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Kushiro 釧路市
City
Top：Kushiro Wetland Park, 2nd left：Nusamai Bridge, 2nd right：Lake Akan and Mount Oakan, 3rd left：Kushiro Ramen, 3rd right：Port of Kushiro
Flag Emblem
Location of Kushiro in Hokkaido (Kushiro Subprefecture)
Kushiro Location in Japan
Coordinates: 42°59′N 144°23′E / 42.983°N 144.383°E / 42.983; 144.383
Country	Japan
Region	Hokkaido
Prefecture	Hokkaido (Kushiro Subprefecture)
Government
• Mayor	Hiroya Ebina
Area
• Total	1,362.90 km2 (526.22 sq mi)
Population  (January 31, 2024)
• Total	157,288
• Density	120/km2 (300/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+09:00 (JST)
City hall address	7-5 Kuroganechō, Kushiro-shi, Hokkaido 085-8505
Website	www.city.kushiro.lg.jp
Symbols
Flower	Nasturtium
Mascot	Rin-chan (りんちゃん)
Tree	Syringa reticulata

Kushiro (釧路市, Kushiro-shi) is a city in Kushiro Subprefecture on the island of Hokkaido, Japan. Located along the coast of the North Pacific Ocean, it serves as the subprefecture's capital and it is the most populated city in the eastern part of the island.

Historyedit

An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Kushiro as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom.^[1]

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 Hokkaido 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.^[2]

In addition to its port, Kushiro is serviced by Kushiro Airport with flights from Honshu and by the Ōzora limited express train service, which runs six times per day to the main population centres in the west of Hokkaido.

In July 1945 the city of Kushiro was bombed by American naval aircraft, hundreds of people, mostly civilians, were killed.^[3] Following the Invasion of the Kuril Islands in August 1945, Kushiro was favoured by the Russians as the eastern cornerstone of a border between an American-occupied south and a Soviet-occupied north-coupled with Rumoi as the western cornerstone. However, these plans were cancelled after pressure by US President Harry S. Truman.^[4][5][6][7]

On October 11, 2005, the town of Akan, from Akan District, and the town of Onbetsu, from Shiranuka District, was merged into Kushiro. The town of Shiranuka now lies between the two sections of Kushiro.

In 2008, the city had an estimated population of 189,539 and a total area of 1,362.75 km² (526.16 sq mi), giving a population density of 140 persons per km² (363 persons per sq. mi.).

Kushiro was one of the many Japanese cities to receive a Peace Pagoda. Built by the monks and nuns of the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, it was inaugurated in 1959.

Kushiro was accorded city status on August 1, 1922. It is the sister city of Burnaby, British Columbia; Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia; and Kholmsk, Russia.^[8]

• 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.
• 1949: Tottori-cho was merged into Kushiro City.
• 2005: The old city of Kushiro City, Akan Town, and Onbetsu Town merged was expanded city of Kushiro City.

Geographyedit

Mountainsedit

• Mount Oakan
• Mount Meakan
• Mount Akan-Fuji

Riversedit

• Kushiro River
• Akan River
• Shitakara River

Lakesedit

• Lake Akan
• Lake Harutori
• Lake Panketō
• Lake Penketō
• Lake Shunkushitakara

National Parksedit

• Kushiro-shitsugen National Park
• Akan National Park

Climateedit

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 Hokkaido, 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 Hokkaido'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. Its daytime summer temperatures are noticeably cooler than in the interior, sheltered coastal areas and the south coast of Hokkaido.