Kawanishi (川西町, Kawanishi-machi, IPA: [kawa̠ɲiɕiꜜmatɕi]) is a town located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan.

Kawanishi has a Humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) with large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters.

[2] Per Japanese census data,[3] the population of Kawanishi peaked around the year 1950 and has declined steadily since then.

After the start of the Meiji period, the area became part of Higashiokitama District, Yamagata Prefecture.

The nineteenth-century English traveler, Isabella Bird, stayed in the town, and noted the Yonezawa Basin area "as a 'Garden of Eden,' ground that smiles fruitfully, and Arcadia in Asia.