is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in

Shiribeshi Subprefecture is a Subprefectures of Hokkaido, subprefecture of Hokkaido, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. The subprefecture's capital is Kutchan, Hokkaido, Kutchan. As of July 31, 2004, the estimated population was 256,184 and the area was 4,305.65 km2. ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

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 ...

. As of September 2016, the village had a

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 1,750, and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

of 21 persons per km². The total area is .

Etymology

The name of the town originates from the word "Hemoi-tomari" in the

Ainu language Ainu (, ), or more precisely Hokkaido Ainu (), is a language spoken by a few elderly members of the Ainu people on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is a member of the Ainu language family, itself considered a language family isola ...

. "Hemoi-tomari" is formed from two Ainu-language words, the first, "hemoi", meaning "

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

", and the second, "tomari", meaning "

harbor A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be moored. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

". In the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

the name of the town is written with a single

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 ...

character, , meaning "anchored" or "at anchor". The written form of the name in Japanese is an

ateji In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used s ...

, or a kanji character used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words.

Geography

Tomari is situated on the western coast of the

Shakotan Peninsula The in Shiribeshi, on the west coast of Hokkaidō, Japan, is a mountainous peninsula which projects some into the Sea of Japan. The Shakotan Peninsula forms part of the Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-National Park. Geography The penin ...

along 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 ...

. Tomari runs from east to west and from north to south. 70.57% of the village is forested, and has little arable land. Tomari is known for its view of the sunset on the

. The coast of the village is protected as part of

Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-National Park is a quasi-national park in the Shiribeshi Subprefecture of Hokkaido, Japan.List o ...

Neighboring towns and village

* Furubira * Kamoenai *

Kyōwa was a after ''Kansei'' and before ''Bunka.'' This period spanned the years from February 1801 through February 1804.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kyōwa''" ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see'Deut ...

Economy

The village is known for fishing and seafood, including

sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

(''uni''),

sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number be ...

(''namako'') and

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

(''ika''). Tomari has been linked with energy and power generation since the beginning of the 20th century, giving it its current nickname of "Hometown of Energy". The village is famous for being the site of Hokkaido's only

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

plant, the

Tomari Nuclear Power Plant The is the only nuclear power plant in Hokkaidō, Japan. It is located in the town of Tomari in the Furuu District and is managed by the Hokkaido Electric Power Company. All of the reactors are Mitsubishi designs. The plant site totals 1,350,0 ...

. Its first reactor became operational in 1989, and its second in 1991. Tax revenue from the nuclear power plant has ensured that Tomari's local government, unlike most rural villages, operates at a consistent surplus.

History

Historically, the Kayanuma area of the village was a coal mining town. The town was first settled by the Japanese in 1601, and was incorporated as a village in 1880. The villages of Sakazaki, Okishinai, Horikatsubu, and Kayanuma were merged into Tomari in 1909.

Sister city

Ikata, Ehime is a small peninsula town located in Nishiuwa District, Ehime Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 8,497 in 15638 households and a population density of 90 persons per km2. The total area of the town is Following a rece ...

, Japan

Education

* Junior high school ** Tomari Junior High School * Elementary school ** Tomari Elementary School

References

External links

*
Official Website
Villages in Hokkaido Shiribeshi Subprefecture {{Hokkaido-geo-stub