Sotogahama is in Higashitsugaru District of Aomori Prefecture, and consists of two discontinuous geographic areas in northern Tsugaru Peninsula. The larger area is in the south, and consists of the former town of Kanita with a coastline on Mutsu Bay, and the former village of Tairadate in the centre of northern Tsugaru Peninsula. The smaller area is in the north, and consists of the former village of Minmaya with a coastline on the Tsugaru Strait. Much of the town is within the limits of the Tsugaru Quasi-National Park. Most of the settlements and arable land are located along the coastline, with about 89% of the total area of town as mountainous national forest.
The town has a cold humid continental climate (KöppenCfb) characterized by warm, short summers and long, cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sotogahama is 10.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1267 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 22.8 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.8 °C.[3]
Climate data for Kanita（1991–2020 normals, extremes 1977–present）
Per Japanese census data,[5] the population of Sotogahama has decreased by more than half over the past 60 years and is now considerably less than it was a century ago.
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±%
1920
11,883
—
1930
13,913
+17.1%
1940
15,027
+8.0%
1950
18,964
+26.2%
1960
18,259
−3.7%
1970
16,258
−11.0%
Year
Pop.
±%
1980
14,955
−8.0%
1990
10,663
−28.7%
2000
9,170
−14.0%
2010
7,089
−22.7%
2020
5,401
−23.8%
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History
The Tsugaru Peninsula has been inhabited since Japanese Paleolithic times, and some of the world's oldest pottery has been discovered at the Odai Yamamoto I site.[6][7][8] The area around Sotogahama was controlled by the Tsugaru clan of Hirosaki Domain during the Edo period. During the post-Meiji restoration establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889 Minmaya, Kanita and Tairadate villages were separated from Imabetsu. On March 28, 2005, these three municipalities merged to form the new town of Sotogahama. Minmaya is a geographically discontinuous enclave from the town's center in Kanita.
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