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 Sorachi Subprefecture,

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 ...

. It is Japan's smallest city by population.

History

Utashinai was formerly a prosperous

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

city, but its fortunes has declined greatly since the closing of the coal mines. The population peaked at 46,000 in 1948, and has been decreasing every year since. Efforts to transform Utashinai from a gritty coal mining town to an alpine

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

destination have met with mixed success. The town has adopted a Swiss theme as part of its tourist-oriented strategy and many new buildings are built in the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

chalet style. A medium-sized ski hill, Kamoidake, attracts a decent crowd of locals and hosts frequent ski meets, while a

hot spring A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a Spring (hydrology), spring produced by the emergence of Geothermal activity, geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow ...

resort called Tyrol, after the Austrian region, is known throughout Hokkaido for the quality of its water. However, despite these new projects, Utashinai continues to experience

population decline Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total world population, human population has estimates of historical world population, continued to grow but projections sugg ...

and economic stagnation. The local high school closed in 2007, with students now traveling to Sunagawa, Akabira or Takikawa for their secondary education.

Timeline

*1890 - Sorachi Coal Mine opened, founding of Utashinai. *1897 - Utashinai

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 ...

split away from Nae Village (now the city of Sunagawa). *1900 - Ashibetsu Village splits off. *1906 - Utashinai becomes a Second Class Municipality. *1919 - Utashinai becomes a First Class Municipality. *1922 - Akabira Village split off. *1940 - Utashinai becomes 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 ...

. *1949 - Part of the town splits off into Kamisunagawa Town. *July 1, 1958 - Utashinai becomes a city. *1971 - Sumitomo closes Utashinai Mine. *1988 - Kamiutashinai Mine closed. *1995 - Sorachi Mine closed. *2003 - Mid-Sorachi Merger Conference established. *2004 - Merger Conference disbanded.

Geography

Penkeutashunai River, a tributary of

Ishikari River The , at long, is the third longest in Japan and the longest in Hokkaidō. The river drains an area of , making it the second largest in Japan, with a total discharge of around per year. It originates from Mount Ishikari in the Daisetsuzan ...

, flows through Utashinai. There is Mount Kamoi on the northwest of the city.

Name

The name is derived from the Ainu ''ota-us-nay'' () meaning "River connected to a sandy beach".

Demographics

As of December 31, 2020, the city 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 3,019, with 1,788

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

s, 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 62 persons per km². The total area of the city is 55.99 km². The population of Utashinai has been declining very rapidly for the past 80 years.

Culture

Mascot

Utashinai's mascot is , unveiled in 1998. He is a sheep carrying an alphorn, who moved from Switzerland to Japan.

References

External links

Official Website
Cities in Hokkaido Sorachi Subprefecture {{Hokkaido-geo-stub