The Fukuchiyama Urban Area (福知山都市圏)
The Fukuchiyama Urban Area includes Fukuchiyama City in Kyoto Prefecture and its surrounding area. The urban area covers the entire areas of the cities of Fukuchiyama and Ayabe, a part of Kyotanba-cho, and a part of Tanba City. The Fukuchiyama Urban Area, which has many commuters and shoppers from Tanba City in Hyogo Prefecture and its surrounding municipalities, has become the leading urban area in the Northern Kinki region with the Maizuru Urban Area. The Fukuchiyama urban area has the population of 136,096 as of 2000, which is the largest in the Northern Kinki region. There used to be an Ayabe Urban Area, which is now a part of the Fukuchiyama Urban Area. Although Fukuchiyama City has the population smaller than that of Maizuru City, it has long been a commercially prosperous city in the Northern Kinki region and has many companies established their branch offices and business offices due to the area's ability to attract customers.
Features
The Fukuchiyama urban area has been attracting many visitors; accordingly, Fukuchiyama City has become a center of business and other fields so that the city has become deserved 'the capital of the northern Kinki region', the name it gave itself. Although the center of administration in the north of Kyoto Prefecture is Maizuru City, the Fukuchiyama urban area has many other distinctive features. Concerning education, in Fukuchiyama City, there are eight high schools (four prefectural and four private) which have their students from the surrounding municipalities. Also in Fukuchiyama City, there are the only private junior high school in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture and the first four-year college founded in the northern Kinki area. In the field of manufacturing industry, there is the Osadano Industrial Park (one of the largest inland industrial parks) in the city and its total value of annual shipment has been increasing. In the field of commerce, the city was once flourished with shopping streets in the central urban district and metropolitan large-scale retail stores including Fukuchiyama Family and SATO (in Kyoto Prefecture). Recently, the JUSCO Fukuchiyama store (whose sales floor area is the biggest in the city) and the SUPER CENTER PLANT-3 Fukuchiyama store (a large-scale discount store) have opened, and many roadside stores in fringe roadside have opened one after another along the major roads. On the other hand, following a plan to elevate Fukuchiyama Station, development of the area in front of the station has been advanced to stimulate the central urban district. There are buildings to be constructed such as the Kita-kinki no miyako center with a public library and the store of Home Center Kohnan (Kohnan Shoji Co., Ltd) in front of Fukuchiyama Station (with a store area of 9,000 square meters) in a commercial construction zone at a large-scale block on the north side of Fukuchiyama Station, which is being developed by Fukuchiyama City. Also, the leading electrical appliance store in sales volume, Yamada Denki Techland Fukuchiyama, and a leading sports shop and mass retailer, HIMARAYA, have their shops on the south side of the station, raising the expectations of all who visit the station. Additionally, large-scale development has proceeded along the National Route 9 on the south side of the station, and there are many big company stores such as Centum City Fukuchiyama (complex), Frespo Fukuchiyama (a shopping mall), UNIQLO (clothing shop), TSUTAYA (rental shop), Yofuku no Aoyama (ready-made men's wear), Kappa Zushi (Sushi restaurant), a Honda dealership (car dealer), a Yoshinoya restaurant, Tamahimeden (a wedding hall), McDonald's, SHIMAMURA (clothing shop), and Washoku Sato (restaurant). Moreover, there are many buildings, high-and medium-rise apartments and hotels lining both sides of the street, and it is certain that the development will continue to advance. While the population of the surrounding cities and towns has been decreasing, until recently only that of Fukuchiyama City has seemed to have inched up. As for property values there, the property values to the north of Fukuchiyama Station are among the highest in the northern Kinki area, although they are presently falling. However, the property values on the south side of Fukuchiyama Station, which has been developed in advance, are showing a tendency to rise. Fukuchiyama City also has all the character of a transportation hub.
Transformation into an Urban Employment Area (UEA) (suburbs with more than 10% of the population commuting to the central city)
It is an urban area proposed by Yoshitsugu KANEMOTO and Kazuyuki TOKUOKA. The detailed definitions and explanations are based on Urban Employment Area (UEA).
See Urban Areas to for more information on the definition of a general urban area.
* The blanks in gray and with the hyphen (-) in them among the columns of statistical years in the chart show local governments that are not included among the suburbs with more than 10% of the population to the central city.
On November 1, 2004
Hikami-cho, Kaibara-cho, Aogaki-cho, Kasuga-cho, Sannan-cho and Ichijima-cho in Hyogo Prefecture were consolidated, and Tanba City was the result.
On October 11, 2005
Tanba-cho, Mizuho-cho and Wachi-cho, in Kyoto Prefecture were consolidated and Kyotanba-cho came into being.
On January 1, 2006
Oe-cho, Miwa-cho, and Yakuno-cho were incorporated into Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto Prefecture.