Moriya is located in southwestern Ibaraki Prefecture, bordering on Chiba Prefecture to the southwest. The city is surrounded by three rivers, the
Kinugawa, Kokaigawa and the
Tone River, one of the longest rivers in Japan. In terms of area, it is the smallest city in Ibaraki Prefecture. It is located approximately 35 kilometers from central Tokyo.
Surrounding municipalities Chiba Prefecture •
Kashiwa •
Noda Ibaraki Prefecture •
Jōsō •
Toride •
Tsukubamirai Climate Moriya has a
Humid continental climate (Köppen
Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light snowfall. The average annual temperature in Moriya is 14.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1325 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.3 °C, and lowest in January, at around 3.5 °C.
Topography With an area of 35.63 km2, the city has the smallest land area in the prefecture. The city is shaped like a circle, 7.5 km east to west and 7.2 km north to south, and most of the city area belongs to the
Jōsō, a plateau with an average elevation of 20 m above sea level. Although residential land development is underway throughout the city, there are still many natural features such as fields of ore soil mainly on the plateau and alluvial rice paddies mainly along the
Tone River.
City location (World Geodetic System) • East end: 140 degrees 01 minutes 21 seconds east longitude (Honmachi) • West end: East longitude 139 degrees 55 minutes 54 seconds (Oki) • South end: 35 degrees 54 minutes 35 seconds north latitude (Takano) • North end: 35 degrees 58 minutes 44 seconds north latitude (Itatoi)
Rivers The
Kokai River flows northeast of the city, the
Kinugawa River west of the city, and the
Tone River south of the city, which used to be a cove. Although the city and most of the city area were located on a plateau, flood damage was often observed in the low-lying areas because the city was surrounded by rivers on three sides. However, the danger has gradually decreased since the
Meiji Era (1868-1912) with the construction of levees and regulating reservoirs, as well as the relocation of houses within the regulating areas. Large-scale flooding did not occur until around 1982, and the inundation itself was over by 1985. Today, only a few areas are considered potentially inundated due to flooding and improvement of inundated areas. In addition, since the area was surrounded by rivers, it benefited from the river boat transportation developed since the Edo period, and became a relay point from the lower reaches of the Tone River, such as
Choushi, to
Sekiyado and the
Edogawa River area, and a concentration point for products from the northern Kanto region via the
Kinugawa River. ==Demographics==