Toyooka is located in the northern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the
Kinki region, facing the
Sea of Japan in the north. It lies entirely within the
San'in Kaigan Geopark. The
Maruyama River flows through the central part of the city, and the Toyooka Basin, which is the largest basin in the Tajima region, spreads out in the central part of the city. Toyooka is located in the
"snow country" of Japan and is characterized by heavy accumulations of snow in winter. One of Toyooka's famous geological features is a
basalt cave called Gembudō. Gembudō was formed 1.6 million years ago from the eruption of an ancient volcano. In 1926, Professor
Motonori Matuyama of Kyoto University first proposed the theory of geomagnetic polarity reversal at Genbudo after discovering it had a reverse magnetization. The wetlands of Toyooka provide an important habitat for the
oriental stork. After becoming extinct in the wild in the 1970s, Toyooka began a captive breeding program. After a quarter of a century of breeding efforts, the first oriental stork chick was born in 1989. In 2005 Toyooka released 5 captively bred storks, which bred successfully in the wild. As of June 2015 there are 72 wild oriental white storks in Toyooka. The hot spring resort
Kinosaki Onsen is located within Toyooka.
Neighbouring municipalities Hyōgo Prefecture •
Asago •
Kami •
Yabu Kyoto Prefecture •
Fukuchiyama •
Kyotango •
Yosano Climate Kyōtango has a
humid climate (Köppen
Cfa) characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. Although part of the
Kansai region and Hyōgo Prefecture, Toyooka has a climate much more similar to the
Hokuriku region of
Chūbu and
Tōhoku. Unlike Osaka or Kobe, which rarely see significant snowfall during the winter, Toyooka, exposed to the northerly winter winds driven by the
Siberian High and
Aleutian Low, receives of snowfall per year, though melt rates are high even during the winter and the maximum cover on the ground is typically only and has never exceeded . Precipitation is much heavier than in central Kansai, though less heavy than in the
Kii Peninsula or the Hokuriku region proper. }}
Demographics Per Japanese census data, the population of Toyooka in 2020 is 77,489 people. Toyooka has been conducting censuses since 1950. ==History==