Iwaizumi, Iwate Prefecture, Tōhoku Region, Japan

🇯🇵 Iwaizumi is a town located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 March 2020, the town had an estimated population density of 9.1 persons per km² in 4,366 households. The total area of the town is 992.36 square km (383.15 sq mi).

History The area of present-day Iwaizumi was part of the ancient Mutsu Province, which was dominated by the Nambu clan during the Edo period, who ruled Morioka Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate.

With the Meiji period establishment of the modern municipalities system, the village of Iwaizumi was created within Kitahei District on April 1, 1889. Kitahei, Nakahei and Higashihei Districts were all merged into Minamihei District on March 29, 1896.

Iwaizumi was elevated to town status on August 1, 1922. On September 30, 1956, Imaizumi annexed the neighboring villages of Akka, Ugei, Okawa and Omoto and on April 1, 1957, annexed the village of Kogawa to reach is present borders.

In August 2016, Typhoon Lionrock hit the town with strong winds and heavy rain that caused landslides and flooding. 19 people died, including 9 people who drowned in a nursing home after a river burst its banks.

Geography Iwaizumi is in the Kitakami Mountains of north-east Iwate prefecture, east of the prefectural capital of Morioka. It has a small coastline on the Pacific Ocean to the east. The area has numerous limestone caves, including the Ryūsendō.

Neighboring municipalities Iwate Prefecture • Morioka • Kuji • Miyako • Fudai • Tanohata • Kuzumaki • Noda.

Demographics Per Japanese census data, the population of Iwaizumi peaked in around the year 1960 and has declined steadily over the past 60 years, and is now less than half of what it was in the year 1970, and less than it was a century ago.

Government Iwaizumi has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral village council of 10 members. Iwaizumi, together with the city of Miyako and the villages of Fudai, Tanohata and Yamada, collectively contributes three seats to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the village is part of Iwate 2nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.

Economy The local economy is based on agriculture and to a lesser extent on commercial fishing.

Education Iwaizumi has ten public elementary schools and five public junior high schools operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Iwate Prefectural Board of Education.

Transport: Rail Sanriku Railway – Kita-Rias Line • Iwaizumi-Omoto; The JR East Iwaizumi Line, which connected Iwaizumi with Moichi Station on the Yamada Line suspended operations on 31 July 2010, due to a landslide. The line was officially closed on April 1, 2014, owing to low public demand.

Transport: Road • Sanriku-kita Jūkan Road • National Route 45 • National Route 340 • National Route 455

Local attractions • Ryūsendō – cave system • Akkadō – cave system.