1.
Cities of Japan
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A city is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the level as towns and villages. Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947, a city can theoretically be demoted to a town or village when it fails to meet any of these conditions, but such a demotion has not happened to date. The least populous city, Utashinai, Hokkaido, has a population of six thousand, while a town in the prefecture, Otofuke. Many municipalities gained city status under this eased standard, the Cabinet of Japan can designate cities of at least 200,000 inhabitants to have the status of special city, core city, or designated city. These statuses expand the scope of authority delegated from the prefectural government to the city government. Tokyo, Japan’s capital, existed as a city until 1943, the 23 special wards of Tokyo, which constitute the core of the Tokyo metropolitan area, each have an administrative status analogous to that of cities. Tokyo also has several other incorporated cities, towns and villages within its jurisdiction. J, jacobs at Urban Studies Research, Vol.2011, doi,10. 1155/2011/692764 Large City System of Japan, graphic shows Japanese city types at p.1
2.
Shinkansen
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The Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by five Japan Railways Group companies. The nickname bullet train is used in English for these high-speed trains. The maximum operating speed is 320 km/h, test runs have reached 443 km/h for conventional rail in 1996, and up to a world record 603 km/h for maglev trains in April 2015. Shinkansen literally means new trunk line, referring to the rail line network. The name Superexpress, initially used for Hikari trains, was retired in 1972 but is used in English-language announcements. The original Tōkaidō Shinkansen, connecting the largest cities of Tokyo, carrying 151 million passengers per year, and at over 5 billion total passengers it has transported more passengers than any other high-speed line in the world. The service on the line operates much larger trains and at higher frequency than most other high speed lines in the world. At peak times, the line carries up to thirteen trains per hour in direction with sixteen cars each with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains. While the Shinkansen network has been expanding, Japans declining population is expected to cause ridership to decline over time, the recent expansion in tourism has boosted ridership marginally. Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel, because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of 1,067 mm narrow-gauge lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high-speed lines than countries where the standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential. Other significant people responsible for its development were Tadanao Miki, Tadashi Matsudaira. They were responsible for much of the development of the first line. All three had worked on aircraft design during World War II, the popular English name bullet train is a literal translation of the Japanese term dangan ressha, a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck because of the original 0 Series Shinkansens resemblance to a bullet and these plans were abandoned in 1943 as Japans position in World War II worsened. However, some construction did commence on the line, several tunnels on the present-day Shinkansen date to the war-era project, by the mid-1950s the Tōkaidō Line was operating at full capacity, and the Ministry of Railways decided to revisit the Shinkansen project. In 1957, Odakyu Electric Railway introduced its 3000 series SE Romancecar train and this train gave designers the confidence that they could safely build an even faster standard gauge train. Thus the first Shinkansen, the 0 series, was built on the success of the Romancecar, in the 1950s, the Japanese national attitude was that railways would soon be outdated and replaced by air travel and highways as in America and many countries in Europe
3.
Maibara Station
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Maibara Station is a railway station in Maibara, Shiga, Japan. It is the terminus of the West Japan Railway Company Hokuriku Main Line. The station opened on July 1,1889, since 1987, its main operator has been JR West, although JR Central administers the Shinkansen tracks. There are a platform, a side platform with five tracks for the Tōkaidō Shinkansen. The Ohmi Railway station consists of one platform serving two tracks
4.
Shiga Prefecture
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Shiga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan, which forms part of the Kansai region in the western part of Honshu island. It encircles Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in Japan, Shiga was known as Ōmi Province or Gōshū before the prefectural system was established. Omi was a neighbor of Nara and Kyoto, at the junction of western and eastern Japan, during the period 667 to 672, Emperor Tenji founded a palace in Otsu. In 742, Emperor Shōmu founded a palace in Shigaraki, in the early Heian Period, Saichō was born in the north of Otsu and founded Enryaku-ji, the center of Tendai and one a UNESCO World Heritage Site and monument of Ancient Kyoto now. In the Medieval Period, the Sasaki clan ruled Omi, and afterward the Rokkaku clan, Kyōgoku clan, in the 1570s, Oda Nobunaga subjugated Omi and built Azuchi Castle on the eastern shores of Lake Biwa in 1579. Tōdō Takatora, Gamō Ujisato, Oichi, Yodo-dono, Ohatsu, in those times, Ninja were active in Kōka. In 1600, Ishida Mitsunari, born in the east of Nagahama and based in Sawayama Castle, made war against Tokugawa Ieyasu in Sekigahara, after the battle, Ieyasu made Ii Naomasa a new lord of Sawayama. Naomasa established the Hikone Domain, later famous for Ii Naosuke, Ii Naosuke became the Tokugawa shogunates Tairō and concluded commercial treaties with the Western powers and thus ended Japans isolation from the world in the 19th century. Besides the Hikone Domain, many domains ruled Omi such as Zeze, with the abolition of the han system, eight prefectures were formed in Omi. They were unified into Shiga Prefecture in September 1872, Shiga Prefecture was named after Shiga District because Otsu belonged to the district until 1898. From August 1876 to February 1881, southern Fukui Prefecture had been incorporated into Shiga Prefecture, Shiga borders Fukui Prefecture in the north, Gifu Prefecture in the east, Mie Prefecture in the southeast, and Kyoto Prefecture in the west. Lake Biwa, Japans largest, is located at the center of this prefecture and it occupies one-sixth of its area. The Seta River flows from Lake Biwa to Osaka Bay through Kyoto and this is the only natural river that flows out from the lake. Most other natural rivers flow into the lake, there were many lagoons around Lake Biwa, but most of them were reclaimed in 1940s. One of the lagoons is the wetland in Omihachiman. The lake divides the prefecture into four different areas, Kohoku centered Nagahama, Kosei centered Imazu, Kotō centered Hikone, plains stretch to the eastern shore of Lake Biwa. The prefecture is enclosed by mountain ranges with the Hira Mountains and Mount Hiei in the west, the Ibuki Mountains in the northeast, Mount Ibuki is the highest mountain in Shiga. In Yogo, a lake is famous for the legend of the heavenly robe of an angel
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
7.
Kansai region
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The Kansai region or the Kinki region lies in the southern-central region of Japans main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Mie, Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, while the use of the terms Kansai and Kinki have changed over history, in most modern contexts the use of the two terms is interchangeable. The urban region of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto is the second most populated in Japan after the Greater Tokyo Area, the Kansai region is the cultural and historical heart of Japan with 11% of its land area and 22,757,897 residents as of 2010. In the north the region is bordered by the Sea of Japan, to the south by the Kii Peninsula and Pacific Ocean, four of Japans national parks lie within its borders, in whole or in part. The area also contains six of the seven top prefectures in terms of national treasures, other geographical features include Amanohashidate in Kyoto Prefecture and Awaji Island in Hyōgo. The Kansai region is compared with the Kantō region, which lies to its east and consists primarily of Tokyo. This East-West rivalry has deep roots, particularly from the Edo period. With a samurai population of less than 1% the culture of the merchant city of Osaka stood in sharp contrast to that of Edo, many characteristic traits of Kansai people descend from Osaka merchant culture. Catherine Maxwell, an editor for the newsletter Omusubi, writes, Kansai residents are seen as being pragmatic, entrepreneurial, down-to-earth and possessing a strong sense of humour. Kanto people on the hand are perceived as more sophisticated, reserved and formal, in keeping with Tokyo’s history and modern status as the nation’s capital. Kansai is known for its food, especially Osaka, as supported by the saying Kyotoites are ruined by overspending on clothing, popular Osakan dishes include takoyaki, okonomiyaki, kitsune udon and kushikatsu. Kyoto is considered a mecca of traditional Japanese cuisine like kaiseki, Kansai has many wagyu brands such as Kobe beef and Tajima cattle from Hyōgo, Matsusaka beef from Mie and Omi beef from Shiga. Sake is another specialty of the region, the areas of Nada-Gogō, as opposed to food from Eastern Japan, food in the Kansai area tends to be sweeter, and foods such as nattō tend to be less popular. The dialects of the people from the Kansai region, commonly called Kansai-ben, have their own variations of pronunciation, vocabulary, Kansai-ben is the group of dialects spoken in the Kansai area, but is often treated as a dialect in its own right. Kansai is one of the most prosperous areas for baseball in Japan, two Nippon Professional Baseball teams, Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes, are based in Kansai. Koshien Stadium, the stadium of the Hanshin Tigers, is also famous for the nationwide high school baseball tournaments. In association football, the Kansai Soccer League was founded in 1966, cerezo Osaka, Gamba Osaka, and Vissel Kobe belong to J. League Division 1 and Kyoto Sanga F. C. belongs to J. League Division 2, the top professional leagues in Japan. The terms Kansai, Kinki, and Kinai have a deep history
8.
Prefectures of Japan
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The Prefectures of Japan consist of 47 prefectures. They form the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division of Japan and they consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one circuit or territory and one metropolis. The Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures to replace the provinces of Japan in 1868, each prefectures chief executive is a directly-elected governor. Ordinances and budgets are enacted by an assembly whose members are elected for four-year terms. Under the current Local Autonomy Law, each prefecture is subdivided into cities and districts and each district into towns, for example, Hokkaido has 14 subprefectures that act as branch offices of the prefecture. Some other prefectures also have offices that carry out prefectural administrative functions outside the capital. Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is a merged city-prefecture, the Wests use of prefecture to label these Japanese regions stems from 16th-century Portuguese explorers and traders use of prefeitura to describe the fiefdoms they encountered there. Its original sense in Portuguese, however, was closer to municipality than province and those fiefs were headed by a local warlord or family. Though the fiefs have long since been dismantled, merged, and reorganized multiple times, and been granted legislative governance and oversight, the Meiji government established the current system in July 1871 with the abolition of the Han system and establishment of the prefecture system. Although there were initially over 300 prefectures, many of them being former Han territories, this number was reduced to 72 in the part of 1871. The Local Autonomy Law of 1947 gave more power to prefectures. In 2003, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed that the government consolidate the current prefectures into about 10 regional states, the plan called for each region to have greater autonomy than existing prefectures. This process would reduce the number of administrative regions and cut administrative costs. As of August 2012, no reorganization has been scheduled, the central government delegates many functions to the prefectures and municipalities, but retains the overall right to control them. Although local government expenditure accounts for 70 percent of government expenditure, the central government controls local budgets, tax rates. Historically, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate established bugyō-ruled zones around the nine largest cities in Japan, and 302 township-ruled zones elsewhere. When the Meiji government began to create the system in 1868, the nine bugyō-ruled zones became fu, while the township-ruled zones. Later, in 1871, the government designated Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as fu, during World War II, in 1943, Tokyo became a to, a new type of pseudo-prefecture
9.
Japan Standard Time
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Japan Standard Time or JST is the standard timezone in Japan, and is 9 hours ahead of UTC, i. e. it is UTC+09,00. There is no daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated several times, during World War II, it was often called Tokyo Standard Time. Japan Standard Time is the same as Korean Standard Time, Indonesian Eastern Standard Time, before the Meiji era, each local region had its own timezone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its zenith. As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, in 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated, Ordinance 51 - July 13,1886 The prime meridian passes through Englands Greenwich Observatory. Longitudes are calculated using the prime meridian, counting 180 degrees either east or west, positive degrees are east, negative degrees are west. On January 1,1888,135 degrees east longitude will be set as the meridian for all of Japan. According to this, the time was set 9 hours ahead of GMT. In the ordinance, the first clause mentions GMT, the second defines east longitude and west longitude, the city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture is located exactly on 135 degrees east longitude and subsequently became known as Toki no machi. While Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, Korea Standard Time of UTC+8,30 continued to be used until 1912, when it was changed to Central Standard Time. Western Standard Time, which was used in Taiwan and some parts of Okinawa, was abolished by Ordinance 529 in 1937 and replaced by Central Standard Time in those areas. Territories occupied by Japan during World War II, including Singapore and Malaya, adopted Japan Standard Time for the duration of their occupation, more recently there have been efforts to bring back DST in Japan, but so far this has not happened. The two-time-zone system was implemented in Japan between January 1896 and September 1937, From October 1937, Central Standard Time was also used in western Okinawa, the IANA time zone database contains one zone for Japan in the file zone. tab, named Asia/Tokyo. From 1948–51, Japan observed DST between May and September every year under an initiative of the U. S. -led occupation army, since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan. Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to reinstate DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy, in the early 2000s, a few local governments and commerce departments promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during the summer without officially resetting clocks. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is expected to propose that the Japanese government begin studying DST in an attempt to combat global warming. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe made a significant effort to introduce daylight saving time, however, it is not clear that DST would conserve energy in Japan. JJY Japanese calendar UTC+09,00 Japanese clock
10.
Population
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A population is the number of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding. In sociology, population refers to a collection of humans, Demography is a social science which entails the statistical study of human populations. This article refers mainly to human population, in population genetics a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally-fertile offspring and this also implies that all members belong to the same species. If the gamodeme is very large, and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, however, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbours. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a sexual population into smaller overlapping sexual populations. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient, note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable. The mean phenotype of the collection is lower than that of the panmictic original – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations, in plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilise the effects of dispersion. It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance and this is so for both allogamous and autogamous gamodemes. In ecology, the population of a species in a certain area can be estimated using the Lincoln Index. As of todays date, the population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.496 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012, according to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, the population of countries such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that a total of over 100 billion people have probably been born in the last 2000 years, Population growth increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055
11.
Population density
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Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume, it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans and it is a key geographical term. Population density is population divided by land area or water volume. Low densities may cause a vortex and lead to further reduced fertility. This is called the Allee effect after the scientist who identified it, commonly this may be calculated for a county, city, country, another territory, or the entire world. The worlds population is around 7,000,000,000, therefore, the worldwide human population density is around 7,000,000,000 ÷510,000,000 =13.7 per km2. If only the Earths land area of 150,000,000 km2 is taken into account and this includes all continental and island land area, including Antarctica. If Antarctica is also excluded, then population density rises to over 50 people per km2, thus, this number by itself does not give any helpful measurement of human population density. Several of the most densely populated territories in the world are city-states, microstates, cities with high population densities are, by some, considered to be overpopulated, though this will depend on factors like quality of housing and infrastructure and access to resources. Most of the most densely populated cities are in Southeast Asia, though Cairo, for instance, Milwaukee has a greater population density when just the inner city is measured, and the surrounding suburbs excluded. Arithmetic density, The total number of people / area of land, physiological density, The total population / area of arable land. Agricultural density, The total rural population / area of arable land, residential density, The number of people living in an urban area / area of residential land. Urban density, The number of people inhabiting an urban area / total area of urban land, ecological optimum, The density of population that can be supported by the natural resources. S. States by population density Selected Current and Historic City, Ward & Neighborhood Density
12.
Maihara, Shiga
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Maihara was a town located in Sakata District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an population of 12,212. The total area was 42.78 km², on February 14,2005, Maihara, along with the towns of Ibuki and Santō, was merged to create the city of Maibara. It has developed as a traffic junction, in Edo period, there were Samegai-juku and Banba-juku. In Meiji period, a station opened here, but it was named Maibara. So many Japanese mistook the name and the stations name. Eventually Maibara was adopted as the name of new city
13.
Ibuki, Shiga
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Ibuki was a town located in Sakata District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town had an population of 5,858. The total area was 109.17 km², on February 14,2005, Ibuki, along with the towns of Maihara and Santō, was merged to create the city of Maibara
14.
Sakata District, Shiga
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Sakata was a district located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the district has an population of 41,126. The total area is 223.10 km², by the time of founding, the district compromise the areas of the cities of Maibara, Hikone Toriimoto area, and the city Nagahama. On April 1,1943, the city of Nagahama was formed, and in 1952, on February 14,2005, the towns of Ibuki, Santō, and Maihara merged to form a new city called Maibara. Sakata District has been dissolved after Ōmi merged into Maibara on October 1,2005, February 1,1971 - The village of Ibuki was elevated to town status. February 14,2005 - The towns of Maihara, Ibuki, October 1,2005 - The town of Ōmi was merged into the expanded city of Maibara. Sakata District was dissolved asa result of this merger
15.
Lake Biwa
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Lake Biwa is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, located in Shiga Prefecture, northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Because of its proximity to the ancient capital, references to Lake Biwa appear frequently in Japanese literature, particularly in poetry, the name Biwako was established in the Edo period. There are various theories about the origin of the name Biwako, the lake was formerly known as the Awaumi or the Chikatsu Awaumi. Later the pronunciation Awaumi changed to the modern Ōmi as in the name of Ōmi Province, the lake is also called Nio no Umi in literature. The area of lake is about 670 km². It serves as a reservoir for the cities of Kyoto and Ōtsu and is a resource for nearby textile industries. It provides drinking water for about 15 million people in the Kansai region, Lake Biwa is a breeding ground for freshwater fish, including trout, and for the pearl culture industry. Lake Biwa is home to popular beaches along the north-western shore, in particular, for example, Shiga Beach. The Mizunomori Water Botanical Garden and The Lake Biwa Museum in Kusatsu are also of interest, the Lake Biwa Marathon takes place in Otsu, the city at the southern end of the lake annually since 1962. Lake Biwa is of tectonic origin and is one of the worlds oldest lakes and this long uninterrupted age has allowed for a notably diverse ecosystem to evolve in the lake. Naturalists have documented more than 1000 species and subspecies in the lake, Lake Biwa is an important place for water birds. About 5,000 water birds visit Lake Biwa every year, there are 46 native fish species and subspecies in the lake, including 11 species and 5 subspecies that endemic or near-endemic. The endemic species are five cyprinids, a true loach, two gobies, two silurid catfish and a cottid, the Biwa trout is also endemic to the lake, but some maintain that it is a subspecies of the widespread masu salmon rather than a separate species. The remaining endemic fish are subspecies of Carassius auratus, Cobitis minamorii, Lake Biwa is also the home of a large number of molluscs, including 38 freshwater snails and 16 bivalves. Recently the biodiversity of the lake has suffered due to the invasion of foreign fish, the black bass. Bluegill were presented to the Emperor and later freed in the lake as a source for other fish. Black bass were introduced as a sport fish, in July 2009, a largemouth bass weighing 22 pounds,4 ounces was caught in the lake by Manabu Kurita. It has been certified by the International Game Fish Association to tie the largemouth bass world record held solely by George Perry for 77 years
16.
Sekigahara, Gifu
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Sekigahara is a town located in Fuwa District, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. As of July 2011, the town has an population of 7,965. The total area is 49.29 km², in 1600, the Battle of Sekigahara took place here. April 1,1928 - The village of Sekigahara is officially established as a town,1954 - Merged with the village of Imasu, as well as part of the neighboring town of Tarui. 2004 - Rejected a proposed merger with the city of Ōgaki. 2016 - Became a sister city of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, JR Central Tōkaidō Main Line - Sekigahara Station Media related to Sekigahara, Gifu at Wikimedia Commons Sekigahara Town Gifu Prefectural homepage
17.
Gifu Prefecture
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Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu, located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō. During the Sengoku period, many referred to Gifu by saying, control Gifu. The land area makes up modern-day Gifu became part of the Yamato Court around the middle of the fourth century. The area of Gifu Prefecture consists of the old provinces of Hida and Mino, as well as parts of Echizen. The name of the prefecture derives from its city, Gifu. The first character used comes from Qishan, a mountain from which most of China was unified, whereas the second character comes from Qufu. Nobunaga chose those characters because he wanted to unify all of Japan, historically, the prefecture served as the center of swordmaking in all of Japan, with Seki being known for making the best swords in Japan. More recently, its strengths have been in fashion and aerospace engineering, on October 28,1891, the present-day city of Motosu was the epicenter for the Mino–Owari earthquake, the second largest earthquake to ever hit Japan. The earthquake, estimated at 8.0, left a fault scarp that can still be seen today, one of the few landlocked prefectures in Japan, Gifu shares borders with seven other prefectures, Aichi, Fukui, Ishikawa, Mie, Nagano, Shiga and Toyama. Japans postal codes all start with a number, ranging from 001 to 999. Part of Gifu has the 500 prefix, reflecting its location in the center of Japan, the center of Japanese population is currently located in Seki City, Gifu Prefecture. The center of population is a point at which a country is perfectly balanced assuming each person has a uniform weight. The spot was calculated using the 2005 census, Gifu has five unofficial regions, which allows local municipalities to work together to promote the surrounding area. The five regions are Seinō, Gifu, Chūnō, Tōnō, the borders of the regions are loosely defined, but they are usually delineated among major cities. The northern Hida region is dominated by mountains, including parts of the Japanese Alps. The southern Mino region is mostly parts of the fertile Nōbi Plain, most of the prefectures population lives in the southern part of the prefecture, near the designated city of Nagoya. The mountainous Hida region contains both the Hida Mountains, which are referred to as the Northern Alps, and the Kiso Mountains, the Ryōhaku Mountains are also in the Hida region
18.
Mount Ibuki
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Mount Ibuki is a 1, 377-metre-high mountain, on the border of Maibara, Shiga Prefecture, and Ibigawa, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is one of the 100 Famous Japanese Mountains, and is included on the lists of the 100 Kinki Mountains the 50 Shiga Mountains. Mount Ibuki is the highest mountain in Shiga Prefecture, Mount Ibuki is the highest peak in the Ibuki Mountains, which stretch from north to south along the border of Shiga Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture. Mount Ibuki is well known for receiving the worlds heaviest snowfall in recorded history, on February 14,1927, the depth of snow at the top of the peak was 11.82 m according to government records, which is a world record. Since ancient times, Mount Ibuki has also been famous for its variety of wild plants and animals. Mount Ibuki has a continental climate with mild summers and cold winters. Mount Ibuki is one of the easiest mountains to climb, normally, there are two ways to ascend the mountain. The easiest way is to use the Ibuki Driveway, from the parking lot it is only 10-minutes walk to the summit. There is a bus going from Sekigahara Station up to the lot in the summer months. The second method is to climb the mountain from its base. Many climbers climb from Ibuki-Tozanguchi bus stop, which is 10 minutes by bus from Omi-Nagaoka Station on the Tōkaidō Main Line, up until 2011 there was a Gondola going to a ski resort ‘Sangome’ about halfway on the mountain slope. Both have been shut down then and all the lifts removed. Ibuki-Tozanguchi Bus Stop of Kokoku Bus from Ōmi-Nagaoka Station or Nagahama Station, Japanese battlecruiser Ibuki Japanese cruiser Ibuki The 100 Views of Nature in Kansai Official Home Page of the Geographical Survey Institute in Japan
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Samegai-juku
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Samegai-juku was the sixty-first of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō. It is located in the city of Maibara, Shiga Prefecture. Samegai-juku served as an important transportation hub for many centuries and its existence was documented in the Nihon Shoki, many travelers enjoyed its fresh and clear waters from the nearby river and thought of Samegai as a proper resting place. There are still ten buildings remaining from the Edo period today, there is also an archives museum which gives greater detail to the post towns past. Nakasendō Kashiwabara-juku - Samegai-juku - Banba-juku
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Core cities of Japan
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A core city is a class or category of Japanese city. It is an administrative division created by the national government. Core cities are delegated many functions normally carried out by prefectural governments, application for designation is made by a city with the approval of both the city and prefectural assemblies. The term core city was created by the first clause of Article 252, as of February 2017,48 cities have been designated core cities, The following cities have populations greater than 300,000 but have not yet been nominated. Nagaoka, Niigata - Seeking merger with Ojiya and Mitsuke, administrative division Urban area Japans Evolving Nested Municipal Hierarchy, The Race for Local Power in the 2000s, by A. J
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Hikone, Shiga
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Hikone is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. It is on the shore of the Lake Biwa. The city was incorporated on February 11,1937, as of October 1,2016, the city has an estimated population of 113,349 and a population density of 580 persons per km². The total area is 196.84 km², the key industries of Hikone are the manufacturing of butsudan, textiles, and valves. Bridgestone has a manufacturing plant here. Fujitec, Ohmi Railway, and Heiwadō are headquartered in Hikone, in 2003, meetings were held to discuss the merger of Hikone with the towns of Toyosato, Kōra, and Taga. However, a survey conducted by the city in February 2004, revealed that most of the citizens opposed the merger, unlike in most parts of Japan, carrom is still popular here ever since it was introduced in the early 20th century. Hikones most famous site is Hikone Castle. Its construction was begun in 1603 by Ii Naokatsu, son of the lord, Ii Naomasa. When the Meiji period began in 1868, many castles were scheduled to be dismantled and only a request from the Emperor Meiji himself, touring the area, today it remains one of the oldest original-construction castles in Japan. In 1999, an area south of the castle, called the Yume Kyōbashi Castle Road, was built in the old style. Even the Kansai Urban Bank in this district has remodeled itself to fit in with the surrounding structures, the Chōsenjin Kaidō and the Nakasendō were passed through Hikone. The Nakasendo was one of the most important trading routes during the Edo period, Hikone has a humid subtropical climate with hot, humid summers and cool winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is lower in winter. There are three universities in Hikone, Seisen University, Shiga University, and The University of Shiga Prefecture, USP is known for its award winning Schools of Engineering, Environmental Science, and Human Cultures. Recently, USP has begun its Department of Intercultural Communication where most students can study abroad for up to a year as their graduation requirement. The Michigan Center, as it is known, was founded in 1989, under the auspices of the Michigan-Shiga Sister State Agreement, Hikone is twinned with the following two cities
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Kusatsu, Shiga
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Kusatsu is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on October 15,1954, as of 2016, the city has an estimated population of 139,832 and a population density of 2,100 persons per km². The total area is 67.82 km², in the Edo era, Kusatsu developed as a junction shukuba of Tōkaidō and Nakasendō, Kusatsu-juku. Kusatsu is a commercial center next to the capital, Ōtsu. Kusatsu can be reached from Kyoto within 30 minutes by travelling by train on the Biwako Line. The heart of the city mostly comprises large new apartment blocks and many chose to live there due to the ease of commuting to work in central Kansai such as Kyoto. For similar reasons, there are several hotels, love hotels and hotels catering for weddings around Kusatsu. Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto has a subcampus in Kusatsu, the city is often confused with Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture, which is a famous hot spring resort. There is even an imitation of the Gunma Kusatsu hot spring in the public bath house. Kusatsu is twinned with, Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic Pontiac, Michigan, United States Xuhui District, Shanghai, China Kusatsu City official website Kusatsu travel guide from Wikivoyage
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Moriyama, Shiga
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Moriyama is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on July 1,1970, as of October 1,2016, the city has an estimated population of 80,768 and the density of 1,400 persons per km². The total area is 55.73 km², notable locations include Katsube Shrine, famous for its fire festival, and the Moriyama Firefly Museum, where they raise and release hundreds of fireflies every summer. Its sister cities are, Adrian, Michigan, United States, media related to Moriyama, Shiga at Wikimedia Commons Moriyama City official website
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Nagahama, Shiga
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Nagahama is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan on the northeastern shore of Lake Biwa. The city center was developed and renamed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi moved the center of his administration from Odani Castle, kunitomo, the northeast of the city center, had been known for the production of arquebuses and guns since 1544. As of October 1,2016, the city has an population of 119,043. The total area is 680.79 km², the current city is now historically located within three former districts, Sakata District, Higashiazai District and Ika District. Nagahama used to be known as Imahama, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi renamed it Nagahama for Oda Nobunaga and it is not related to the area of the same name in Fukuoka City and same name town in Ehime Prefecture. On April 1,1943, the town of Nagahama from Sakata District merged with six other towns to gain city status, the last population count was conducted on December 1,2005, and the city had a population of 63,057. The total area was 45.50 km², on February 13,2006, the towns of Azai and Biwa were merged into Nagahama, which replaced all municipal organizations—including the old city of Nagahama itself. As a result of the annexation of Azai and Biwa in 2006. On January 1,2010, the towns of Kohoku and Torahime, both districts were thereby dissolved as a result of this merger. Nagahama is one of the most famous tourist cities in Shiga, attractions to be found in the city include, Central Nagahama Nagahama Castle Kurokabe Square, shopping streets centered a black wall glasswork shop which made use of an old bank building. The Old Nagahama Station Museum, built in 1882 and the oldest preserved station in Japan. Nagahama Bonbai event in January 20 to March 10, every year, international schools, Colégio Sun Family - Brazilian primary school The following cities were once sister cities of the former city of Nagahama. Nishinoomote, Kagoshima Tatsuno, Hyōgo Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany Verona, Veneto, Italy Holland, Michigan Nagahama City official website Nagahama Tourism Association
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Yasu, Shiga
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Yasu is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The modern city of Yasu was established on October 1,2004, from the merger of the town of Yasu. Therefore, Yasu District was dissolved as a result of this merger, as of October 1,2016, the city has an estimated population of 50,233 and a population density of 630 persons per km². The total area is 80.15 km², singer Takanori Nishikawa grew up in Yasu. Clinton Township, Michigan Media related to Yasu, Shiga at Wikimedia Commons Official Yasu City official website Yasu International Association
