Hyogo Prefecture

Hyōgo-ken ; 兵庫県
Basic data
Administrative headquarters :	Kobe
Region :	Kinki
Main island :	Honshu
Area :	8,400.94 km²
Water content:	0.6 %
Residents :	5,463,609 ; (October 1, 2019)
Population density :	650 inhabitants per km²
Counties :	8th
Municipalities :	41
ISO 3166-2 :	JP-28
Governor :	Toshizō Ido
Website:	web.pref.hyogo.jp
Symbols
Prefecture flag :
Prefecture tree :	Camphor tree
Prefecture flower :	Chrysanthemum japonense
Vogel prefecture :	Black-billed stork
Prefecture song :	Furusato Hyōgo; ("Home Hyōgo")

The prefecture of Hyogo ( Jap. 兵庫県 , Hyogo-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan . It is located in the Kansai region northwest of Osaka on the island of Honshū . The seat of the prefecture administration is Kobe .

geography

The Sea of Japan is located in the north of Hyogo Prefecture , and in the south it borders on the Inland Sea . Hyōgo has been connected to the island of Awaji-shima since 1985 via the Naruto Bridge with Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku . In 1998 the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge between Honshū and Awaji-shima was completed. In the west, Hyōgo borders on the prefectures Okayama and Tottori , in the east on Osaka and Kyoto .

Hyōgo is, apart from the two prefectures at the outer tips of Honshū, the only prefecture where both the northern and southern borders are by the sea. The middle part is mountainous . The climate in the prefecture is different: the south is protected from the seas by mountain ridges and has a relatively mild climate, especially in winter, while in the interior and north it is relatively cold with heavy snowfalls on the north coast.

The administrative center of Kobe is the largest city in Hyogo prefecture and a cultural and industrial center of Japan. The southern coastline from Osaka to almost the western edge of the prefecture is a consistently populated area with important industrial and research facilities.

The aristocratic seat of Himeji-jō , which was named a World Heritage Site in 1993, is also located in Hyōgo prefecture .

history

The name comes from the fishing village Hyōgo, today a district of Kobe , which was merged with the settlement of Kobe to form the new port city when Japan opened up. The current area of Hyōgo prefecture includes the former provinces of Harima , Tajima , Awaji and parts of the provinces of Settsu and Tamba (now the north of Osaka prefecture and the west of Kyoto prefecture ).

The most important of the> 130 domains in the area of today's Hyōgo at the end of the Edo period
Shogunate and Hatamoto lands : large parts of Tajima, north of Harima, several non-contiguous areas in Settsu & Tamba
Gosankyō families with lands in Settsu and Harima provinces: Tayasu-Tokugawa , Hitotsubashi-Tokugawa
Principalities (- han ) with their seat in the part of Settsu Province that is part of Hyōgo today
Han	Seat (+ today's municipality)	last prince	Territory (by income in Koku )
Amagasaki	Amagasaki, Kawabe-gun ( Amagasaki -shi )	[Sakurai-] Matsudaira Tadaoki	40,000
Sanda	Sanda, Arima-gun ( Sanda -shi )	Kuki Takayoshi	36,000
Principalities based in Harima Province
Himeji	Himeji, Shikitō-gun ( Himeji -shi)	Sakai Tadayoshi / Tadatō ( 忠惇 )	150,000
Akashi	Akashi, Akashi-gun ( Akashi -shi )	[Echizen] Matsudaira Yoshinori	80,000
Tatsuno	Tatsuno, Ittō-gun ( Tatsuno -shi)	Wakisaka Yasuaya	51,000
Ako	Akō, Akō-gun ( Akō -shi)	Mori Tadatsune	20,000
Mikazuki	Mikazuki, Sayo / Sayō-gun ( Sayō -chō)	Mori Toshishige	15,000
Ono	Ono, Katō-gun ( Ono-shi )	Hitotsuyanagi Suenori	10,000
Mikusa	Mikusa, Katō-gun ( Katō-shi )	Niwa Ujinori	10,000
Yamasaki	Yamasaki, Shisō-gun ( Shisō-shi )	Honda Tadachika	10,000
Anji	Anji, Shisō-gun (Himeji-shi)	Ogasawara Sadazane	10,000
Hayashida	Hayashida, Shikitō-gun (Himeji-shi)	Takebe Masayo	10,000
Principalities located in the Tajima Province
Izushi	Izushi, Izushi-gun ( Toyooka -shi )	Sengoku Hisatoshi	30,000
Toyooka	Toyooka, Konosaki-gun (Toyooka-shi)	Kyogoku Takaatsu	15,000
Principalities based in the part of Tamba Province that is now part of Hyōgo
Sasayama	Sasayama, Taki-gun ( Tamba-Sasayama -shi)	Aoyama Tadayuki	60,000
Kaibara	Kaibara, Hikami-gun ( Tamba -shi )	Oda Nobuchika	20,000
Principalities with territory in the later Hyōgo, but seat outside
with possessions in Tamba: Yunagaya , Tsurumaki , Yamakami , [Tamba-] Kameyama / Kameoka
with possessions in Harima: Mibu , Koga , Oshi , Hamamatsu / Tsurumai , Marugame
with possessions in Settsu: Koga, Okabe / Hanbara , Asada , Koizumi , Asao
with practically all of Awaji: Tokushima
with Fukuura in Wake County of Bizen Province (in the 20th century to Hyōgo): Okayama
Several minor spiritual goods
(Not in the list: the Han Fukumoto and Muraoka, which were only established after the restoration, as well as the Aizu-han , whose [Aizu-] Matsudaira princes also held lands in today's Hyōgo that were linked to shogunate offices )

A first Hyōgo prefecture was founded in the Meiji Restoration in 1868 from the Hyōgo ( Kōbe ) port, which was opened due to the unequal treaties , and was originally only a small part of the present-day area: The first Hyōgo prefecture included the contract port and its surroundings mainly former shogunate countries in the provinces of Settsu and Harima, including at times parts of what is now Osaka and the northern part of Awaji. With the abolition of the Han in 1871 and the subsequent first consolidation of the resulting prefectures, today's area of Hyōgo was then divided between four prefectures: Hyōgo in the western part of Settsu, Shikama with the entire province of Harima, Toyooka with all of Tajima and Tango as well as part of Tamba and the Myōdō Prefecture , which emerged from the Principality of Tokushima , to which all of Awaji again belonged. During the second wave of consolidation in the prefectures in 1876, Hyōgo was merged with Shikama and parts of Toyooka and Myōdō and, with the exception of later minor border shifts, essentially received its current borders.

Kishida Sachio , in 1946/47 the penultimate appointed, in 1947 the first elected governor of Hyōgo. He resigned in 1954 and lost the subsequent election. He later represented Hyōgo for the LDP for nine years in the national Senate .

The socialist mayor of Amagasaki, Sakamoto Masaru , who was elected to the lower house of the Reichstag as a Yokusankai candidate in 1942 and was temporarily excluded from public office after the war, won the gubernatorial election in 1954 and remained in office until 1962.

The first governor of Hyōgo was during the Restoration for a short time the Chōshū Samurai Itō Hirobumi , who later played a key role in shaping the state order of the empire as the leading Meiji oligarch , multiple prime minister and architect of the Meiji constitution . The first prefectural parliament was elected in 1879, as in most prefectures. In 1947 , as in all prefectures except Okinawa , the governor was elected by the people for the first time.

On January 17, 1995, about 4600 people were killed in the great Hanshin earthquake (magnitude 7.3) in South Hyōgo. In 2004 there were devastating floods in the northern part of the prefecture.

politics

Political groups in the prefecture parliament
(as of June 11, 2019)

A total of 86 seats

LDP : 42
Hyōgo kenmin rengō ("[pref.] Citizens' League Hyōgo"; KDP , DVP , Independent): 14
Kōmeitō・ kenmin kaigi ("Kōmeitō, Citizens' Conference"): 13
Ishin no Kai : 8
KPY : 5
Non-attached: 4

Toshizō Ido has been governor of Hyōgo since 2001 , he was last re-elected for a fifth term in the July 2017 election. In the regular 86-member parliament, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is clearly the strongest force: It won 27 seats in the elections in April 2019 , and a significant number of non-party MPs also join its group.

In the national parliament , Hyōgo directly elects twelve members to the House of Representatives and since 2016 three instead of two per partial election to the Council House , so it has been represented there by six members since 2019 . In the 2017 parliamentary elections , the seats in the prefecture went entirely to the governing coalition: ten Liberal Democrats and two Kōmeitō members; after the elections in 2016 and 2019 , Hyōgo will be represented in the council house by two members each from LDP, Nippon Ishin no Kai and Kōmeitō.

Administrative division

As in all Japanese prefectures, the number of parishes steadily decreased. If in 1920 there were still 425 municipalities - 4 of which were independent cities ( 市 , shi ) and 38 cities ( 町 , chō ) - their number had already fallen to more than half by 1955. From 1950 to 1955, the number of municipalities fell by 199 to 154. In 1998, there were 21 urban districts and 70 urban districts in the prefecture. As a result of incorporations and the establishment of new municipalities, the number of municipalities has decreased to currently (2018) 41 - 29 urban districts and 12 small towns belonging to the district.
The last village community ( 村 , mura ) was dissolved in 1962 by incorporation.
The number of counties ( 郡 , gun ) fell steadily. Since the end of World War II, 16 districts have been dissolved. There are currently 8 rural districts, 5 of which have only one city in each district.

In the table below, the districts ( 郡 ) are shown in italics, below each (indented) the small towns ( 町 ) within them. The independent cities are at the beginning of the table.

code	Surname		Area (in km²)	population	Population density (inh / km²)
code	Rōmaji	Kanji	01.10.2017 ¹	01.10.2018 ²	01/10/2015 ³
28100	Kobe- shi	神戸市	557.02	1,527,407	1,537,272	2759.81
28201	Himeji- shi	姫路市	534.48	531.298	535.664	1002.22
28202	Amagasaki- shi	尼崎市	50.72	451.072	452.563	8922.77
28203	Akashi- shi	明石市	49.42	297.920	293,409	5937.05
28204	Nishinomiya- shi	西宮市	99.96	488.126	487,850	4880.45
28205	Sumoto- shi	洲本市	182.38	42,415	44,258	242.67
28206	Ashiya- shi	芦屋市	18.47	94,751	95,350	5162.43
28207	Itami- shi	伊丹市	25.00	197,851	196,883	7875.32
28208	Aioi- shi	相生市	90.40	29,433	30,129	333.29
28209	Toyooka- shi	豊岡市	697.55	79,428	82,250	117.91
28210	Kakogawa- shi	加古川市	138.48	263,697	267,435	1931.22
28212	Akō- shi	赤穂市	126.85	46,779	48,567	382.87
28213	Nishiwaki- shi	西脇市	132.44	39,611	40,866	308.56
28214	Takarazuka- shi	宝塚市	101.80	225,129	224.903	2209.26
28215	Miki- shi	三木市	176.51	75,823	77,178	437.24
28216	Takasago- shi	高砂市	34.38	88,956	91.030	2647.76
28217	Kawanishi- shi	川西市	53.44	154.315	156.375	2926.18
28218	Ono- shi	小野市	92.94	48,000	48,580	522.7
28219	Sanda- shi	三田市	210.32	111,512	112,691	535.81
28220	Kasai- shi	加西市	150.98	43,496	44,313	293.5
28221	Tambasasayama shi	丹波篠山市	377.59	40,320	41,490	109.88
28222	Yabu- shi	養父市	422.91	22,910	24,288	57.43
28223	Tamba- shi	丹波市	493.21	62,555	64,660	131.1
28224	Minamiawaji -shi	南あわじ市	229.01	45.167	46,912	204.85
28225	Asago- shi	朝来市	403.06	29,693	30,805	76.43
28226	Awaji- shi	淡路市	184.32	42,254	43,977	238.59
28227	Shiso- shi	宍粟市	658.54	35,698	37,773	57.36
28228	Kato- shi	加東市	157.55	40,516	40,310	255.86
28229	Tatsuno- shi	たつの市	210.87	75,558	77,419	367.14
28300	Kawabe-gun	川辺郡	90.33	30,413	30,838	341.39
28301	Inagawa-cho	猪名川町	90.33	30,413	30,838	341.39
28360	Taka-gun	多可郡	185.19	20.114	21,200	114.48
28365	Taka-cho	多可町	185.19	20114	21200	114.48
28380	Kako-gun	加古郡	44.05	64,153	64,759	1470.12
28381	Inami-cho	稲美町	34.92	30,492	31,020	888.32
28382	Harima-cho	播磨町	9.13	33,661	33,739	3695.4
28440	Kanzaki gun	神崎郡	330.70	42.091	43,490	131.51
28442	Ichikawa-cho	市川町	82.67	11,625	12,300	148.78
28443	Fukusaki-cho	福崎町	45.79	19,528	19,738	431.05
28446	Kamikawa-cho	神河町	202.23	10,938	11,452	56.63
28460	Ibo gun	揖保郡	22.61	33,548	33,690	1490.05
28464	Taishi-cho	太子町	22.61	33,548	33,690	1490.05
28480	Akō-gun	赤穂郡	150.26	14,373	15,224	101.32
28481	Kamigōri-chō	上郡町	150.26	14,373	15,224	101.32
28500	Sayō-gun	佐用郡	307.44	16.308	17,510	56.95
28501	Sayo-cho	佐用町	307.44	16.308	17,510	56.95
28580	Mikata gun	美方郡	609.78	30,760	32,889	53.94
28585	Kami-cho	香美町	368.77	16.802	18,070	49.00
28586	Shin'onsen-chō	新温泉町	241.01	13,958	14,819	61.49

Shi-bu (proportion of urban districts)	市部	6660.57	5,231,690	5,275,200	792.00
Gun-bu (proportion of counties)	郡部	1740.38	251.760	259,600	149.16

28000	Hyōgo-ken (Hyōgo Prefecture)	兵庫県	8400.94	5,483,450	5,534,800	658.83

swell

¹ Area data from 2017
² Estimated population 2018
³ Results of the 2015 census

Biggest places

Former and existing cities (-shi)
Census year	Residents
2015	2010	2005	2000
Kobe	1,537,272	1,544,200	1,525,393	1,493,398
Himeji	535.664	536.270	482,304	478,309
Nishinomiya	487,850	482,640	465,337	438.105
Amagasaki	452.563	453.748	462,647	466.187
Akashi	293,409	290,959	291.027	293.117
Kakogawa	267,435	266.937	267.100	266.170
Takarazuka	224.903	225,700	219,862	213.037
Itami	196,883	196.127	192.250	192.159
Kawanishi	156.375	156.423	157,668	153,762
Sanda	112,691	114.216	113,572	111,737
Ashiya	95,350	93,238	90,590	83,834
Takasago	91.030	93.901	94,813	96.020
Toyooka	82,250	85,592	89.208	47,308
Tatsuno	77,419	80,518	81,561	40,550
Miki	77,178	81.009	75,087	76,682
Tamba	64,660	67,757	70,810	——
Ono	48,580	49,680	49,761	49,432
Ako	48,567	50,523	51,794	52,077
Minamiawaji	46,912	49,834	52.283	——
Kasai	44,313	47.993	49,396	51,104
Sumoto	44,258	47,254	38,929	41,158
Awaji	43,977	46,459	49,078	——
Tambasasayama	41,490	43,263	45,245	46,325
Nishiwaki	40,866	42,802	43,953	37,768
Kato	40,310	40.181	——	——
Shisō	37,773	40,938	43,302	——
Asago	30,805	32,814	34,791	——
Aioi	30,129	31,158	32,475	34,320
Yabu	24,288	26,501	28,306	——

On April 1, 1999, the small town of Sasayama merged with 4 municipalities and was raised to the status of an independent city.
On April 1, 2004, the small town of Yabu merged with 3 municipalities and was raised to the status of an independent city.
On November 1, 2004, 6 municipalities merged to form the independent city of Tamba .
On November 1, 2005, 4 communities merged to form the independent city of Minamiawaji .
On April 1, 2005, 4 communities merged to form the independent city of Shisō .
On April 1, 2005, the small town of Awaji merged with 4 municipalities and was raised to the status of an independent city.
On April 1, 2005, the small town of Asago merged with 3 municipalities and was raised to the status of an independent city.
On March 20, 2006, 3 communities merged to form the independent city of Katō .

Population development in the prefecture

Census population
Census year	Total population	male population	female population	Gender ratio men to 1000 women	Area in km ²	Population density per km ²
1920	2 301 799	1 175 426	1 126 373	1044	8427.14	273.1
1925	2,454,679	1,239,326	1 215 353	1020	8427.14	291.3
1930	2,646,301	1,332,918	1,313,383	1015	8321.88	318.0
1935	2,923,249	1,466,284	1,456,965	1006	8322.85	351.2
1940	3,221,232	1 622 778	1,598,454	1015	8322.85	387.0
1945	2,821,892	1,344,778	1 477 114	910	8322.85	339.1
1950	3 309 935	1 622 755	1 687 180	962	8332.32	397.2
1955	3,620,947	1 773 488	1,847,459	960	8329.92	434.7
1960	3 906 487	1,917,887	1 988 600	964	8329.92	469.0
1965	4 309 944	2 120 749	2 189 195	969	8342.47	516.6
1970	4,667,928	2,299,961	2,367,967	971	8350.89	559.0
1975	4 992 140	2,453,277	2,538,863	966	8362.94	596.9
1980	5 144 892	2 512 358	2,632,534	954	8373.16	614.5
1985	5 278 050	2,567,814	2,710,236	948	8377.98	630.0
1990	5 405 040	2,619,692	2,785,348	941	8381.68	644.9
1995	5,401,877	2,612,369	2,789,508	937	8386.60	644.1
2000	5 550 574	2,674,625	2,875,949	930	8392.03	661.4
2005	5,590,601	2,680,288	2 910 313	921	8394.92	666.0
2010	5 588 133	2,673,328	2 914 805	917	8396.13	665.6
2015	5,534,800	2,641,561	2,893,239	913	8400.96	658.8