290px, Arao City Hall 290px, of the Miike coal mine is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...

, Japan. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 49,334 in 24,092 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 860 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Arao is located in northwest Kumamoto Prefecture, about 40 kilometers northwest of Kumamoto City. It is bordered by Fukuoka Prefecture to the north and the

Ariake Sea The is a body of salt water surrounded by Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, and Kumamoto Prefectures, all of which lie on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. It is the largest bay in Kyūshū. Its deepest point is only about 50 meters (165 ft) deep, and ext ...

to the west.

Neighboring municipalities

Fukuoka Prefecture * Ōmuta Kumamoto Prefecture * Nagasu * Nankan * Tamana

Climate

Arao has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Arao is 16.4 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1932 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around 6.3 °C.Arao climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Arao is as shown below

History

The area of Arao was part of ancient

Higo Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. It was sometimes called , with Hizen Province. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces. History The cas ...

, During the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

it was part of the holdings of

Kumamoto Domain The , which was in existence from 1600 to 1871, had a significant influence in the region. Initially, it controlled its vast territory of 520,000 koku, which later expanded to 540,000 koku after the division of the 8th generation territory and the e ...

. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the village of Arao was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was raised to town status on April 1, 1919. On April 1, 1942 Arao merged with the villages of Ariake, Hirai, Yahata, and Fumoto to form the city of Arao.

Government

Arao has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 18 members. Arao contributes one member to the Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the

Kumamoto 2nd district is a current single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in Kumamoto and covers South Ward ( Minami-ku) and West Ward ( Nishi-ku) of the prefectural capital Kuma ...

of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Arao was once a large

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

town, but it has since lost a great deal of its population, due to the closing of the mine in 1997. Until the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, the city was home to the Tokyo Second Army Arsenal Arao Factory (a vast gunpowder and explosives factory covering an area of approximately 33 million square meters and stretching 2.5 miles. Arao's political concentration is on

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

, to try to lure people back to this once heavily populated land. As for agricultural products, the Arao

nashi pear ''Pyrus pyrifolia'' is a species of pear tree native to southern China and northern Indochina that has been introduced to Korea, Japan and other parts of the world. The tree's edible fruit is known by many names, including Asian pear, Persian pea ...

is a fruit product grown widely in this town. The pear is round, brown and about the size of a bowling ball. Mandarin oranges are also widely cultivated. Due to the aging of producers, in recent years, efforts have been made to produce olives and olive oil. One notable local product of this city is Shōdai ware, an art form almost completely exclusive to Arao, involving slow kilning and under glazing.

Education

Arao has ten public elementary schools and three public junior high schools operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education. There is also one private high school. The prefecture also operates two schools for the handicapped.

Transportation

Railways

JR Kyushu The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan. It formerly operated the Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima Strait be ...

Kagoshima Main Line The is a major railway line operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) between Mojiko Station, Mojikō in Kitakyushu, and Kagoshima Station in Kagoshima, Kagoshima, Kagoshima City, at the southern end of Kyushu. Until March 13, 2004, it ...

: -

Highways

Kyushu Expressway * * *

Notable people from Arao

Ishihara Shiko'o was a Japanese historian, educator, and author active during the early 20th century. Biography Ishihara Shiko'o was born near the coal mining town of Arao in what was then the Tamana District of Kumamoto Prefecture. His father was (1841 ...

, (1874–1936), historian associated with the

Shinpūren rebellion The was an uprising against the Meiji government of Japan that occurred in Kumamoto on 24 October 1876. The , an extremist Shinto organization of former ''samurai'' of the Kumamoto Domain, were extremely opposed to the Westernization of Japan ...

* Tōten Miyazaki, (1871-1922), revolutionary and ally of

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-senUsually known as Sun Zhongshan () in Chinese; also known by Names of Sun Yat-sen, several other names. (; 12 November 186612 March 1925) was a Chinese physician, revolutionary, statesman, and political philosopher who founded the Republ ...

References

External links

* * Cities in Kumamoto Prefecture Populated coastal places in Japan {{Kumamoto-geo-stub