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 de ...

located in

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the n ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using ...

of 88,330 in 40,869 households and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: 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 geographical ...

of 880 persons per km². The total area of the city is

Geography

Mobara is located in an inland area of north-central Bōsō Peninsula, about 25 kilometers from the prefectural capital at Chiba and 50 to 60 kilometers from the center of Tokyo. Most of the city is the Kujukuri Plain, and the mountains in the western part of the city are formed by the

Bōsō Hill Range The is a mountain range on the Bōsō Peninsula of Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The highest point in the Bōsō Mountain Range is at Mount Atago, with an altitude of . The hill range runs from roughly in a line from Mobara or Ōamishirasato to ...

. The elevation of the city is about 8 to 9 meters above sea level in the lowlands of the southeast, about 11 meters in the city, and 20 to 100 meters in the west, with a maximum of 117.7 meters. In some areas,

land subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

due to human factors such as pumping of surface groundwater and natural gas brackish water has become a problem, and subsidence of up to about 10 cm has been observed.

Surrounding municipalities

Chiba Prefecture * Midori-ku, Chiba * Ichihara * Nagara *

Chōnan 270px, Chōnan town hall is a town located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,743 in 3240 households and a population density of 120 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Located in ...

* Shirako * Ōamishirasato

Climate

Mobara has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Mobara is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Mobara peaked around the year 2000 and has declined since.

History

Early history

Mobara was settled from the earliest times, as evidenced by archaeological sites and shell mounds dating from 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 ...

and

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon p ...

s. The city also has examples of '' kofun,'' or burial mounds, from the Kofun period. The area was the location of at least two ''

shōen A was a field or manor in Japan. The Japanese term comes from the Tang dynasty Chinese term "莊園" (Mandarin: ''zhuāngyuán'', Cantonese: ''zong1 jyun4''). Shōen, from about the 8th to the late 15th century, describes any of the privat ...

'' estates, the Mobara-sō and the Tachibana-sō, in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

. At the beginning of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional ''daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

, in 1591, an extensive land survey was carried out by the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful '' daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this cl ...

Modern history

The town of Mobara was created during the early

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889 in Chōsei District. The Bōsō Tetsudo, now the JR Sotobō Line, was established in 1897 between

Ichinomiya is a Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth. ''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retrieved 2013-5-14. The term gave rise t ...

and Ōami Station in present-day Ōamishirasato. Mobara Station was one station established on the line, thus connecting Mobara to the wider rail network. In 1909 a

handcar A handcar (also known as a pump trolley, pump car, rail push trolley, push-trolley, jigger, Kalamazoo, velocipede, or draisine) is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a railwa ...

system ran from Mobara Station and Chōnan. The handcar railroad was constructed and operated by the prefecture.

World War II

A base for the

252 Air Group was a fighter aircraft unit of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. The unit was formed on 1 November 1942 by separating the fighter squadron from the Genzan Air Group. The unit, equipped with A6M Zero f ...

of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

(IJN), a fighter aircraft unit, was established in Mobara. In 1941, by order of the IJN, 100 residences and their associated farmland, schools, town halls, police substations, temples, and shrines were forcibly confiscated without warning to build the base.

Mobara Airfield is a city located in Chiba Prefecture. , the city had an estimated population of 88,330 in 40,869 households and a population density of 880 persons per km². The total area of the city is Geography Mobara is located in an inland area of north-c ...

was completed using a ''kinrō dōin'' group that consisted of the forced labor of Korean residents in Japan and students from Chōsei Middle School students in 1943. The airfield was located on the east banks of the small Aku River, directly to the east of Mobara Station along the present-day

JR East The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

Sotobō Line, and consisted of a runway and 20 structures, some of them concealed underground. ''Tokubetsu kōgekitai'', or

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...

units, were sent from Mobara Airfield to the IJN Kokubu Air Corps in present-day Kirishima, Kagoshima Prefecture to attack American forces off

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. The United States confiscated the airfield shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945. Remains of the

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

, approximately ten airfield structures, and a tunnel are now on the property of the

Mitsui Chemicals is a Japanese chemicals company listed on the Nikkei with business interests in Japan, Europe, China, Southeast Asia and the USA. It is one of the leading chemical companies in Japan and is part of the Mitsui conglomerate. The company mainly ...

Post-war history

260px, Mobara Park At the end of World War II, the

113th Cavalry Regiment The 113th Cavalry Regiment is a cavalry regiment of the Iowa National Guard, with history tracing back to the 19th century Indian Wars. It was heavily involved in fighting during World War II against German forces in France, Belgium, the Nethe ...

of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

occupied the Mobara Airfield. The

Japan Self-Defense Forces The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of Military, armed f ...

attempted to reoccupy the base in 1954, but after organized efforts by residents, agricultural organizations, the town and prefectural governments, the plans were abandoned the following year. The site was used to build Mobara Middle School for the rapidly expanding population of the town. On April 1, 1952, Mobara Town expanded by annexation of neighboring villages of Tōgō, Toyoda, Ninomiya-Hongō, Tsurue, and Gogō and was elevated to city status. On April 1, 1955, Mobara annexed the town of Chōnan. On May 1, 1972, Mobara merged with the neighboring town of Honnō. On December 11, 1990, the city was hit by an F-3

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

, which killed one person, injured 78, and damaged or destroyed 1,747 homes in the city.

Government

Mobara 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, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multi ...

city council of 22 members. Mobara contributes two members to the Chiba Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Chiba 11th district of the lower house of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

Economy

Mobara serves as a regional commerce center for surrounding Chōsei District. The economy of Mobara is dominated by electronics manufacturing. Futaba Corporation, a major manufacturer of radio control models and toys, is headquartered in Mobara.Network
" Futaba Corporation. Retrieved on 2015-03-29. Natural gas production is also important to the city; Kanto Natural Gas Development Co., Ltd. and Otaki Gas Co., Ltd. have headquarters here. Chemical production, centered on

, is the largest producer of

iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , ...

in Japan. 40% of the total world production of

is produced in Mobara. Much land in Mobara is still used for rice production. Additionally, ''negi'', or the ubiquitous

Welsh onion ''Allium fistulosum'', the Welsh onion, also commonly called bunching onion, long green onion, Japanese bunching onion, and spring onion, is a species of perennial plant, often considered to be a kind of scallion. The species is very similar ...

Japanese cuisine Japanese cuisine encompasses the regional and traditional foods of Japan, which have developed through centuries of political, economic, and social changes. The traditional cuisine of Japan ( Japanese: ) is based on rice with miso soup and ot ...

, is an important agricultural product.

Education

Mobara has 14 public elementary schools and six public middle schools operated by the city government, and three public high schools operated by the Chiba Prefectural Board of Education. There is also one private high school.

Transportation

Railway

– Sotobō Line * - -

Highway

* * *

Local attractions

*Tachibana Jinja - a Shintō shrine connected with the Yamatotakeru mythology, the '' ninomiya'' of

Kazusa Province was a province of Japan in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture. The province was located in the middle of the Bōsō Peninsula, whose name takes its first ''kanji'' from the name of Awa Province and its second from Kazusa and Shimōsa provinc ...

Nyoirin-ji is a Buddhist temple located in the city of Mobara in Chiba Prefecture. Nyoirin-ji is a Nichiren-sect temple noted for its ancient ginkgo tree. The temple is also near the remains of the Tonoyatsu Castle. History Nyoirin-ji was built ap ...

- a Nichiren Buddhist temple

Tanabata festival

A popular annual event in Mobara is the ''

Tanabata , also known as the Star Festival ( 星祭り, ''Hoshimatsuri''), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair r ...

'' festival, during which a wide array of stalls and parades dominate much of the city's central shopping district. While the rest of Japan usually celebrates ''Tanabata'' on July 7, the Mobara festival is held in late July so as to coincide with school holidays.

Sister city relations

* Salisbury, South Australia, Australia (since May 25, 2002)

Notable people from Mobara

* Naoki Kawano, actor and musician * Ishii Kikujirō, prewar diplomat and cabinet minister * Michitaka Kobayashi, voice actor * Yuko Ogura, gravure idol *

Yōko Shōji is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for writing ''Seito Shokun!'' (''Attention Students!''), for which she won the Kodansha Manga Award is an annual award for serialized manga published in the previous year, the event is sponsored ...

, manga artist

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Cities in Chiba Prefecture