Ichinoseki

Ichinoseki is a city in the south of Iwate Prefecture in the Tohoku region of northern Japan, a little over two hours north of Tokyo by the Tohoku Shinkansen. Wikipedia reports a population of 114,476 in May 2020 across about 1,256.42 square kilometres, making it the second largest city in the prefecture after Morioka. A large body of very stable granite lies beneath the city and is the center of a site promoted for the proposed International Linear Collider. The area was part of ancient Mutsu Province, inhabited by the Emishi people, and in the Heian period was controlled by the Abe clan and then the Northern Fujiwara clan of Hiraizumi. Outside the center the economy is largely agricultural, and marriage migration has brought Chinese and Filipino residents, giving the city a varied ethnic makeup. Its population has declined since the 1950s.