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 central

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

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 52,433, 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 1,100 persons per km² in 19,535 households. The total area of the city is .

Geography

Tomiya is located in central Miyagi Prefecture, bordered by the Sendai metropolitan area to the south.

Neighboring municipalities

Miyagi Prefecture *

Rifu is a town located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 36,014, and a population density of 800 persons per km2 in 13,568 households. The total area of the town is . Rifu is known for its nashi pears. Recently, ...

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan. ...

* Taiwa

Climate

The city has a climate characterized by cool summers and long cold winters (

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 Tomiya is 12.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1251 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 0.6 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Tomiya has expanded rapidly over the past 50 years.

History

The area of present-day Tomiya was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and has been settled since at least the

Jōmon period In Japanese history, the is the time between , during which Japan was inhabited by the Jōmon people, a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united by a common culture, which reached a considerable degree of sedentism an ...

by the

Emishi The were a group of people who lived in parts of northern Honshū in present-day Japan, especially in the Tōhoku region. The first mention of the Emishi in literature that can be corroborated with outside sources dates to the 5th century AD, ...

people. During later portion of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, the area was ruled by the

Northern Fujiwara The Northern Fujiwara (奥州藤原氏 ''Ōshū Fujiwara-shi'') were a Japanese noble family that ruled the Tōhoku region (the northeast of Honshū) of Japan during the 12th century as their own realm.

. 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 ...

, the area was contested by various

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

clans before the area came under the control of the

Date clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Date", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 5 retrieved 2013-5-5. History The Date fam ...

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of ...

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 ...

, under the

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 ...

. During the Edo period, Tomiya was a

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...

on the

Ōshū Kaidō The was one of the centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period. It was built to connect the ''de facto'' capital of Japan at Edo (modern-day Tokyo) with Mutsu Province and the present-day city of Shirakawa, Fukushima, S ...

highway connecting

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

with northern Japan. The village of Tomiya was created on April 1, 1889 with the post-

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 ...

establishment of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to town status on April 1, 1963 and raised to city status on October 10, 2016.

Government

Tomiya operates under a mayor-council form of government, wherein the mayor is directly elected by residents. The city also has 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 legislature composed of 20 members. This system ensures local governance and decision-making tailored to the needs of Tomiya's residents. At the prefectural level, Tomiya and the surrounding Kurokawa District collectively elect two representatives to the Miyagi Prefectural Legislature. This partnership reflects the interconnected administrative responsibilities shared between the city and its neighboring district. On a national level, Tomiya is part of the Miyagi 4th district for Japan's House of Representatives, 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

National 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 ...

. This district representation plays a vital role in ensuring Tomiya's interests are voiced in national legislative matters.

Economy

Tomiya has a mixed economy with five industrial parks, but is also noted for its production of blueberries and bean sprouts. The city is also 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 the neighboring metropolis of Sendai.

Education

Tomiya has eight public elementary schools and five public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education. The prefectural also operations one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

Tomiya does not have any passenger railway service.

Highway

* – Tomiya Junction * – Tomiya Junction – Tomiya Interchange *

Mascots

Tomiya has two mascots, Buruberi Musume (ブルベリッ娘, lit: Blueberry Girl) and Burupiyo (ブルピヨ). The characters where created in 2016, alongside the city's founding. Buruberi Musume is a girl and Burupiyos gender is unknown. Tomiya makes a lot of merchandise of the mascots, including stickers on the Japanese social media LINE.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Miyagi Prefecture Populated places established in 2016