Country Japan Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture - Flower Peach | Region Tōhoku - Tree Pinus densiflora | |
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Time zone Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) | ||
Date (伊達市, Date-shi) is a city located in northern Fukushima Prefecture, in northern Honshū, Japan. As of December 2014, the city had an estimated population of 62,098 and a population density of 234 persons per km². The total area was 265.10 km².
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Geography
Date occupies the eastern half of the Fukushima Basin in northern Fukushima prefecture, with Miyagi Prefecture on its northern border. The area was once noted for sericulture.
Neighboring municipalities
History
The area of present-day Date was part of ancient Mutsu Province, and was the ancestral home of the Date clan, which rose to prominence from the Kamakura period, and which ruled Sendai Domain during the Edo period. The area of present-day Date was part of the holdings of Sendai Domain. After the Meiji Restoration, the area was organized as part of Nakadōri region of Iwaki Province, and administratively into numerous villages with the establishment of the municipalities system on April 1, 1898. On April 1, 1940, the village of Nagaoka became the town of Date. The modern city of Date was established on January 1, 2006, from the merger of the towns of Hobara, Date (former), Date, Ryōzen, Tsukidate and Yanagawa (all from Date District). The central locality is Hobara. A whole body skeleton of Paleoparadoxia was excavated in Yanagawa on August 21, 1984. The skeleton is named the “Yanagawa Specimen”. Date is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north-west of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, the site of the nuclear accident that followed the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Although outside the nuclear accident exclusion zone, the levels of radiation in the city caused residents, and especially schoolchildren, to remain indoors.
Economy
The economy of Date is primarily agricultural, with an emphasis on rice and horticulture. The area is noted for its peaches and dried persimmons. Taiyo Yuden operates a CD and DVD production plant in the Yanagawa Industrial Zone in Date, Fukushima.