Tamano City Hall Aerial view of Tamano city center Shibukawa beach in Tamano 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 southern

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

, 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 55,889 in 27087 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 540 persons per km² . Its total area is

Geography

Tamano is located in southern Okayama Prefecture. It faces 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, and parts of the city are within the borders of the Setonaikai National Park.

Adjoining municipalities

* Kurashiki *

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

Climate

Tamano 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''). The average annual temperature in Tamano is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Tamano was on 19 August 1995; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 26 February 1981.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tamano in 2020 is 56,531 people. Tamano has been conducting censuses since 1920.

History

The Tamano area is part of ancient

Bizen Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area that is eastern Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Japan.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Mimasaka no Kuni''" in . Bizen bordered Bitchū 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 ...

, it was part of the holdings of Okayama Domain. 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 organized into villages within Kojima District, Okayama with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The city of Tamano was officially founded on August 3, 1940 by the merger of the towns of Uno and Hibi.

Government

Tamano 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 19 members. Tamano contributes two members to the Okayama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Okayama 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

Tamano has a mixed economy of heavy industry, commercial fishing and agriculture. Shipbuilding and metal refining are major industries, with one of the largest shipbuilding yards in Japan, operated by

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding () is a Japanese heavy industries company. Despite its name, it no longer builds ships and now focuses mainly on production of high-value ship equipment such as Marine propulsion, engines and automated gantry cranes. Mitsui E&S is the largest ...

, is located in Tamano. Other industries include textiles, chemicals, oil refining and salt production.

Education

Tamano has 14 public elementary schools, seven public junior high schools and two public high schools operated by the city government, and two public high schools operated by the Okayama prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

The JR Uno Line connects it to

. Before the Great Seto Bridge was opened, there was a train ferry between Uno Port in Tamano and

Takamatsu file:Takamatsu City Hall.jpg, 270px, Takamatsu City Hall file:Takamatsu city center area Aerial photograph.2007.jpg, 270px, Aerial view of Takamatsu city center file:Takamatsu200910cut.JPG, 270px, View from Yashima to Takashima port is a capital ...

Shikoku is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...

. Then, Tamano was the major entrance to Shikoku. Today there still exist many ferry lines between Uno port and Takamatsu, and also the islands of

Shōdoshima Shōdoshima or is an island located in the Seto Inland Sea, Inland Sea of Japan. The name means "Island of Azuki bean, Small Beans". There are two towns on the island: Tonoshō, Kagawa, Tonoshō and Shodoshima, Kagawa, Shōdoshima, composing the ...

and Naoshima.

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, ...

(JR West) - Uno Line * - - -

Highways

* *

Sister cities

Tongyeong Tongyeong (; ) is a coastal Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It has an area of and in 2010, a population of 139,869 people. It is divided into 1 eup (town), 6 myeon (township) and 11 dong (n ...

South Gyeongsang South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heri ...

, Republic of Korea since August 3, 1981 *

Jiujiang Jiujiang, formerly transliterated Kiukiang and Kew-Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level ...

, Jiangxi , China, friendship city since 1996 *

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of North Shore (Massachusetts), Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census. ...

, United States, since July 23, 2004

Notable people from Tamano

* Yukari Ichijo,

manga artist A manga artist, also known as a mangaka (), is a Cartoonist, comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist before entering the indus ...

* Hisaichi Ishii, manga artist * Ukita Kōkichi, aviation pioneer * Taiyo Sugiura, actor *

Tetsuo Takashima Tetsuo Takashima (高嶋哲夫 ''Takashima Tetsuo'', born July 7, 1949) is a contemporary Japanese people, Japanese author active in a number of genres that include science fiction, mystery fiction, historical novel, historical fiction, social co ...

, author * Katsuya Terada, artist * Hiroshi Yagi, baseball player

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Cities in Okayama Prefecture Tamano, Okayama Populated coastal places in Japan Port settlements in Japan