is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

located in

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the no ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. , the town 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 37,617, 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 700 persons per km² in 15,590 households. The total area of the town is .

Geography

Shibata is located in south-central Miyagi Prefecture in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku reta ...

of northern Japan. The Abukuma River runs through the town.

Neighboring municipalities

Miyagi Prefecture *

Iwanuma 270px, Iwanuma City Hall is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 43,946 in 18,062 households, and a population density of 730 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Iwanuma is at t ...

* Kakuda * Natori * Ōgawara * Murata * Watari

Climate

Shibata has a humid climate (

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'') characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Shibata is 12.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1263 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 1.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Shibata population statistics
/ref> the population of Shibata increased throughout the 20th century and has declined slightly in the 21st.

History

The area of present-day Shibata was part of ancient

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the co ...

, and was part of the holdings of Sendai Domain under 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 ...

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...

. The villages of Funaoka and Tsukinoki were established on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of 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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

modern municipalities system. Tsukioki was promoted to town status on April 1, 1904 and Funaoka on November 3, 1941. The two towns merged to form Shibata on April 1, 1956.

Government

Shibata 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 ...

town council of 18 members. Shibata, together with the rest of Shibata District, collectively contributes two seats to the Miyagi Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the town is part of

Miyagi 3rd district , the House of Representatives of Japan is elected from a combination of multi-member districts and single-member districts, a method called Parallel voting. Currently, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member districts (called proportional ...

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 ...

Economy

The economy of Shibata is largely based on agriculture.

Education

Sendai University is a private university in Shibata, Miyagi, Japan, established in 1967. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1879. It is the only university specializing in physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E ...

* Shibata has six public elementary schools and three public middle schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Miyagi Prefectural Board of Education. The prefecture also operates one special education school for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railway

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

(JR East) -

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line ( ja, 東北本線, ) is a long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fuku ...

* -

AbukumaExpress is a third-sector railway transportation company headquartered in Date, Fukushima, Japan. History AbukumaExpress was founded on April 5, 1984, as a third-sector railway for the purpose of taking over operation of Japanese National Railways' Ma ...

Abukuma Express Line The is a railway line in Japan, owned and operated by the third sector operator AbukumaExpress. The line connects Fukushima Station in Fukushima Prefecture and Tsukinoki Station in Miyagi Prefecture. Both of these stations are also on the ...

* -

Highway

* *

Local attractions

*Site of Funaoka Castle

Sister city relations

* – Assis Chateaubriand (Paraná), Brazil since April 13, 1981 * –

Danyang, Jiangsu Danyang () is a county-level city located on the southwest (right) bank of the Yangtze River, and is under the administration of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, China. It is noted for the production of optical lenses used in sunglasses and eyeglasses. ...

, China, since February 23, 1994 * -

Kitakami, Iwate is a city located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 92,311, and a population density of 210 persons per km2 in 37,085 households. The total area of the city is . The city is famous for the sakura that blo ...

, Japan, since January 25, 1980 * -

Date, Hokkaido is a city in Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Date was established around 1869, and became a city on April 1, 1972. History Remains of settlements from the Jōmon period have been found in the Date area. The Ainu, the native inhabitants of ...

, Japan, since May 30, 1988 (friendship city)

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Towns in Miyagi Prefecture Sendai University