28213 ／ にしわきし
Hyogo PrefectureJapan's navel is here, and there are two of them.
135°E and 35°N01 ／ The navel
In 1923 the army's land survey department fixed the crossing by triangulation and a marker post was raised. In 1990 a GPS survey with the Geospatial Information Authority put the crossing somewhere slightly different, and in 1994 a second monument went up on that spot.
02 ／ Banshu-ori
Banshu-ori (播州織) is said to begin in 1792, when Hida Yasubee, a shrine carpenter of Hienosho village, brought weaving technique home from Nishijin in Kyoto. The yarn is dyed before the pattern is woven, and this district accounts for more than 70 percent of Japan's yarn-dyed cloth.
03 ／ Telescope
Nihon Heso Park holds the Nishiwaki Keiido Earth Science Museum, called Terra Dome, with a planetarium and an 81-centimetre reflecting telescope, among the largest in the country. Next door is the Okanoyama Museum of Art, which Arata Isozaki shaped like three railway carriages.
Living here
By rail it is the JR Kakogawa Line, about 50 minutes from Kakogawa to Nishiwakishi Station, then a community bus to city hall. Buses are quicker towards Osaka and Kobe: about 1 hour 40 minutes to Sannomiya by express bus, about 1 hour 30 minutes to Shin-Osaka by highway bus.
−5.4% since 2015
43,953 → 38,673
38.62km² of it habitable
2024
2.5 people per household
2020
National average 60,630 yen
2023
10.1 per 10,000 people
2023
Population from 2005 onward (municipal boundary changed).2005-10-01 に新設合併（黒田庄町）。2005年調査から市域が変わっている。
These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.
ACCESS
Travel times follow 市公式の定住サイト「にしわきごこち」アクセスに載る値 (checked 2026-09-23). They vary by time of day.
Shape
North to south
13.3km
If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.
Similar towns
Latticed houses along a 500 m stone lane.
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Tapping spectators' heads with fans.
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A bonsai village that has turned 100.
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