Nagoya

Nagoya is the capital of Aichi Prefecture, located in the Chubu region of the main island of Honshu. Nagoya is the heart of Chukyo Metropolitan Area, the third largest in Japan, with Nagoya contributing 2.17 million people to Chukyo's approximately 8.74 million large population. The city itself was constructed in 1610 by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who started the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1600, after winning the Battle of Sekigahara, until the Meiji restoration of 1868.

Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to move the capital of Owari province from Kiyosu to an area 7 kilometers away to the strategically more important site of present-day Nagoya. He built Nagoya Castle with a planned town around it and then moved 60,000 people as well as temples and shrines from Kiyosu to Nagoya. Around that time, the nearby Atsuta Shrine became a designated way point on the coastal highway from Tokyo to Kyoto and a town grew around it to support travelers. The combination of the two towns as they grew into each other formed what is now Nagoya today.

Despite the fact that a large part of the Nagoya Castle burned down and many buildings at the Atsuta Shrine were destroyed during bombing raids in World War II, the two were restored in 1959 and 1955 respectively. Construction of new buildings on shrine grounds continued culminating in the completion of the Treasure Hall in 1966 to house the shrine's collection of objects, documents and monuments, and it now houses over 4,400 national treasures, many of which can be seen today.

Aside from these two attractions, Nagoya also houses the Tokugawa Art Museum which houses a rich array of historical items from swords and armor, to poems and maps. Should you get bored with more traditional elements of the town, you can always go on a factory tour of the nearby Toyota car plant, including their exhibition center for new cars and technology. For more information about international medical insurance plans for Japan, or to receive a free quote, please contact us today.

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