Sakai, Fukui

Sakai is located in far northern Fukui Prefecture, bordered by the city of Awara and Ishikawa Prefecture to the north and the Sea of Japan to the northeast, The city of Fukui borders the city to the south. The Kuzuryū River flows through the city.

Sakai has a Humid climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sakai is 14.3 °C. The average annual rainfall is 2476 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 2.8 °C.[2]

Per Japanese census data,[3] the population of Sakai has grown over the past 40 years. The population of the city is the second largest in Fukui Prefecture. The Harue and Maruoka neighborhoods in the southern part of the city, function as commuter towns of the city of Fukui. Accordingly, its population growth rate is much higher than any area in Fukui Prefecture.

Sakai is part of ancient Echizen Province. The semi-legendary Kofun period Emperor Keitai is said to have come from the area that is now the Maruoka neighbourhood of Sakai. During the Edo period, the area was divided between the holdings of Maruoka Domain, Fukui Domain and tenryō holdings directly under control of the Tokugawa shogunate. Following the Meiji restoration, the area was organised into part of Sakai District in Fukui Prefecture. The epicentre of the 1948 Fukui earthquake was in Maruoka.[4] The towns of Mikuni and Maruoka were created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. The village of Harue was raised to town status on April 3, 1942. The village of Sakai was created on March 1, 1955 by the merger of the villages of Higashi-Jūgō, Hyōgo and Ōseki. It was raised to town status on April 1, 1961. The modern city of Sakai was established on March 20, 2006, from the merger of the former town of Sakai with the towns of Harue, Maruoka and Mikuni. Sakai District was dissolved as a result of this merger.

Sakai has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city legislature of 26 members.

Sakai has 19 public elementary schools and five middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high school operated by the Fukui Prefectural Board of Education. The prefectural also operates one special education school.

• Echizen-Kaga Kaigan Quasi-National Park
• Tōjinbō, National Scenic Site and Natural Monument
• Maruoka Castle, one of the 100 Famous Castles of Japan
• Maruoka Domain Battery, National Historic Site
• Rokuroseyama Kofun Cluster, National Historic Site
• Technoport Fukui Stadium
• Mikuni Onsen

• Shigeharu Nakano (from Maruoka) - author and Communist Party politician
• Chosei Komatsu (from Mikuni) – artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica
• Ai Takahashi (from Harue) – former leader of Japanese idol group Morning Musume.
• Kazuhiko Masada (from Mikuni) - Japanese professional wrestler and member of Tokyo Gurentai

• Media related to Sakai, Fukui at Wikimedia Commons
• Sakai travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Official website (in Japanese)