User:Nihonjoe/Kako River (Japan)

The Kako River (加古川) is a river in Hyōgo and Osaka Prefectures on the island of Honshū, Japan. It flows for 96 km through multiple municipalities in Hyōgo before emptying into the Harima Sea.

It crosses through 14 different municipalities along its course.

Geography
The Kako River is the largest river in Hyōgo Prefecture based on drainage basin area and total length. It flows for 96 km from a source at 962 m on the slopes of Mount Awaga (粟鹿山) on the border of Aogaki-cho in Tamba and Santō-cho in Asago. Many tributaries merge with it along its course, including the Sasayama River in Sannan-cho in Tamba, the Sugihara and Noma Rivers in Nishiwaki, the Tōjō and Manganji Rivers in Ono, and the Mino River in Miki. The main course of the river flows through the Banshū Plain in a southerly direction before emptying into the Harima Sea (part of the Seto Inland Sea) on the border between Takasago and Kakogawa.

Development
The Kako River basin consists of fourteen municipalities in Hyōgo Prefecture and one in Osaka Prefecture, including Tamba, Tamba-Sasayama, Nishiwaki, Taka, Katō, Ono, Sanda, Miki, Kobe, Kasai, Kakogawa, Inami, Takasago, and Himeji in Hyōgo Prefecture, and Nose in Osaka Prefecture. The river basin has a population of about 640,000. The land within the river basin is 59 percent mountains, 26 percent agricultural, and 11 percent residential, with the remaining four percent used for other purposes.

The San'yō Shinkansen, Sanyo Electric Railway Main Line, Japan National Routes 2 and 250, San'yō Expressway, and the Chūgoku Jūkan Expressway all cross the Kako River at various points. Other major transportation lines which cross or follow the course of the river include the JR West Kakogawa and Fukuchiyama Lines, the Kitakinki-Toyooka Expressway, and Japan National Route 175.

Higashi Harima Port, located at the mouth of the Kako River, stretches four 14 km east to west across Akashi, Harima, Kakogawa, and Takasago.