Hikone City

Shiga Prefecture · City

Hikone City is the central city of eastern Shiga Prefecture and prospered as the castle town of the Ii family. Hikone Castle overlooking Lake Biwa, the daimyo garden Genkyu-en and the ruins of Sawayama Castle, home of Ishida Mitsunari, remain as stages of history. Houses of a Nakasendo post town also remain, and the city is loved for the Birdman Contest on the Matsubara shore and Hikonyan, its mascot.

Key facts

Population: 111,549 243rd in Japan2025 Census
5-year change: −1.8% 1,414th in Japanfrom 113,647 in 2020
Area: 197 km² 634th in Japan
Population density: 567 people/km² 487th in Japan

Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2025 Population Census (population, area and density); area from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), Area Statistics of Prefectures and Municipalities (2025). National ranks are among the 1,741 municipalities, ordered by this site from these values.

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Chosen automatically, most popular first, from landmarks and cultural properties registered in Wikidata (we have not checked whether each is open). Names and descriptions: Wikidata (CC0); photos: Wikimedia Commons (photographer and license under each photo).

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Municipalities sharing a boundary (computed from the National Land Numerical Information administrative boundaries, January 2021).

Other municipalities in Shiga Prefecture

The description was written for this site, picking out representative features.

Figures come from official Japanese statistics (such as the 2025 Census by the Statistics Bureau of Japan), with the source and year shown next to each one. Photos are freely licensed images from Wikimedia Commons; the photographer and license are shown under each photo.

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