Kushiro, Hokkaidō
| Kushiro 釧路 |
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| — City — | |||
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 Kushiro
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| Coordinates: 42°59′N 144°23′E / 42.983°N 144.383°ECoordinates: 42°59′N 144°23′E / 42.983°N 144.383°E | |||
| Country | Japan | ||
| Region | Hokkaidō | ||
| Prefecture | Hokkaidō (Kushiro Subprefecture) | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Yoshitaka Itō | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,362.75 km2 (526.2 sq mi) | ||
| Population (August 31, 2011) | |||
| • Total | 183,757 | ||
| • Density | 140/km2 (362.6/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) | ||
| City symbols | |||
| - Tree | Syringa reticulata | ||
| - Flower | Nasturtium | ||
| Phone number | 0154-23-5151 | ||
| Address | 7-5 Kuroganechō, Kushiro-shi, Hokkaidō 085-8505 |
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| Website | Kushiro City | ||
Kushiro (釧路市 Kushiro-shi) is a city located in Kushiro Subprefecture, Hokkaidō, Japan. It is the capital city of Kushiro Subprefecture, as well as the most populous city in eastern Hokkaidō.
Historically Kushiro has been an important port because it is more reliably ice-free during winter than alternative Russian Far East warm-water ports such as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky or other ports in Hokkaidō such as Hakodate, which occasionally do freeze for short periods due to the lower salinity of the Sea of Japan. For this reason, Kushiro was considered a valuable target for the Tsars during the Russo-Japanese Wars, but it only became a really important port during the 1920s with the growth of commercial fishing, for which its reliable freedom from ice reduced costs[1].
On October 11, 2005 the town of Akan, from Akan District, and the town of Onbetsu, from Shiranuka District, was merged into Kushiro.
In 2008 the city had an estimated population of 189,539 and a total area of 1,362.75 km², giving a population density of 140 persons per km².
In addition to its port, Kushiro is serviced by Kushiro Airport with flights from Honshū and by the Super Ōzora railway which travels seven times per day to the main population centres in the west of Hokkaidō.
Kushiro was accorded city status on 1 August 1922. It is the sister city of Burnaby, British Columbia, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, and Kholmsk, Russia.[2]
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[edit] History
- 1869 Kusuri becomes Kushiro.
- 1900 Kushiro becomes a First Class Municipality as Kushiro Town
- 1920 Kushiro Town becomes Kushiro-ku. Kushiro Village (now Town) splits off
- 1922 Kushiro-ku becomes Kushiro City
- 2005 Kushiro City, Akan Town, and Onbetsu Town merged to form the new city named Kushiro City
[edit] Climate
Kushiro has a humid continental climate (Dfb) but its winter temperatures are less severe than those of inland East Asia at the same latitude. Its port is the most reliably ice-free throughout winter in all of Hokkaidō, due to the lack of indentation in the coastline and absence of large inflows of cold fresh water nearby. It is also markedly sunnier than the extremely gloomy Kuril Islands to its north, being sheltered by Hokkaidō‘s mountains from the heavy snowfalls produced on the Sea of Japan side by the Aleutian Low. It receives only a third as much snowfall as Sapporo and almost twice as much sunshine as the Kuril Islands are estimated to.
| Climate data for Kushiro, Japan (1981～2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 7.6 (45.7) |
7.9 (46.2) |
15.1 (59.2) |
23.5 (74.3) |
28.0 (82.4) |
28.3 (82.9) |
29.7 (85.5) |
31.0 (87.8) |
28.6 (83.5) |
22.6 (72.7) |
18.7 (65.7) |
12.4 (54.3) |
31.0 (87.8) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −0.9 (30.4) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
2.4 (36.3) |
7.4 (45.3) |
12.4 (54.3) |
15.1 (59.2) |
18.8 (65.8) |
20.9 (69.6) |
19.0 (66.2) |
14.5 (58.1) |
8.5 (47.3) |
2.4 (36.3) |
10.0 (50.0) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −10.6 (12.9) |
−10.8 (12.6) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
0.1 (32.2) |
4.5 (40.1) |
8.5 (47.3) |
13.1 (55.6) |
15.4 (59.7) |
12.2 (54.0) |
5.1 (41.2) |
−1 (30) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
2.0 (35.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −28.3 (−18.9) |
−27 (−17) |
−24.8 (−12.6) |
−14.1 (6.6) |
−4.6 (23.7) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
3.3 (37.9) |
5.4 (41.7) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
−6.9 (19.6) |
−15.2 (4.6) |
−25.7 (−14.3) |
−28.3 (−18.9) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 44.3 (1.744) |
29.4 (1.157) |
58.4 (2.299) |
78.8 (3.102) |
113.0 (4.449) |
106.5 (4.193) |
115.4 (4.543) |
123.3 (4.854) |
153.1 (6.028) |
106.5 (4.193) |
71.3 (2.807) |
45.2 (1.78) |
1,045.2 (41.15) |
| Snowfall cm (inches) | 54 (21.3) |
39 (15.4) |
48 (18.9) |
12 (4.7) |
1 (0.4) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
6 (2.4) |
27 (10.6) |
187 (73.6) |
| % humidity | 69 | 67 | 68 | 77 | 79 | 87 | 88 | 88 | 82 | 75 | 69 | 67 | 76.3 |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.5 mm) | 6.4 | 5.4 | 8.3 | 8.8 | 10.7 | 9.7 | 11.8 | 11.3 | 11.4 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 107.5 |
| Avg. snowy days | 15.8 | 15.7 | 15.6 | 7.2 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.8 | 10.9 | 69.9 |
| Sunshine hours | 182.0 | 181.9 | 200.6 | 181.9 | 188.3 | 129.3 | 107.4 | 127.1 | 149.7 | 180.9 | 166.6 | 173.6 | 1,969.3 |
| Source no. 1: Japan Meteorological Agency[3] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: Japan Meteorological Agency (records)[4] | |||||||||||||
[edit] Sports
Ice hockey is one of the most popular winter sports in Kushiro. In addition to several leagues devoted top amateur play of all ages, Kushiro is home to the Asia League Ice Hockey Nippon Paper Cranes, three time Asia League Champions.
[edit] Famous people from Kushiro
- Akira Ifukube, composer
- Hiromi Nagakura, photographer
- Kazuhiko Chiba, football player
- Kazuro Watanabe, astronomer
- Keisuke Itagaki, manga artist
- Luna H. Mitani, artist
- Maki Nomiya, singer of the Japanese band "Pizzicato Five"
- Saori Kitakaze, sprinter
- Satoshi Kon, anime film director
- Shinji Somai(相米慎二), film director
- Yukinobu Hoshino, manga artist
- Yutaka Fukufuji, ice hockey goaltender
- Rin Asami, I've Sound vocalist
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Port of Kushiro
- ^ Russian presence in Japan
- ^ "平年値（年・月ごとの値）". Japan Meteorological Agency. http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=19&prec_ch=%8B%FA%98H%8Ex%92%A1&block_no=47418&block_ch=%8B%FA%98H&year=&month=&day=&elm=normal&view=. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
- ^ "観測史上1～10位の値（年間を通じての値）". Japan Meteorological Agency. http://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/rank_s.php?prec_no=19&prec_ch=%8B%FA%98H%8Ex%92%A1&block_no=47418&block_ch=%8B%FA%98H&year=&month=&day=&elm=rank&view=. Retrieved 2010-03-06.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kushiro, Hokkaido |
- (Japanese) Official website
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