is a city in the northern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 78,348 in 37769 households and a population density of 110 persons per km².The total area of the city is . Geography Toyooka is located in the northern part of Hyōgo Prefecture and the Kinki region, facing the Sea of Japan in the north. It lies entirely within the San'in Kaigan Geopark. The Maruyama River flows through the central part of the city, and the Toyooka Basin, which is the largest basin in the Tajima region, spreads out in the central part of the city. Toyooka is located in the "snow country" of Japan and is characterized by heavy accumulations of snow in winter. One of Toyooka's famous geological features is a basalt cave called Gembudō. Gembudō was formed 1.6 million years ago from the eruption of an ancient volcano. In 1926, Professor Motonori Matuyama of Kyoto University first proposed the theory of geomagnetic polarity reversal at Genbudo after discovering it had a reverse magnetization. The wetlands of Toyooka provide an important habitat for the oriental stork. After becoming extinct in the wild in the 1970s, Toyooka began a captive breeding program. After a quarter of a century of breeding efforts, the first oriental stork chick was born in 1989. In 2005 Toyooka released 5 captively bred storks, which bred successfully in the wild. As of June 2015 there are 72 wild oriental white storks in Toyooka. The hot spring resort Kinosaki Onsen is located within Toyooka. Neighbouring municipalities Hyōgo Prefecture Asago Kami Yabu Kyoto Prefecture Fukuchiyama Kyotango Yosano Climate Kyōtango has a humid climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm, wet summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. Although part of the Kansai region and Hyōgo Prefecture, Toyooka has a climate much more similar to the Hokuriku region of Chūbu and Tōhoku. Unlike Osaka or Kobe, which rarely see significant snowfall during the winter, Toyooka, exposed to the northerly winter winds driven by the Siberian High and Aleutian Low, receives of snowfall per year, though melt rates are high even during the winter and the maximum cover on the ground is typically only and has never exceeded . Precipitation is much heavier than in central Kansai, though less heavy than in the Kii Peninsula or the Hokuriku region proper. Demographics Per Japanese census data, the population of Toyooka in 2020 is 77,489