Hitachinaka(ひたちなか市,Hitachinaka-shi) is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. As of September 2015, the city had an estimated population of 156,619 and a population density of 1570 persons per km². Its total area was 99.83 square kilometres (38.54 sq mi). It is a “hiragana city”, the place name is written with the hiragana syllabary, and not the traditional kanji.