Hitachi, Ibaraki

Located in northern Ibaraki Prefecture, Hitachi has a long coast along the Pacific Ocean to the east. Japan National Route 6 runs in parallel with the coast, connecting Tokyo and Sendai, and develops residential and commercial areas in the relatively narrow land of the coastal plain. Geologically the city covers Cambrian basement, some 500 million years old, with marble being quarried in the west for manufacturing cement material.

Per Japanese census data,[4] the population of Hitachi peaked around 1980 and has steadily declined since.

Human settlement in the Hitachi area dates to at least the Japanese Paleolithic period. In the early Nara period, the area was defined as part of Taga Province, which was then merged into Hitachi Province under the Ritsuryō system. By the Sengoku period, the area was under the control of the Satake clan. Following the creation of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered the Satake to Dewa Province, and the area became part of the domain's awarded to Ieyasu's son Tokugawa Yorifusa. The area remained part of Mito Domain until the Meiji restoration.

The village of Hitachi was formed on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The area rapidly developed towards the end of the Meiji period under the direction of Fusanosuke Kuhara of the Kuhara zaibatsu with the opening of copper mines, and under Namihei Odaira, the founder of Hitachi. The village of Hitachi was raised to town status on August 26, 1924. Hitachi and the neighboring town of Sukegawa merged on September 1, 1939, to form the city of Hitachi.

The city suffered from major damage in World War II, from shore bombardment by the United States Navy on July 17, 1945, and in air raids on June 10 and July 19. Hitachi was an important military target, as it was a major industrial center, which containing numerous factories of the Hitachi zaibatsu, especially connected with the production of electrical equipment. It also had a copper mine that contained 1/10 of all of Japan's copper. Following an air raid on June 10 by the USAAF, which missed the Hitachi factories and burned down much of the civilian residential districts, the city was subjected to shore bombardment on July 19 by the battleships USS Iowa (BB-61), USS Missouri (BB-63), and USS Wisconsin (BB-64).[5] However, the bombardment was very inaccurate, and although civilian casualties were very high, the Hitachi factories were again largely left intact. The shore bombardment was followed by a second air raid with incendiary bombs on July 19.

In 1976 the disassembled MiG-25 fighter jet that Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko had defected in was returned to the Soviet Union from the port of Hitachi. It had been extensively examined at the nearby Hyakuri Air Base.[6]

The borders of Hitachi expanded in 1955–1956 through the annexation of the neighboring villages of Hidaka, Sakamoto, Higashiosawa, Nakasato, Toyoura, the towns of Taga and Kuji. The Hitachi Copper Mine closed in 1981.

On November 1, 2004, the neighboring town of Jūō (from Taga District) was merged into Hitachi.

The city suffered from minor damage in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami with no fatalities reported.

Hitachi has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 28 members. Hitachi contributes five members to the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Ibaraki 5th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Hitachi is a major industrial center, and is the former location of the headquarters of Hitachi and various of its group companies.

• Ibaraki University – engineering department
• Ibaraki Christian University
• Hitachi has 24 public elementary schools and 14 public middle schools and one public compulsory education schools operated by the city government. There are also one private elementary school and one private combined middle/high school. The Ibaraki prefectural Board of Education operates five public high schools and one combined middle/high school, in addition to one special education school. There are also four private high schools in the city.

• Kamine Zoo
• Yoshida Tadashi Memorial Museum of Music

• – Birmingham, Alabama, USA
• – Tauranga, Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand [7]
• – Kiryu, Gunma, Japan
• – Yamanobe, Yamagata, Japan

• Yukihisa Fujita, politician
• Natsuo Yamaguchi, politician
• Hiromitsu Agatsuma, musician
• Kuniaki Shibata, boxer
• Daishi Nobuyuki, sumo wrestler (Real Name: Nobuyuki Takano, Nihongo: 高野信行, Takano Nobuyuki)
• Tagaryū Shōji, sumo wrestler (Real Name: Noboru Kurotani, Nihongo: 黒谷昇, Kurotani Noboru)
• Tsubasa Aizawa, professional baseball player
• Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy video game series
• Motoharu Kurosawa, racing driver

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• Official Website (in Japanese)