260px, Akashi City Hall 260px, Akashi fromAkashi Castle is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in southern

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan. , the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

of 304,274 in 135,323 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

of 6,200 people per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Akashi located in southern Hyōgo prefecture, and is a long and narrow municipality along the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, 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 ...

. It is separated from Awaji Island by Harima Bay; however, the terminus of the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, which connects

Honshu , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island s ...

to Awaji Island and to

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

, is not in Akashi but in Tarumi-ku, Kōbe. The 135th meridian east line that determines

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred t ...

passes though the city.

Neighbouring municipalities

Hyōgo Prefecture *

Kōbe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, which ...

* Kakogawa * Harima * Inami

Climate

Akashi has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than in most parts of Honshū, and there is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Akashi is . The average annual rainfall is with September 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 Akashi was on 13 August 2019; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 30 January 2003.

Demographics

History

Akashi is mentioned in a ''waka'' (five-line, 31-syllable poem) written by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro in the 7th century and it is the setting for one of the chapters of the 11th-century novel '' The Tale of Genji''. It developed as the castle town of Akashi Domain during the

Edo Period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, from 1617 to 1871 due to its location dominating the

San'yōdō is a Japanese geographical term. It means both an ancient division of the country and the main road running through it. The San'yōdō corresponds for the most part with the modern conception of the San'yō region. This name derives from the id ...

highway connecting the Kinai region with western Japan. The famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi is claimed to have laid out the design of the castle town. The town of Akashi was established on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. It was raised to city status on November 1, 1919. The city annexed the neighboring villages of Hayashizaki on February 11, 1942 and Okubo, Uozumi and Futami on January 10, 1951 to reach its present dimensions. A proposal to merge with the city of Kobe was rejected by a referendum in 1955. The city suffered from the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995 with 4,839 houses were completely or partially destroyed and nine fatalities. On July 21, 2001, 11 people were killed and 247 were injured during a stampede after a fireworks show. Five city officials were subsequently convicted of negligence in connection with the incident. Akashi became a Core city on April 1, 2018 with increased local autonomy.

Government

Akashi 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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

city council of 30 members. Akashi contributes four members to the

Hyogo Prefectural Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Hyogo Prefecture. The assembly's 87 members are elected every four years in 40 districts by single non-transferable vote. Nine of the electoral districts correspond with the wards of Kobe city and the remain ...

. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Hyōgo 9th district of the

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

. Akashi is governed by Mayor Fusaho Izumi, an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

Economy

Akashi is located within the Hanshin Industrial Area and Harima Seaside Industrial Area and has succeeded in attracting many companies to its Futami Seaside Industrial Park. the city has long been noted for aviation-related instrumentation manufacturers and electronic component manufacturers. Yamato Scale, a leading global manufacturer of commercial weighing and packaging equipment, is headquartered in the city. Due to its transportation connections and location, numerous bedroom communities have developed for commuters to Kobe and Osaka, which is estimated to exceed 30% of the working population. The city has also been noted since the Edo Period for its production of ''

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and in ...

''.

Education

Akashi has 28 public elementary schools, 13 public middle schools and one public high school operated by the city government and seven public high schools operated by the Hyōgo Prefectural Department of Education. There is also one national elementary school. The city also operates one special education school for the handicapped. The nursing school of University of Hyogo is located in Akashi. The city also has the National Institute of Technology Akashi College (NITAC)． () The city once had a North Korean school, and Akashi Junior College ().

Transportation

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, and i ...

– San'yō Shinkansen * JR_logo_(west)

–

San'yō Main Line The is a major railway line owned by JR Group companies in western Japan, connecting Kōbe Station and Moji Station, largely paralleling the coast of the Inland Sea, in other words, the southern coast of western Honshu. The San'yō Shinkan ...

( JR Kobe Line) * - - - - Sanyo electric railway logo-5

Sanyo Electric Railway is a Japanese private railway operating company based in western Hyōgo Prefecture. It runs local and express rail service between Himeji and Kobe, and also connects directly with Hanshin Main Line to Osaka. Although the Hanshin Electric R ...

- Main Line * - - - - - - - - - - -

Highways

Daini-Shinmei Road * (Kobe, Okayama, Hiroshima, Shimonoseki) * (Kobe, Tokushima) * (Maizuru) * (Kobe, Okayama) * (Maizuru) * (Nishiwaki, Asago)

Ferries

* Akashi Awaji Ferry and Awaji Jenova Line to Awaji Island

International relations

Twin towns – Sister/friendship cities

Akashi is twinned with: *

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to th ...

, USA, sister city since 1968 *

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city a ...

, China, friendship city since 1981

Local attractions

* Akashi Castle, National Historic Site * Akashi Municipal

Planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a Theater (structure), theatre built primarily for presenting educational entertainment, educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navi ...

, which stands on the meridian of 135 degrees east longitude, which is used to determine

. * Akashi Park Stadium is a track and field stadium that can hold 20,000 spectators. * Kakinomoto Shrine *''Uonotana'' (Uo-no-Tana, , literally "fish-shelf"), a market where local fishermen display an array of fresh seafood caught in the Akashi Strait. File:Port of Akashi,明石港 DSCF1831.jpg, Port of Akashi File:山陽電鉄明石駅・明石天文台より俯瞰P9160007.jpg, Sanyo Akashi Station File:Port of Akashi,明石港地蔵のある路地 DSCF1956.jpg, Old town area File:Akashi-uontana,2010年末-魚の棚商店街 DSCF0215.JPG, Uontana File:Akashi Minicipal Planetarium.jpg, Akashi Municipal Planetarium

Culture

Akashi is known for ''

Akashiyaki is a small round dumpling from the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The dumpling is made of an egg-rich batter and octopus dipped into '' dashi'' (a thin fish broth) before eating. Modern style akashiyaki first started selling in t ...

'', a kind of ''

takoyaki is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus (''tako''), tempura scraps (''tenkasu''), pickled ginger (''beni shoga''), and green o ...

'' particular to the region. Small pieces of octopus (''tako'') are placed inside a ball-shaped mold containing a mixture of flour and eggs, and this is then fried. ''Akashiyaki'' is often eaten by dipping in a thin soup. People who live in Akashi call it ''"tamagoyaki"''(tamago, or , literally "egg").

Noted people from Akashi

* Yumi Kokamo, long-distance runner * Mami Kingetsu, voice actress *

Airi Taira , known by her birth and stage name , is a Japanese actress who She debuted in 1999 by winning the Da Pump's, ISSA's Sister Role Grand Prix for the movie Dream Maker. She played a lead role in the live action movie of ''20th Century Boys'' as the ...

, actress

References

External links

Akashi City official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Akashi, Hyogo Cities in Hyōgo Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan Port settlements in Japan