Arao, Kumamoto

Arao
Arao; 荒尾市
	City
	Arao City hall
	Flag Emblem
	Location of Arao in Kumamoto Prefecture
	Arao Location in Japan
	Coordinates: 32°59′00″N 130°26′07″E
Country	Japan
Region	Kyushu
Prefecture	Kumamoto Prefecture
Government
• Mayor	Asada Toshihiko
Area
• Total	57.15 km2 (22.07 sq mi)
Population (March 31, 2017)
• Total	53,675
• Density	940/km2 (2,400/sq mi)
Symbols
• Tree	Pinus
• Flower	Pyraspyrifolia
Time zone	UTC+9 (JST)
City hall address	390 Kunai-Deme, Arao-shi, Kumamoto-ken; 864-8686
Website	www.city.arao.lg.jp

Arao (荒尾市, Arao-shi) is a city in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on April 1, 1942.

As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 53,675, with 24,153 households[1] and a population density of 940 persons per km². The total area is 57.15 km².

History

Arao was once a large coal mining town, but it has since lost a great deal of its population, due to the closing of the mine 11 years ago. Some schools that once housed 1,500 children have now been looking at declining enrollments down 1,000 students or more. Arao's political concentration is on tourism, to try to lure people back to this once heavily populated land. Recent hopes to pull in tourists are in its two big amusement parks, Mitsui Greenland and Ultraman Land.

Economy

One notable aspect of this city includes Shōdai ware, an art form almost completely exclusive to Arao, involving slow kilning and under glazing.

Also, the Arao nashi pear is a fruit product grown widely in this town. The pear is round, brown and about the size of a bowling ball.

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gollark: That way we can have "true" CC OSes and annoy the people who say that they aren't "real" OSes since they use the BIOS.

gollark: I have a fun idea: make a `startup` thing which undoes (almost) all the BIOS's work and then executes your code.

gollark: <@426660245738356738> shell.resolve

gollark: Maybe? The shell API is handled oddly.

References

"Official website of Arao City" (in Japanese). Japan: Arao City. Retrieved 30 April 2017.

External links

Media related to Arao, Kumamoto at Wikimedia Commons

Official website (in Japanese)
Geographic data related to Arao, Kumamoto at OpenStreetMap

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Official website of Arao City" (in Japanese). Japan: Arao City. Retrieved 30 April 2017.