is 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 ...

located in

Gunma Prefecture is a landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of . Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fuk ...

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 town 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 36,367 in 15685 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 1440 persons per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Tamamura is located in southern Gunma prefecture in the northern extremity of the

Kantō plain The , in the Kantō region of central Honshu, is the largest plain in Japan. Its 17,000 km2 covers more than half of the region extending over Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture, Kanagawa Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, Tochigi Prefe ...

s, bordering

Saitama Prefecture is a Landlocked country, landlocked Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (January 1, 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 Square kilometre, km2 ( ...

to the south. The

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Government of Japan, Japanese government. It is long, an ...

flows through the town. *Rivers:

Tone River The is a river in the Kantō region of Japan. It is in length (the second longest in Japan after the Shinano River) and has a drainage area of (the largest in Japan). It is nicknamed Bandō Tarō (); ''Bandō'' is an obsolete alias of the ...

, Karasu River

Surrounding municipalities

* Fujioka *

Isesaki is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 213,303 in 91,789 households, and a population density of 1500 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Isesaki is located in the northwe ...

Maebashi is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . It was ...

Takasaki is a Cities of Japan, city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 372,369 in 167,345 households, and a population density of 810 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Takasaki is famous as th ...

* Honjō * Kamisato

Climate

Kanra has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by hot summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Kanra is 14.5 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1250 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.4 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,Tamamura population statistics
/ref> the population of Tamamura has recently plateaued after several decades of strong growth.

History

Tamamura developed 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 ...

as 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

Nikkō Reiheishi Kaidō The was established during the Edo period as a subroute to Nikkō Kaidō. It connected the Nakasendō with the Nikkō Kaidō.Nikkō 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 the temple-shrine complex of the Mangan-ji and Tōshōsha (now cal ...

which connects the

Nakasendō The , also called the ,Richard Lane, ''Images from the Floating World'' (1978) Chartwell, Secaucus ; pg. 285 was one of the centrally administered Edo Five Routes, five routes of the Edo period, and one of the two that connected the ''de facto'' ...

with Nikkō, bypassing

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 ...

.Nikkō Reiheishidō
Mainichi Shinbun. Accessed August 29, 2007.
. City of Takasaki. Accessed August 29, 2007. Tamamura town was created within Nawa District, Gunma Prefecture on April 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system after the

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 ...

. Nawa District and Sai District merged to form Sawa District in 1896. On April 10, 1955 Tamamura annexed the neighboring village of Shibane, followed by Jōyō on August 1, 1957.

Government

Tamamura 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 ...

town council of 13 members. Tamamura contributes one member to the Gunma Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of Gunma 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

Many people were employed in

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, the caterpillar of the Bombyx mori, domestic silkmoth is the most widely used and intensively studied silkwo ...

in the past. *

Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

- 877 people (5.1%) *

Manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

- 6957 people (40.2%) *

Service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a ...

- 9490 people (54.8%)

Education

Kanra has five public elementary schools and two public middle schools operated by the town government and one public high school operated by the Gunma Prefectural Board of Education. The town also has one private elementary school. * Universities **

Gunma Prefectural Women's University is a public university in Tamamura, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Established in 1980, it is one of the two public women's universities in Japan, alongside Fukuoka Women's University. History The school was established in 1980 in the city of Ma ...

Transportation

Railway

Tamamura does not have any passenger railway service. The nearest station is Shinmachi Station in the neighboring city of Takasaki.