270px, Kokonoe Town Hall is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Kusu District, Ōita Prefecture,

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 town 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 8,536 in 3,881 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 31 persons per km². The total area of the city is

Geography

Kokonoe is located within the mountainous western part of Oita, with most of the area is covered within the Aso Kujū National Park. Mount Kujū is located here with the Kusu River flowing through Kokonoe.

Neighbouring municipalities

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 ...

* Minamioguni * Oguni Ōita Prefecture * Kusu * Taketa * Yufu

Climate

Kokonoe 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 ''Cfa'') characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Kokonoe is 12.0 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1795 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 23.0 °C, and lowest in January, at around 0.7 °C.Kokonoe climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Kokonoe is as shown below

History

The area of Kokonoe was part of ancient Bungo Province. 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 ...

the area was mostly ''

tenryō The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil war ...

'' territory under the direct control of the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. Following 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 Handa, Higashi-Handa and Minami-Yamada within Kusu District, Ōita were established on May 1, 1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system. The village of Nogami was established on March 29, 1896 out of portions of Handa and Higashi-Handa, and was raised to town status on January 1, 1951. On February 1, 1955, the town of Nogami and villages of Handa, Higashi-Handa and Minami-Yamada merged to form the town of Kokonoe.

Government

Kokonoe 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 ...

town council of 13 members. Kokonoe, together with Kusu, contributes one member to the Ōita Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Ōita 2nd 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

The economy of Kokonoe is centered on agriculture, forestry and electrical energy production. The town power plants, with

geothermal power Geothermal power is electricity generation, electrical power generated from geothermal energy. Technologies in use include dry steam power stations, flash steam power stations and binary cycle power stations. Geothermal electricity generation i ...

generating a large amount of electricity, and the electricity self-sufficiency rate reaches 2,293%, the highest among municipalities in Japan. The town promotes its nine

onsen In Japan, are hot springs and the bathing facilities and Ryokan (inn), traditional inns around them. There are approximately 25,000 hot spring sources throughout Japan, and approximately 3,000 ''onsen'' establishments use naturally hot water ...

, which are occasionally closed due to flooding; it is also the summer headquarters of Labo Camp Kujū, part of the LABO language program.

Education

Kokonoe has six public elementary schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railways

JR Kyushu - Kyūdai Main Line * - - -

Highways

Ōita Expressway * * * *

Gallery

References

External links

*
Kokonoe official website
Towns in Ōita Prefecture Kokonoe, Ōita {{Oita-geo-stub