is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

located in Yamaguchi Prefecture,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As of May 1, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 25,857 and a population density of 54.70 persons per km². The total area is 472.71 km².

History

The city was founded on March 31, 1954 by a merger of municipalities that departed from Mine District (''Mine-gun''). On March 21, 2008, Mine absorbed the rest of Mine District, which consisted of towns Mitō and Shūhō, while the newly merged city retained the name, Mine.

Geography

Climate

Mine has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

( Köppen climate classification ''Cfa'') with hot summers and cool winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, but is much higher in summer than in winter. The average annual temperature in Mine is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Mine was on 26 July 2018; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 3 February 2012.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Mine in 2020 is 23,247 people. Mine has been conducting censuses since 1920.

Attractions

Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park is a List of national parks of Japan#Quasi-National Parks, Quasi-National Park in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 1 November 1955 and has an area of 45.02 km². It includes part of the , a 130 square kilometre area of karst t ...

, which includes the and Japan's longest cave, the , the latter of which is designated a Special Natural Monument. Akiyoshidai is served by a natural history museum, visitor center, rest house, youth hostel and park headquarters building, and is traversed by a scenic roadway and several walking trails. Events include a fireworks festival in July, a “Karst Walk” in November, and an annual burning off of dry grasses in February called “Yamayaki”. Akiyoshidai Quasi-National Park is situated within the

Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark Mine-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau Geopark (Mine秋吉台ジオパーク) is a geopark that covers the entire area of Mine, Yamaguchi, Mine City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Yamaguchi Prefecture, southern Japan. It was certified as a Japanese geopark ...

. *

Akiyoshido is a List of national parks of Japan#Quasi-National Parks, Quasi-National Park in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It was founded on 1 November 1955 and has an area of 45.02 km². It includes part of the , a 130 square kilometre area of karst t ...

, . Towards the southern end of Akiyoshidai is the Akiyoshido cave, named by Emperor Hirohito on May 30, 1926 when he was still crown prince. This spacious cave is up to 100 meters wide and has 8.79 kilometers of passages, making it the longest in Japan and one of the longest in Asia. At the present time an approximately one-kilometer-long section of the cave is open to the public as a sightseeing course, with a walkway and bridge system, entering at the cave's lowest point and exiting via an artificial elevator. This portion of the cave is also well decorated with a variety of large and colorful speleothems. *

Geology

The plateau consists of uplifted reef limestones of Paleozoic age, which were thickened by overfolding during the Akiyoshidai orogenic movement. Subsequent erosion has created an undulating

karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

landscape dimpled with many dolines and countless limestone pinnacles up to two meters in height. Beneath the surface lie hundreds of caves, a few of them quite significant geologically. Numerous fossils of Pleistocene age have been found in these caves, including those of the Japanese rhinoceros, Stegodont elephant,

Naumann elephant ''Palaeoloxodon naumanni'', occasionally called Naumann's elephant, is an extinct species belonging to the genus '' Palaeoloxodon'' found in the Japanese archipelago during the Middle to Late Pleistocene around 430,000 to 24,000 years ago. It is n ...

, Young tiger, and numerous other animals from the last interglacial period. The area around Akiyoshidai was once heavily forested about 500,000 years ago. In the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

, the area served as a hunting ground and the bottoms of sinkholes as vegetable fields. Numerous

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

artifacts have been recovered. As farming began in Japan, the local people eventually replaced the forested landscape with

Japanese pampas grass ''Miscanthus sinensis'', the eulalia or Chinese silver grass, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to eastern Asia throughout most of China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Description It is an herbaceous perennial g ...

for feeding their animals and thatching houses. Repeated cycles of burning the grass have kept trees from growing back since.

Transportation

Trains

* West Japan Railway Company(JR Nishi Nihon) stations **

Mine Line The is a railway line owned and operated by the West Japan Railway Company. It connects San'yō-Onoda to Nagato, both in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. History The Sanyo Railway Company opened the Asa to Minami-Omine section in 1905 to haul coal ...

***

Atsu Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Atsu Station is served by the JR West Mine Line, and is located 10.2 kilometers fro ...

***

Shirōgahara Station is a passenger railway station located in the city of Mine, Yamaguchi, Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is operated by the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). Lines Shirōgahara Station is served by the JR West Mine Line, and is locat ...

*** Minami-Ōmine Station *** Mine Station *** Shigeyasu Station *** Ofuku Station

Roads

Expressway

;

Chūgoku Expressway The (part of Asian Highway Network ) is an expressway in Japan, which extends from Suita, Osaka to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. It connects Kansai and Chūgoku regions in western Honshu, Japan's main island. Other major cities along the expressway ...

*Mine Interchange *Mine-nishi Interchange

Notable people from Mine

* Sekinari Nii, former governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture * Mayu Iwatani, acclaimed professional wrestler with World Wonder Ring Stardom and

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...

* Kazuaki Okazaki, executed convicted murderer and former member of Aum Shinrikyo ( Sakamoto family murder and Tokyo subway sarin attack)

External links

*
Mine City official website

References

{{Authority control Cities in Yamaguchi Prefecture