290px, Tokushima Prefectural Road Route 244 in Yoshinogawa Kounoyama

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

Tokushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 682,439 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,146 Square kilometre, km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture b ...

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 39,150 in 17958 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 270 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Yoshinogawa is located in the northern part of Tokushima Prefecture on the island of

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 ...

. It is located on the south bank of the

Yoshino River The Yoshino River (吉野川 ''Yoshino-gawa'') is a river on the island of Shikoku, Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . It is the second longest river in Shikoku (slightly shorter than the Shimanto), and is the only river whose watershe ...

, which runs east to west and most of the population is concentrated in the Tokushima Plain along this river.

Neighbouring municipalities

Tokushima Prefecture * Awa * Ishii * Kamiita * Kamiyama * Mima

Climate

Yoshinogawa 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 ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Yoshinogawa is 14.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2137 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.1 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.0 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Yoshinogawa has declined slowly over the past 30 years.

History

As with all of Tokushima Prefecture, the area of Yoshinogawa was part of ancient Awa 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

Tokushima Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, controlling all of Awa Province and Awaji Province in what is now Tokushima Prefecture and Awaji Island of modern-day Hyōgo Prefecture. It was centered around Tokushima ...

ruled by the Hachisuka clan from their seat at

Tokushima Castle was an Edo period Japanese castle located in the city of Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Its ruins have been protected as a National Historic Site since 1957. Its Omotegoten Gardens are designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty. Hi ...

. The area was divided into 11 villages within Oe District, Tokushima with the creation of the modern municipalities system on October 1, 1889. The city of Yoshinogawa was established on October 1, 2004, from the merger of the towns of Kamojima, Kawashima and Yamakawa, and the village of Misato (all from Oe District, which was dissolved as a result of this merger).

Government

Yoshinogawa 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 20 members. Yoshinogawa contributes two members to the Tokushima Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Tokushima 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

Yoshinogawa has a mixed economy of agriculture and regional commerce. Due to its proximity to the city of Tokushima, it is increasingly becoming a

commuter town 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 ...

Education

Yoshinogawa has 11 public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government and one public high school and one public combined middle/high school operated by the Tokushima Prefectural Department of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

Shikoku Railway Company The , commonly known as , is the smallest of the seven constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates of intercity and local rail services in the four prefectures on the island of Shikoku in Japan. The company has it ...

–

Kōtoku Line The is a railway line in northeastern Shikoku, Japan that connects the prefectural capitals Takamatsu ( Kagawa) and Tokushima (Tokushima). Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku) owns and operates the line, whose name comes from the characters in ...

* - - - - - - - -

Highways

* * *

Local attractions

* Fujii-dera, 11th temple on the Shikoku Pilgrimage * Kawashima Castle

Notable people from Yoshinogawa

Yoshikawa Akimasa Count was a Japanese bureaucrat, statesman and cabinet minister, active in Meiji- and Taishō-period Japan. Biography Yoshikawa was born in Yamakawa, Awa Province (currently Yoshinogawa, Tokushima) as the son of a local ''samurai''. After ...

, (1842 – 1920) cabinet minister *

Masaharu Gotōda Masaharu Gotōda (後藤田正晴, ''Gotoda Masaharu'', 9 August 1914 – 19 September 2005) was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician of the Liberal Democratic Party who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Japan in 1993. He also several in several ...

, (1914 – 2005), politician * Ryuho Okawa, (b. 1956) a religious leader, established Happy Science, from Kawashima-cho *

Ryusei Takeoka is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positi ...

, (b. 2001) baseball player

References

External links

*
Yoshinogawa City official website

Kitaro Shikoku Peace Bell Project
Cities in Tokushima Prefecture {{Tokushima-geo-stub