Kanagawa Prefecture ( 神奈川県 , Kanagawa-ken ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu . Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at 3,800 inhabitants per square kilometre (9,800/sq mi). Its geographic area of 2,415 km (932 sq mi) makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagawa Prefecture borders Tokyo to the north, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northwest and Shizuoka Prefecture to the west.
71-574: Yokohama is the capital and largest city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second-largest city in Japan, with other major cities including Kawasaki , Sagamihara , and Fujisawa . Kanagawa Prefecture is located on Japan's eastern Pacific coast on Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay , separated by the Miura Peninsula , across from Chiba Prefecture on the Bōsō Peninsula . Kanagawa Prefecture is part of
142-424: A pattern of rain, clouds and sun, although in winter, it is surprisingly sunny, more so than Southern Spain. Winter temperatures rarely drop below freezing, while summer can seem quite warm, because of the effects of humidity. The coldest temperature was on 24 January 1927 when −8.2 °C (17.2 °F) was reached, whilst the hottest day was 11 August 2013 at 37.4 °C (99.3 °F). The highest monthly rainfall
213-568: A policy of national seclusion , having little contact with foreigners. A major turning point in Japanese history happened in 1853–54, when Commodore Matthew Perry arrived just south of Yokohama with a fleet of American warships, demanding that Japan open several ports for commerce, and the Tokugawa shogunate agreed by signing the Treaty of Peace and Amity . It was initially agreed that one of
284-523: A total of 18 Wards. The LDP has minority control with 36 seats. The incumbent mayor is Takeharu Yamanaka , who defeated his predecessor Fumiko Hayashi in the 2021 Yokohama mayoral election . Yokohama has 18 wards ( ku ): per km In 2020, Yokohama's total gross regional product was 14.06 trillion yen or US$ 133 billion, a 1.9 per cent decrease compared to the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic . This converts to US$ 35,107 per citizen, below
355-673: Is a leading university in Yokohama which is also one of the highest ranking national universities in Japan. Yokohama is twinned with: Yokohama also cooperates with: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Kawasaki ( 川崎市 , Kawasaki-shi ) , [kawasaki] is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan, one of the main cities of the Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area . It
426-571: Is a popular tourist area in the Tokyo region, with Kamakura and Hakone being two popular side trip destinations. The prefecture has some archaeological sites going back to the Jōmon period (around 400 BCE). About 3,000 years ago, Mount Hakone produced a volcanic explosion which resulted in Lake Ashi on the western area of the prefecture. It is believed that the imperial dynasty ruled this area from
497-543: Is located on the right bank of the Tama River , which flows into the Tokyo Bay here. The city lies like a narrow band between Tokyo in the northeast and Yokohama in the southwest. The city connects the two major cities and is part of the Greater Tokyo Area , the largest and most densely populated urban areas in the world. The eastern area along the coast of Tokyo Bay is a densely populated industrial zone, part of
568-778: Is lower in height southward leading to Hadano Basin to the Ōiso Hills. At the eastern foothills of the mountain range lies the Isehara Plateau and across the Sagami River the Sagamino plateau . Nineteen cities are located in Kanagawa Prefecture. These are the towns and villages in each district : Kanagawa's transport network is heavily intertwined with that of Tokyo ( see: Transportation in Greater Tokyo ). Shin-Yokohama and Odawara stations on
639-605: Is no official survey of the citizens' countries of birth, hence these numbers do not include naturalized citizens, but they include foreign nationals born outside their country of citizenship. Yokohama is one of the 20 designated cities in the country, which means the city has many powers that usually belong to prefectural governments, while having wards as subdivisions with administrative functions. Yokohama city consists of 18 wards, with its government seat in Naka Ward . The Yokohama City Council consists of 86 members elected from
710-571: Is not a prefectural capital. The total area is 142.70 km (55.10 sq mi). Archaeological evidence from the Japanese Paleolithic and Jōmon period can only be found in the northwest Tama Hills . The course of the Tama and the coast of the Bay of Tokyo have also changed in historical times, so that large parts of the urban area are geologically young. With the introduction of
781-435: Is served by Tokyo's two main airports Haneda Airport which is 17.4 km away and Narita International Airport which is 77 km away. Yokohama is the world's 31st largest seaport in terms of total cargo volume, at 121,326 freight tons as of 2011 , and is ranked 37th in terms of TEUs ( Twenty-foot equivalent units ). In 2013, APM Terminals Yokohama facility was recognized as the most productive container terminal in
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#1732772112334852-522: Is the second-largest city in Japan by population and by area, and the country's most populous municipality . It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture , with a population of 3.7 million in 2023. It lies on Tokyo Bay , south of Tokyo , in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu . Yokohama is also the major economic, cultural, and commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area along
923-489: Is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama , and the eighth most populated city in Japan (including the Tokyo Metropolitan Area). As of October 1, 2017 , the city has an estimated population of 1,503,690, with 716,470 households , and a population density of 10,000 persons per km . Kawasaki is the only city in Japan with more than one million inhabitants that
994-502: The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake was deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in Sagami Bay. It devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama , surrounding prefectures of Chiba , Kanagawa , and Shizuoka , and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region . The sea receded as much as 400 metres from the shore at Manazuru Point , and then rushed back towards the shore in a great wall of water which swamped Mitsuishi-shima. At Kamakura ,
1065-677: The East Coast of the United States . Minato Mirai 21 hosted the Yokohama Exotic Showcase in 1989, which saw the first public operation of maglev trains in Japan and the opening of Cosmo Clock 21 , then the tallest Ferris wheel in the world. The 860-metre-long (2,820 ft) Yokohama Bay Bridge opened in the same year. In 1993, Minato Mirai 21 saw the opening of the Yokohama Landmark Tower ,
1136-678: The Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park ; Tanzawa-Ōyama Quasi-National Park; and Jinba Sagamiko , Manazuru Hantō , Okuyugawara , and Tanzawa-Ōyama Prefectural Natural Parks. Topographically, the prefecture consists of three distinct areas. The mountainous western region features the Tanzawa Mountain Range and the volcano Mount Hakone . The hilly eastern region is characterized by the Tama Hills and Miura Peninsula . The central region, which surrounds
1207-524: The Great Kantō earthquake . The Yokohama police reported casualties at 30,771 dead and 47,908 injured, out of a pre-earthquake population of 434,170. Fuelled by rumors of rebellion and sabotage, vigilante mobs thereupon murdered many Koreans in the Kojiki-yato slum. Many people believed that Koreans used black magic to cause the earthquake. Martial law was in place until November 19. Rubble from
1278-474: The Greater Tokyo Area , the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with Yokohama and many of its cities being major commercial hubs and southern suburbs of Tokyo. Kanagawa Prefecture was the political and economic center of Japan during the Kamakura period when Kamakura was the de facto capital and largest city of Japan as the seat of the Kamakura shogunate from 1185 to 1333. Kanagawa Prefecture
1349-494: The House of Representatives (Japan) , Kawasaki comprises the constituencies Kanagawa 9 (Tama and Asao wards), 10 (Kawasaki and Saiwai wards) and 18 (Nakahara and Takatsu wards) and 19 (Miyamae ward, with Tsuzuki ward, Yokohama ), following changes since the last general election in 2021. In the 2021 election, the three seats went unchanged to Liberal Democrats Kazunori Tanaka and Daishirō Yamagiwa , and ex-Democrat Hirofumi Ryū of
1420-829: The Keihin Industrial Zone . Yokohama was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1859 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city, after Kobe opened in 1853. Yokohama is the home of many Japan's firsts in the Meiji period , including the first foreign trading port and Chinatown (1859), European-style sport venues (1860s), English-language newspaper (1861), confectionery and beer manufacturing (1865), daily newspaper (1870), gas-powered street lamps (1870s), railway station (1872), and power plant (1882). Yokohama developed rapidly as Japan's prominent port city following
1491-571: The Keihin Industrial Zone . In contrast, the western districts in the Tama Hills consist largely of residential areas for commuters in the Tokyo / Yokohama region . Kawasaki has seven wards ( ku ): [REDACTED] In the northeast, Kawasaki borders the Special wards of Tokyo (starting at Tokyo Bay) Ōta and Setagaya , in the northwest the cities (-shi) belonging to Tokyo Prefecture (-shi) Komae , Chofu , Machida , Inagi , Tama enclose
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#17327721123341562-800: The Ritsuryō legal system, the area came to the Musashi Province in the 7th century. In the Nara period , the center of the Tachibana district was probably in the area of today's Takatsu district. Since the Heian period , the domain of the Inage clan has expanded here. Around the Heiken-ji Buddhist temple (better known as Kawasaki-Daishi), founded in 1128, a monzen-machi, a busy district for
1633-483: The Sagami Bay and Tokyo Bay on the south and east. The eastern side of the prefecture is relatively flat and heavily urbanized, including the large port cities of Yokohama and Kawasaki . The southeastern area nearby the Miura Peninsula is less urbanized, with the ancient city of Kamakura drawing tourists to temples and shrines. The western part, bordered by Yamanashi Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture on
1704-646: The Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers for the Occupation of Japan , landed in Kanagawa, before moving to other areas. U.S. military bases still remain in Kanagawa, including Camp Zama ( Army ), Yokosuka Naval Base , Naval Air Facility Atsugi ( Navy ). In 1945, Kanagawa was the 15th most populous prefecture in Japan, with the population of about 1.9 million. In the years after the war,
1775-820: The Tsurumi River , which begins in the Tama Hills and empties into the Pacific Ocean . These municipalities surround Yokohama: Kawasaki , Yokosuka , Zushi , Kamakura , Fujisawa , Yamato , Machida . The city is very prone to natural phenomena such as earthquakes and tropical cyclones because the island of Honshū has a high level of seismic activity, being in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire . Most seismic movements are of low intensity and are generally not perceived by people. However, Yokohama has experienced two major tremors that reflect
1846-570: The Tōkaidō Shinkansen are located in the prefecture, providing high-speed rail service to Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and other major cities. The Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education manages and oversees individual municipal school districts. The board of education also directly operates most of the public high schools in the prefecture. Kanagawa Prefecture has sister relationships with these places: Yokohama Yokohama ( Japanese : 横浜 , pronounced [jokohama] )
1917-726: The second-tallest building in Japan . The 2002 FIFA World Cup final was held in June at the International Stadium Yokohama . In 2009, the city marked the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port and the 120th anniversary of the commencement of the City Administration. An early part in the commemoration project incorporated the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV), which
1988-538: The Ōoka River and the Nakamura River have been a gulf divided by a sandbar from the open sea. This sandbar was the original Yokohama fishing village. Since the sandbar protruded perpendicularly from the land, or horizontally when viewed from the sea, it was called a "horizontal beach". Before the Europeans arrived, Yokohama was a small fishing village up to the end of the feudal Edo period , when Japan held
2059-452: The 5th century onwards. In the ancient era , its plains were very sparsely inhabited. In medieval Japan, Kanagawa was part of the provinces of Sagami and Musashi . Kamakura in central Sagami was the capital of Japan during the Kamakura period (1185–1333). During the Edo period , the western part of Sagami Province was governed by the daimyō of Odawara Castle , while the eastern part
2130-598: The Constitutional Democratic Party. Fujitsu 's Main Branch is located in Nakahara-ku . It was formerly Fujitsu's headquarters. Kawasaki has several factories and development bases of the companies of heavy industry (e.g., JFE Group , Nippon Oil Corporation ) and high technology ( Fujitsu , NEC Corporation , Toshiba , Dell Japan and Sigma Corporation ). Kawasaki is twinned with
2201-604: The Tama Hills and Miura Peninsula, consists of flat stream terraces and low lands around major rivers including the Sagami River , Sakai River , Tsurumi River , and Tama River . The Tama River forms much of the boundary between Kanagawa and Tokyo. The Sagami River flows through the middle of the prefecture. In the western region, the Sakawa runs through a small lowland, the Sakawa Lowland, between Mount Hakone to
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2272-478: The Tokugawa government built a commercial sex district which opened on November 10, 1859, with 6 brothels and 200 indentured sex workers. The area of Yokohama with the highest concentration of brothels was known as Bloodtown. Kannai , the foreign trade and commercial district (literally, inside the barrier ), was surrounded by a moat, foreign residents enjoying extraterritorial status both within and outside
2343-522: The Tsurumi. The land on the coast of the city is crossed by a network of canals (Tama Canal, Suehiro Canal, Chidori Canal, Yakō Canal, Daishi Canal, Mizue Canal, Shiohama Canal, Iriesaki Canal, Asano Canal, Ikegami Canal, Minami-Watarida Canal, Tanabe Canal, Shiraishi Canal and the Sakai Canal). In addition, the historic Nikaryō Yōsui canal still exists in the hinterland. Per Japanese census data,
2414-456: The area of what would later become Kawasaki, which increased its importance. The Kawasaki station (Kawasaki-juku, near today's Kawasaki station) on the Tōkaidō was not officially recognized until 1623 as the last of the 53 Tōkaidō stations. The Bakufu let the bridges over the Tama collapse and there were ferry connections to nearby Edo in several places in today's Kawasaki, which laid the foundation for
2485-622: The basis for the Yokohama Cooperative Electric Light Company. The city was officially incorporated on April 1, 1889. By the time the extraterritoriality of foreigner areas was abolished in 1899, Yokohama was the most international city in Japan, with foreigner areas stretching from Kannai to the Bluff area and the large Yokohama Chinatown . The early 20th century was marked by rapid growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to
2556-507: The border between Kanagawa and Tokyo prefectures was established as the Tama River . On July 1, 1924, the independent city (shi-) of Kawasaki with 48,394 inhabitants was formed through a merger with the city of Daishi (formerly Daishigawara) and the village of Miyuki. People from the Korean peninsula were made to work in the industrial sector in the city, working on railways construction, or rebuilding roads damaged by U.S. bombings towards
2627-401: The characteristic mountain system of the island of Honshū , so its growth has been limited and it has had to gain ground from the sea. This also affects the population density, one of the highest in Japan with 8,500 inhabitants per km . The highest points within the urban boundary are Omaruyama (156 m [512 ft]) and Mount Enkaizan (153 m [502 ft]). The main river is
2698-512: The city and in just one hour and nine minutes, reducing 42% of it to rubble. During the American occupation , Yokohama was a major transshipment base for American supplies and personnel, especially during the Korean War . After the occupation, most local U.S. naval activity moved from Yokohama to an American base in nearby Yokosuka . Four years after the Treaty of San Francisco signed,
2769-452: The city area, including. In 2016, 46,017,157 tourists visited the city, 13.1% of whom were overnight guests. Yokohama is serviced by the Tōkaidō Shinkansen , a high-speed rail line with a stop at Shin-Yokohama Station . Yokohama Station is also a major station, with two million passengers daily. The Yokohama Municipal Subway , Minatomirai Line and Kanazawa Seaside Line provide metro services. Yokohama does not have an airport, but
2840-525: The city was designated by government ordinance on September 1, 1956. The city's tram and trolleybus system was abolished in 1972, the same year as the opening of the first line of Yokohama Municipal Subway . Construction of Minato Mirai 21 ("Port Future 21"), a major urban development project on reclaimed land started in 1983, nicknamed the " Philadelphia and Boston of the Orient" was compared to Center City, Philadelphia and Downtown Boston located in
2911-541: The compound. Interactions with the local population, particularly young samurai, outside the settlement inevitably caused problems; the Namamugi Incident , one of the events that preceded the downfall of the shogunate , took place in what is now Tsurumi Ward in 1862, and prompted the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863. To protect British commercial and diplomatic interests in Yokohama a military garrison
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2982-464: The development of the city. The rapid urbanization of the area, which continues to this day, began in the Meiji and Taishō eras. In 1872, Kawasaki Station was established on the Tōkaidō Main Line which was Japan's first railway line. In 1889, the city (machi) Kawasaki in the district (gun) Tachibana was created according to the Japanese municipal system introduced the year before. In 1912
3053-829: The end of Japan's relative isolation in the mid-19th century and is today one of its major ports along with Kobe , Osaka , Nagoya , Fukuoka , Tokyo and Chiba . Yokohama is the largest port city and high tech industrial hub in the Greater Tokyo Area and the Kantō region. The city proper is headquarters to companies such as Isuzu , Nissan , JVCKenwood , Keikyu , Koei Tecmo , Sotetsu and Bank of Yokohama . Famous landmarks in Yokohama include Minato Mirai 21 , Nippon Maru Memorial Park , Yokohama Chinatown , Motomachi Shopping Street , Yokohama Marine Tower , Yamashita Park , and Ōsanbashi Pier . Yokohama (横浜) means "horizontal beach". The current area surrounded by Maita Park,
3124-549: The end of WWII. People from Okinawa were also coming to the city, and in 1924, the oldest Okinawans Association in Japan was founded in Kawasaki. As part of World War II , the city was bombed three times by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) between April 1945 and July 1945. The most serious attack was an area bombing with Napalm bombs on April 15, 1945. The attacks destroyed around 35% of
3195-513: The evolution of Earthquake engineering : the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake devastated the city and caused more than 100,000 fatalities throughout the region, while the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami , with its epicenter on the east coast, was felt in the locality but only material damage was lamented because most buildings were already prepared to withstand them. Yokohama features a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen : Cfa ) with hot, humid summers and chilly winters. Weatherwise, Yokohama has
3266-577: The foreign settlement on November 26, 1866, and smallpox was a recurrent public health hazard, but the city continued to grow rapidly – attracting foreigners and Japanese alike. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the port was developed for trading silk , the main trading partner being Great Britain. Western influence and technological transfer contributed to the establishment of Japan's first daily newspaper (1870), first gas-powered street lamps (1872) and Japan's first railway constructed in
3337-659: The largest trading port in Japan. Nearby Yokosuka , closer to the mouth of Tokyo Bay, developed as a naval port and now serves as headquarters for the U.S. 7th Fleet and the fleet operations of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force . After the Meiji period , many foreigners lived in Yokohama City, and visited Hakone . The Meiji government developed the first railways in Japan, from Shinbashi (in Tokyo) to Yokohama in 1872. The epicenter of
3408-462: The national average. A large number of Yokohama's citizens work outside the city (693,064 in 2020), primarily in Tokyo , and the economic value they generate outside the city does not contribute to Yokohama's economic output. The largest contributors to this figure were wholesale and retail (17.8%), healthcare (11.7%), and academic, professional, or technological services (11.0%). Yokohama's cultural and tourist sights include: There are 42 museums in
3479-526: The new districts of Miyamae and Asao were created by splitting off from the districts of Takatsu and Tama. In the course of deindustrialization , industrial areas have recently been increasingly converted into residential areas (mostly Multi-family residential ), so that a further increase in population density can be expected. According, to the Köppen Climate Classification , it is a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ). Kawasaki
3550-487: The north of the city toward Kawasaki , which eventually grew to be the Keihin Industrial Area . The growth of Japanese industry brought affluence, and many wealthy trading families constructed sprawling residences there, while the rapid influx of population from Japan and Korea also led to the formation of Kojiki-Yato, then the largest slum in Japan. Much of Yokohama was destroyed on September 1, 1923, by
3621-718: The place. The opposite southwest side is entirely occupied by the districts of Tsurumi , Kōhoku , Tsuzuki and Aoba in the city of Yokohama. With the completion of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line , the city of Kisarazu , located on the opposite side of the Tokyo Bay in Chiba Prefecture , also became a neighbor in December 1997. Two rivers cross the urban area. The Tama unites with the tributaries Misawa, Yamashita, Gotanda, Nikaryō main river and Hirase; Katahira, Asao, Shimpukuji, Arima, E, Shibu and Yagami flow into
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#17327721123343692-480: The population of Kawasaki has seen sustained growth over the past 70 years. Kawasaki is governed by Mayor Norihiko Fukuda, an independent elected on 27 October 2013. The city assembly has 63 elected members. Mayor Fukuda was re-elected to a second term in office on 22 October 2017 with support from LDP and Kōmeitō against former municipal MP Akiko Yoshizawa and JCP -supported former primary school teacher Hirokazu Ichiko. The 60-member city parliament of Kawasaki
3763-402: The ports to be opened to foreign ships would be the town of Kanagawa-juku (in what is now Kanagawa Ward ) on the Tōkaidō , a strategic highway that linked Edo to Kyoto and Osaka. However, the Tokugawa shogunate decided that Kanagawa-juku was too close to the Tōkaidō for comfort, and port facilities were instead built across the inlet in the fishing village of Yokohama. The Port of Yokohama
3834-409: The prefecture underwent rapid urbanization as a part of the Greater Tokyo Area. The population as of September 1, 2014 is estimated to be 9.1 million. Kanagawa became the second most populous prefecture in 2006. Kanagawa is a relatively small prefecture located at the southeastern corner of the Kantō Plain wedged between Tokyo on the north, the foothills of Mount Fuji on the northwest, and
3905-438: The quake was used to reclaim land for parks, the most famous being the Yamashita Park on the waterfront which opened in 1930. Yokohama was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again by U.S. air raids during World War II. The first bombing was in the April 18, 1942 Doolittle Raid . An estimated 7,000–8,000 people were killed in a single morning on May 29, 1945, in what is now known as the Great Yokohama Air Raid, when B-29s firebombed
3976-449: The same year to connect Yokohama to Shinagawa and Shinbashi in Tokyo. In 1872 Jules Verne portrayed Yokohama, which he had never visited, in an episode of his widely read novel Around the World in Eighty Days , capturing the atmosphere of the fast-developing, internationally oriented Japanese city. In 1887, a British merchant, Samuel Cocking , built the city's first power plant. At first for his own use, this coal power plant became
4047-491: The supply of pilgrims, soon emerged. Between the Kamakura period and Sengoku period , smaller feudal lords ruled the area until it finally came under the control of the Later Hōjō clan . In 1611, Koizumi Jidayū had Nikaryō Yōsui built, a canal system on the right bank of the Tama for irrigating the fields, which in some cases still runs through the densely built-up city. On the long-distance Kaidō roads Tōkaidō and Nakaharakaidō built by Edo - Bakufu , stations were built in
4118-425: The total death toll from earthquake, tsunami, and fire exceeded 2,000 victims. At Odawara , ninety percent of the buildings collapsed immediately, and subsequent fires burned the rubble along with anything else left standing. Yokohama, Kawasaki , and other major cities were heavily damaged by the U.S. bombing in 1945. Total casualties amounted to more than several thousand. After the war, General Douglas MacArthur ,
4189-434: The total population, with the number having grown significantly in recent years. While all three countries with the number of nationals living in Yokohama as citizens exceeding 10,000 are all in Asia ( China , South Korea , Vietnam ), other major countries of origin for Yokohama's non-Japanese residents include Brazil (2,823), the United States (2,793), Peru (1,312), the United Kingdom (840), and Germany (770). There
4260-419: The train station and the industrial area at the port were destroyed by air raids. Since the 1950s, residential areas for commuters have been created in the northeastern part of the city, which are connected directly to the centers of Tokyo by new railway lines. On April 1, 1972, Kawasaki became a decree-designated city ( seirei shitei toshi ) with 5 districts. 1973 the population exceeded the million mark. In 1982
4331-413: The urban area and claimed 1,520 dead and 8,759 injured. The attacks burned down 9.3 km of the city (see Bombing of Tokyo ). Kawasaki became a target of the first mainland bombing by the US military in 1942, followed by multiple bombings, partly due to the city's heavy and chemical industrial complex supplying the war efforts in Asia and the Pacific. On April 15, 1945, large parts of the area around
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#17327721123344402-541: The west and the Ōiso Hills to the east, and flows into Sagami Bay. The Tanzawa Mountain Range, part of the Kantō Mountain Range, contains Mount Hiru (1,673 m or 5,489 ft), the highest peak in the prefecture. Other mountains measure similar mid-range heights: Mount Hinokiboramaru (1,601 m or 5,253 ft), Mount Tanzawa , (1,567 m or 5,141 ft), Mount Ōmuro (1,588 m or 5,210 ft), Mount Himetsugi (1,433 m or 4,701 ft), and Mount Usu (1,460 m or 4,790 ft). The mountain range
4473-439: The west, is more mountainous and includes resort areas like Odawara and Hakone . The area, stretching 80 kilometres (50 mi) from west to east and 60 kilometres (37 mi) from north to south, contains 2,400 square kilometres (930 sq mi) of land, accounting for 0.64% of the total land area of Japan. As of 1 April 2012, 23% of the total land area of the prefecture was designated as Natural Parks , namely
4544-420: The world averaging 163 crane moves per hour, per ship between the vessel's arrival and departure at the berth. Public elementary and middle schools are operated by the city of Yokohama. There are nine public high schools which are operated by the Yokohama City Board of Education, and a number of public high schools which are operated by the Kanagawa Prefectural Board of Education . Yokohama National University
4615-652: Was Kohoku with a population of 364,760, followed by Aoba (308,379), Tsurumi (297,230), and Totsuka (282,601). In terms of population density, Nishi and Minami are the most densely populated, with a per square kilometre population exceeding 15,000. Of Yokohama's population, 1,548,077 work outside the city, while 1,226,618 workers commute from outside the city. As these numbers suggest, some of Yokohama's residential areas are commuter suburbs (or "bed towns" as known in Japanese) for those who work in other major cities, primarily Tokyo. As of June 2024, Yokohama's population includes 121,042 foreign nationals, making up 3.2% of
4686-405: Was directly governed by the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Commodore Matthew Perry landed in Kanagawa in 1853 and 1854 and signed the Convention of Kanagawa to force open Japanese ports to the United States. Yokohama , the largest deep-water port in Tokyo Bay , was opened to foreign traders in 1859 after several more years of foreign pressure, and eventually developed into
4757-630: Was established in 1862. With the growth in trade increasing numbers of Chinese also came to settle in the city. Yokohama was the scene of many notable firsts for Japan including the growing acceptance of western fashion, photography by pioneers such as Felice Beato , Japan's first English language newspaper, the Japan Herald published in 1861 and in 1865 the first ice cream confectionery and beer to be produced in Japan. Recreational sports introduced to Japan by foreign residents in Yokohama included European style horse racing in 1862, cricket in 1863 and rugby union in 1866. A great fire destroyed much of
4828-417: Was held in Yokohama in May 2008. In November 2010, Yokohama hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting. Yokohama has a total area of 437.38 km (168.87 sq mi) at an elevation of 5 metres (16 ft) above sea level. It is the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture , bordered to the east by Tokyo Bay and located in the middle of the Kantō plain . The city is surrounded by hills and
4899-408: Was in October 2004 with 761.5 millimetres (30.0 in), closely followed by July 1941 with 753.4 millimetres (29.66 in), whilst December and January have recorded no measurable precipitation three times each. The city's population is 3,772,726 as of 1 June 2024, making it the second-most populated city in the country after Tokyo's 23 special wards . Among Yokohama's 18 wards, the most inhabited
4970-451: Was officially opened on June 2, 1859. Yokohama quickly became the base of foreign trade in Japan. Foreigners initially occupied the low-lying district of the city called Kannai , residential districts later expanding as the settlement grew to incorporate much of the elevated Yamate district overlooking the city, commonly referred to by English-speaking residents as The Bluff . Under pressure from United States and United Kingdom officials,
5041-455: Was re-elected in the unified elections in April 2023. The LDP won 17 seats and is the largest party in the assembly. Kawasaki was in June 2008 the second Japanese "government-designated city" (seirei shitei toshi) after Hiroshima , which allowed foreigners to participate in municipal referendums. In the 105-member prefectural parliament of Kanagawa, the seven districts of Kawasaki serve as constituencies, electing 18 deputies in total. For
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