Yokohama

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This article is about the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture. For other uses, see Yokohama
(disambiguation).

Yokohama

横浜市

Designated city

City of Yokohama[1]

From top left: Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama Chinatown, Nippon

Maru, Yokohama Station, Yokohama Marine Tower

Flag
 Seal

Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

Map of Kanagawa Prefecture with Yokohama highlighted in purple

Yokohama

Coordinates:  35°26′39″N 139°38′17″ECoordinates:  35°26′39″N 

139°38′17″E

Country  Japan
 Region Kantō

Prefecture Kanagawa Prefecture

Government

 • Mayor Fumiko Hayashi

Area

 • Total 437.38 km2 (168.87 sq mi)

Population

 (October 1, 2016)

 • Total 3,732,616

 • Density 8,534.03/km2 (22,103.0/sq mi)

Time zone UTC+9 (Japan Standard Time)

– Tree Camellia, Chinquapin, Sangoju
Sasanqua, Ginkgo, Zelkova

– Flower Rose

Address 1-1 Minato-chō, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi,

Kanagawa-ken
231-0017

Website www.city.yokohama.lg.jp

Yokohama

"Yokohama" in new-style (shinjitai) kanji

Japanese name

Hiragana よこはま

Katakana ヨコハマ

Kyūjitai 橫濱

Shinjitai 横浜
 showTranscriptions

Yokohama (Japanese: 横浜, pronounced [jokohama] ( listen)) is the second-largest

city in Japan by population,[2] and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the
capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō
region of the main island of Honshu. It is a major commercial hub of the Greater Tokyo
Area.
Yokohama developed rapidly as Japan's prominent port city following the end of
Japan's relative isolation in the mid-19th century, and is today one of its major ports
along with Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Tokyo, and Chiba.

Contents

Etymology[edit]
Yokohama (横浜) literally means "horizontal beach".[3] The current area surrounded by
Maita Park, the Ōoka River and the Nakamura River had been a gulf divided by a
sandbar from the open sea. This sandbar was the original Yokohama fishing village.
Since the sandbar protruded perpendicularly from the land, or horizontally when viewed
from the sea, it was called a "horizontal beach". [4]

History[edit]
See also: Timeline of Yokohama

Opening of the Treaty Port (1859–1868)[edit]

Yokohama was a small fishing village up to the end of the feudal Edo period, when
Japan held a policy of national seclusion, having little contact with foreigners.[5] A major
turning point in Japanese history happened in 1853–54, when Commodore Matthew
Perry arrived just south of Yokohama with a fleet of American warships, demanding that
Japan open several ports for commerce, and the Tokugawa shogunate agreed by
signing the Treaty of Peace and Amity.[6]
It was initially agreed that one of the ports to be opened to foreign ships would be the
bustling town of Kanagawa-juku (in what is now Kanagawa Ward) on the Tōkaidō, a
strategic highway that linked Edo to Kyoto and Osaka. However, the Tokugawa
shogunate decided that Kanagawa-juku was too close to the Tōkaidō for comfort, and
port facilities were instead built across the inlet in the sleepy fishing village of
Yokohama. The Port of Yokohama was officially opened on June 2, 1859. [7]
Yokohama quickly became the base of foreign trade in Japan. Foreigners initially
occupied the low-lying district of the city called Kannai, residential districts later
expanding as the settlement grew to incorporate much of the elevated Yamate district
overlooking the city, commonly referred to by English speaking residents as The Bluff.
Kannai, the foreign trade and commercial district (literally, inside the barrier), was
surrounded by a moat, foreign residents enjoying extraterritorial status both within and
outside the compound. Interactions with the local population, particularly young
samurai, outside the settlement inevitably caused problems; the Namamugi Incident,
one of the events that preceded the downfall of the shogunate, took place in what is
now Tsurumi Ward in 1862, and prompted the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863.
To protect British commercial and diplomatic interests in Yokohama a military
garrison was established in 1862. With the growth in trade increasing numbers of
Chinese also came to settle in the city.[8] Yokohama was the scene of many notable
firsts for Japan including the growing acceptance of western fashion, photography by
pioneers such as Felice Beato, Japan's first English language newspaper, the Japan
Herald published in 1861 and in 1865 the first ice cream and beer to be produced in
Japan.[9] Recreational sports introduced to Japan by foreign residents in Yokohama
included European style horse racing in 1862, cricket in 1863[10] and rugby union in
1866. A great fire destroyed much of the foreign settlement on November 26, 1866
and smallpox was a recurrent public health hazard, but the city continued to grow
rapidly – attracting foreigners