...

. 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 village of Tokuyama within

Tsuno District, Yamaguchi was a district located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Towns and villages * Kano Merger * On April 21, 2003 - The town of Kano, along with the cities of Tokuyama and Shinnan'yō, and the town of Kumage (from Kumage District), was merged to cre ...

was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Tokuyama as elevated to town status on October 15, 1900 and to city status on October 15, 1935. Tokuyama expanded by annexing many neighboring villages on April 1, 1942, April 1, 1944, October 1, 1955 and January 1, 1966. On April 21, 2003 the city of Shūnan was founded by the merger of the cities of Tokuyama and Shinnan'yō, the town of Kumage (from Kumage District), and the town of

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria *Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State ** Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries ** Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom betwee ...

(from Tsuno District). Tsuno District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

Government

Shūnan 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 30 members. Shūnan contributes four members to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the

Yamaguchi 1st district Yamaguchi 1st district (山口 ��第区, ''Yamaguchi ken dai-kku'') is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in Yamaguchi and covers the prefectural capit ...

and Yamaguchi 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 main industry of Shūnan is the heavy and chemical industry. The Shūnan Petroleum Complex developed from the former Tokuyama Naval Arsenal. Major chemical manufacturers Tokuyama and Tosoh, petroleum wholesaler

Idemitsu Kosan is a Japanese petroleum company. It owns and operates oil platforms, Oil refinery, refineries, produces and sells petroleum, oils and petrochemical products, and also operates gas stations under the brand and until 2023, in its own ''Idemitsu' ...

, and stainless steel processing company Nippon Steel Nisshin Steel have bases in the coastal area along Tokuyama Bay. The

food processing Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...

company, Shimaya, has headquarters in Shunan.

Education

Shūnan has 27 public elementary schools and 14 public junior high schools operated by the city government, and five public high school operated by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Board of Education. There is one private middle school and one private high school, and the prefecture also operates two special education schools. Shunan University is located in the city.

Transportation

Railway

JR West , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

–

San'yō Shinkansen The is a line of the Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail network, connecting Shin-Osaka in Osaka with Hakata Station in Fukuoka, the two largest cities in western Japan. Operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West), it is a westward co ...

(JR West) -

San'yō Main Line The is a major railway line owned by JR Group companies in western Japan, connecting Kōbe Station and Moji Station, largely paralleling the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, in other words, the southern coast of western Honshu. The San'yō Shi ...

* - - - -

(JR West) -

Gantoku Line The is a railway line operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West) in Yamaguchi Prefecture, connecting Iwakuni Station in Iwakuni and Kushigahama Station in Shūnan. The line was originally built as a more direct route between its termini t ...

* - - - < '' - - '' >-

Highways

Chūgoku Expressway The (part of Asian Highway Network ) is an expressway in Japan, which extends from Suita, Osaka to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. It connects Kansai and Chūgoku regions in western Honshu, Japan's main island. Other major cities along the express ...

San'yō Expressway * * * * *

Sister cities

Delfzijl Delfzijl (; ) is a city and former municipality (which now belongs to the municipality of Eemsdelta) with a population of 25,651 in the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. Delfzijl was a sluice between the Delf and the Em ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

(1990, Shinnan'yō) *

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(1990, Tokuyama) *

São Bernardo do Campo São Bernardo do Campo () is a Brazilian Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the state of São Paulo. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 810,729 (2022 census) in an area of . According to 2021 data from ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

(1973, Tokuyama)

Sports

Before Tokuyama became part of Shūnan, it was one of the host cities of the official 1998 Women's Volleyball World Championship.

Notable people from Shūnan

Mayuko Fukuda is a Japanese actress who made her debut in 1998. She was managed by the talent agency FLaMme. Her father, Kenji Fukuda, is a drummer in the band Kasutera when Fukuda's father attended Waseda University in Tokyo after he moved from Shūnan, Yam ...

, actress *

Kodama Gentarō Viscount was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a government minister during the Meiji period. He was instrumental in establishing the modern Imperial Japanese military. Early life Kodama was born on March 16, 1852, in Tok ...

, Imperial Japanese Army general and 4th Governor General of Taiwan * Keiichi Hayashi, diplomat *

Asami Imai is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Early Wing. She debuted as a voice actress in 1997 and as singer in 2009 by releasing her first single "Day by Day / Shining Blue Rain" under the 5pb. Records label. She is also well known ...

, voice actress * Satoshi Inoue, politician *

Masahiko Kōmura is a Japanese politician who served as Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2012 to 2018. He served in several cabinet position, including as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and again from 2007 to 2008. He was a ...

, politician * Milk Morizono manga artist * Mitsuda Yasunori, independent video game composer and professional musician

References

External links

Shūnan City official website
Cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture Port settlements in Japan Populated coastal places in Japan {{Yamaguchi-geo-stub