is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 82,233 in 34747 households and a population density of 570 persons per km<sup>2</sup>. The total area of the city is .
à Âmihachiman is located in central Shiga Prefecture, on flatlands along the eastern shore of Lake Biwa, and extending inland to the foothills of the Suzuka Mountains.
Shiga Prefecture
à Âmihachiman has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in à Âmihachiman is 14.7 ðC. The average annual rainfall is 1602 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.6 ðC, and lowest in January, at around 3.7 ðC.
Per Japanese census data, the population of à Âmihachiman has recently plateaued after several decades of growth.
à Âmihachiman is part of ancient à Âmi Province and was originally a post station that developed around Musa-juku on the Tà Âsandà  (later the Nakasendà Â) highway connecting Heian-kyà  with the eastern provinces. During the Sengoku period, the warlord Oda Nobunaga built Azuchi Castle in the hills on the border with Higashià Âmi. Under Toyotomi Hidetsugu the center shifted to a castle town at the base of Hachimanyama Castle, which attracted many merchants ("à Âmi shà Ânin"), especially after the destruction of Azuchi Castle. Former merchant's residences and a canal used for transport are preserved in an old city area, designated a Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings and an Important Cultural Landscape.
The town of Hachiman was established with Gamà  District, Shiga with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. In 1905, an American architect William Merrell Vories came to à Âmihachiman as an English language teacher at commercial high school. Two years later he resigned the original work, but he remained in à Âmihachiman and spent most of his productive life here. He handed down western-style buildings, a pharmaceutical company, an educational foundation and a hospital to the city. The town expanded by annexing the neighboring villages of Utsuro in 1933 and Shima in 1951. On March 31, 1954, Hachiman merged with the villages of Okayama, Kanada, Kirihara and Mabuchi to form the city of à Âmihachiman. The name was changed from "Hachiman" to "à Âmihachiman" to avoid confusion with the then existing city of Yahata in Fukuoka Prefecture, as both "Hachiman" and "Yawata" are written in the same kanji characters. On March 21, 2010, the town of Azuchi was merged into à Âmihachiman.
à Âmihachiman has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 24 members. à Âmihachiman contributes three members to the Shiga Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Shiga 2nd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan, and is represented by Kenichiro Ueno.
Agriculture, commercial fishing and seasonal tourism are major components of the economy of à Âmihachiman. The key industries of à Âmihachiman include the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.
à Âmihachiman has 12 public elementary schools and four public middle schools operated by the city government and three high schools operated by the Shiga Prefectural Department of Education. The city also has one private elementary school, one private middle school and one private high school.
JR West â Biwako Line
Ohmi Railway â Main Line
à Âmihachiman is twinned with:
Hachiman area
Azuchi area