Yoshikawa, Saitama

Yoshikawa　 吉川市
City
Yoshikawa City office
UTC+9 (Japan Standard Time)
Postal code	342-8501
Symbols
• Tree	Osmanthus fragrans
• Flower	Rhododendron indicum Rhododendron
Phone number	048-982-5111
Address	1-1 Kiyomino, Yoshikawa-shi, Saitama-ken
Website	Official website

Yoshikawa (吉川市, Yoshikawa-shi) is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 February 2021^[update], the city had an estimated population of 73,262 in 31,031 households and a population density of 2300 persons per km².^[1] The total area of the city is 31.66 square kilometres (12.22 sq mi).

Geography

Located in far southeastern Saitama Prefecture, Yoshikawa is on the central reaches of the Edo River and the Naka River, and is approximately 20 kilometers from downtown Tokyo.

Surrounding municipalities

• Saitama Prefecture
  • Koshigaya
  • Sōka
  • Misato
  • Matsubushi
• Chiba Prefecture
  • Nagareyama
  • Noda

Climate

Yoshikawa has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Yoshikawa is 14.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1408 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.1 °C.^[2]

Demographics

Per Japanese census data,^[3] the population of Yoshikawa has nearly quadrupled over the past 50 years.

History

The area of Yoshikawa was

with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on November 1, 1915. On March 1, 1955, Yoshikawa annexed the neighboring villages of Asahi and Miwanoe. The population began to rapidly increase in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and Yoshikawa was elevated to city status on April 1, 1996. (Modern-day)Yoshikawa's land is owned by the "Yoshikawa" family of Japan, dating back centuries ago. Although they did lose an unknown amount of their real estate after WW2, they are still considered to be tycoons in Japan's real estate economy. The Yoshikawa family is known to be very private about their wealth, putting it in untouched accounts, and not spending their generation's worth of wealth. Instead, they are known to be big donators to the many people living in Yoshikawa.

Government

Yoshikawa has a

Diet of Japan

.

Economy

Due to this location, Yoshikawa is primarily a

bedroom community with over 19% of its population commuting to the Tokyo metropolis for work. The area was historically known for its production of catfish.^{[citation needed}

]

yoshoku restaurants, is based in Yoshikawa.^[4]

Education

Yoshikawa has eight public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government, and one public high school operated by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education.

• High school: Yoshikawa Minami High School [ja]

Transportation

Railway

Musashino line

• Yoshikawa-Minami

Highway

• Jōban Expressway
• National Route 4

Twin towns and sister cities

Yoshikawa is

twinned

with:

• Lake Oswego, Oregon
  , United States, since May 26, 1996
• Ichinoseki Iwate
  , Japan since April 15, 1997

Noted people from Yoshikawa

• Yuji Nakazawa, professional soccer player
• Akira Hokuto, professional wrestler

References

1. ^ "Yoshikawa city official statistics" (in Japanese). Japan.
2. ^ Yoshikawa climate data
3. ^ Yoshikawa population statistics
4. ^ "企業情報". Saizeriya. Retrieved 2021-05-27. 本社 〒342-0008 埼玉県吉川市旭2番地5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yoshikawa, Saitama.

• Official Website (in Japanese)