290px, Aso City Hall 290px, Aso Jinja is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture t ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. , the city had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 24,240 in 11741 households, and a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing 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 geog ...

of 64 persons per km². The total area of the city is .

Geography

Aso is located in the Kyushu Mountains, about 50 kilometers from Kumamoto City in the northeastern part of Kumamoto Prefecture, and borders Oita Prefecture in the eastern and northwestern parts of the city. Most of the former Aso Town and former Ichinomiya Town areas (the former Hano Village is outside the caldera) are included in the caldera basin formed by

Mount Aso or Aso Volcano is the largest active volcano in Japan and among the largest in the world. Common use relates often only to the somma volcano in the centre of Aso Caldera. It stands in Aso Kujū National Park in Kumamoto Prefecture, on the i ...

. (Five Peaks of Mount Aso) The source of the Kikuchi River is located in the city.Okamura, Maya; Minagawa, Tomoko (2016). "" (PDF). 11th International Symposium on Ecohydraulics (ISE 2016). Engineers Australia: 91–98. .

Surrounding municipalities

Kumamoto Prefecture * Kikuchi * Minamiaso * Oguni * Ōzu * Takamori * Ubuyama Oita Prefecture * Hita * Taketa

Climate

Aso has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfa'') with hot, humid summers and cool winters. There is significant precipitation throughout the year, especially during June and July. The average annual temperature in Aso 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 . The highest temperature ever recorded in Aso was on 11 August 2016; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 25 January 1998.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Aso in 2020 is 24,930 people.

History

The area of Aso was part of ancient

Higo Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. It was sometimes called , with Hizen Province. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces. History The cas ...

. The name appears in the ''

Nihon Shoki The or , sometimes translated as ''The Chronicles of Japan'', is the second-oldest book of classical Japanese history. It is more elaborate and detailed than the , the oldest, and has proven to be an important tool for historians and archaeol ...

'' as "Aso-no-kuni" and was ruled by the Aso clan from ancient times. During the

Edo Period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

it was part of the holdings of

Kumamoto Domain The , which was in existence from 1600 to 1871, had a significant influence in the region. Initially, it controlled its vast territory of 520,000 koku, which later expanded to 540,000 koku after the division of the 8th generation territory and the e ...

. After the

Meiji restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, the villages of Uchimaki, Kurokawa, Eisui, Ogaishi, Yamada, Miyaji, Furushiro, Nakadori, Sakanashi and Namino were established in Aso District with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Miyaji was raised to town status on August 27, 1895, followed by Uchimaki on April 1, 1906. On April 1, 1954 Uchimaki merged with the villages of Kurokawa, Eisui, Ogaishi, and Village and was renamed Aso Town. Miyaji likewise merged with the villages of Furushiro, Nakadori, and Village to become the town of

Ichinomiya is a Japanese language, Japanese historical term referring to the Shinto shrines with the highest rank in a Provinces of Japan, province. Shrines of lower rank were designated , , , and so forth.''Encyclopedia of Shinto'' ''Ichi no miya'' retr ...

. On February 11, 2005, Aso Town, Ichinomiya Town, and village of Namino are merged to become the city of Aso.

Government

Aso 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 consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

city council of 18 members. Aso contributes one member to the Kumamoto Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Kumamoto 3rd district of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

Economy

Aso has an economy based primarily on agriculture, including livestock raising.

Education

Aso has five public elementary schools and three public junior high schools operated by the city government and one public high school operated by the Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

- Hōhi Main Line : - - - - - - -

Highways

* * *

Local attractions

* Aso Geopark * Aso Kujū National Park ** Aso Volcano Museum **

** Mount Aso Ropeway * Aso Shrine

Notable people from Aso

* Nichidatsu Fujii, Buddhist monk * Toshikatsu Matsuoka, politician

References

External links

*
Aso City official website
{{Authority control Cities in Kumamoto Prefecture Aso clan