is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in Kimotsuki District. It is located in the eastern part of the

Ōsumi Peninsula 261x261px, Satellite image of Ōsumi Peninsula The projects south from the Japanese island of Kyūshū and includes the southernmost point on the island, Cape Sata. Its east coast lies on the Pacific Ocean, while to the west it faces the Satsum ...

Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The town was formed on July 1, 2005 from the merger of the towns of Kōyama and Uchinoura, both from Kimotsuki District. As of October 2019, the town has 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 a ...

of 15,169. The total area is 308.12 km². The

Uchinoura Space Center The is a space launch facility in the Japanese town of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima Prefecture. Before the establishment of the JAXA space agency in 2003, it was simply called the (KSC). All of Japan's scientific satellites were launched from Uchino ...

is located in this town.

Geography

Climate

Kimotsuki has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Cfa'') with hot summers and mild winters. Precipitation is significant throughout the year, and is heavier in summer, especially the months of June and July. The average annual temperature in Kimotsuki is . The average annual rainfall is with June as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . Its record high is , reached on 18 August 2020, and its record low is , reached on 25 January 2016.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kimotsuki in 2020 is 14,227 people. Kimotsuki has been conducting censuses since 1920. The town's population peaked in the 1950s and has been slowly declining since then, with no sign of a recovery until 2020.

Points of Interest

* Nikaido House ( National Important Cultural Property) * Tsukazaki Kofun Cluster ( National Historic Site) * Trace of Koyama Castle (National Historic Site) * Shijukusho Shrine *

* Todoro Falls * Osumi Nanbu Prefectural Natural Park * Yabusame Public Park

Culture

Events and festivals

* Doya Doya Sa (

January 7 Events Pre-1600 *49 BC – The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army. This prompts the tribunes who support him to flee to Ravenna, where Caesar is waiting. * 1325 – Alfonso IV ...

th) * Staff and sickle dances (March) * Nagoshidon (mid-August) * Honmachi Hachigatsu Odori (Fourth Saturday of August, every even year) * Eggane Festival (September or October) * Yabusame Festival (Third Sunday of October) * Uchinoura Galaxy Marathon, commemorating the formation of the Republic of Uchinoura and the Galaxy Federation (November)

Mascots

Kimotsuki has two town mascots (see

yuru-chara is a Japanese term for a category of mascot characters; usually created to promote a place or region, event, organisation or business. They are characterized by their ''kawaii'' (cute) and unsophisticated designs, often incorporating motifs that ...

) created by the Kimotsuki Tourism Association. Both wear purple outfits based on the traditional costume of the Yabusame Festival archer and have satellite heads. They generally make appearances at town sanctioned events. * Itemaru-kun: An alien born in 2010 when asteroid-explorer

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C ...

returned to earth. * Hayabusame-kun: A sea turtle, named by combining the words "hayabusa" and "yabusame."

Sister City Relations

The Galaxy Federation

Before the merger, the town of Uchinoura was a part of the Galaxy Federation, a chain of friendship cities that each house a JAXA space center. It joined the federation as a founding member on November 8, 1987 and received the name the Republic of Uchinoura. The friendship city relations were still retained when Uchinoura merged with Koyama to become Kimotsuki town, and it is now called the Republic of Uchinoura Kimotsuki within the federation. The most recent member of the federation, the city of Kakuda in Miyagi Prefecture, joined on April 2, 2016. * Ofunato, Iwate (The Republic of Sanriku Ofunato) *

Noshiro 270px, Rice fields in the Noshiro Plain 270px, Yoneshiro River is a city located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 49,935 in 24,200 households. Geography Noshiro is located in the flat coastal plains north ...

, Akita (The Republic of Noshiro) *

Saku Saku may refer to: Places *Saku, Nagano, a city in Japan *Saku, Nagano (Minamisaku), a town in Japan *Saku Parish, a rural municipality in Harju County, Estonia **Saku, Estonia, a small borough in Saku Parish, Harju County, Estonia *Saku Constituen ...

, Nagano (The Republic of Saku) *

Sagamihara is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 723,470, with 334,812 households, and a population density of 1,220 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Sagamihara is the third-most-populous city ...

, Kanagawa (The Republic of Sagamihara) * Taiki, Hokkaido (The Republic of Taiki) * Kakuda, Miyagi (The Republic of Kakuda)

Space Brother Cities

Kimotsuki and the town of Minamitane, home to Tanegashima's JAXA space center, signed the “Space Brother Cities Declaration” on July 3, 2013. The naming comes from the manga and anime series Space Brothers, and the official document even features an illustration of the two main characters, the Nanba brothers.

References

External links

*
Kimotsuki official website
* Kimotsuki Wikipedia page Towns in Kagoshima Prefecture {{Kagoshima-geo-stub