280px, former Handa Family Banya 280px, Obira town center 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

Rumoi Subprefecture is a Subprefectures of Hokkaido, subprefecture of Hokkaido, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. As of 2011, it had a population of 52,627 and an area of . The population density of the subprefecture, 13 people per km2, is very low compared to the rest o ...

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

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 2,660 in 1,499 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 4.2 people per km². The total area of the town is .

Geography

Obira is located in the Rumoi jurisdiction in northern Hokkaido, bordered by the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

to the west.

Neighbouring municipalities

** Rumoi ** Tomamae ** Fukagawa ** Numata ** Horokanai

Climate

Obira has a

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(Köppen ''Dfb'') characterized by cold summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall. The average annual temperature in Obira is 7.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1227 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 20.9 °C, and lowest in January, at around -5.9 °C.

Demographics

Per Japanese census data, the population of Obira is as shown below. The town is in a long period of sustained population loss.

History

Obira began as a settlement by Matsumae Domain for

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

and

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

fishing in 1782. The Hanada family guardhouse was built in 1905. During the

Meiji period The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...

and into the early Showa period, the area was part of the Rumoi coal fields. The last coal mine closed in the 1960s. Obira was raised to town status in 1966.

Government

Obira 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 eight members. Obira, as part of Rumoi sub-prefecture, contributes one member to the Hokkaidō Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the Hokkaidō 10th 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 main industries of Obira are

commercial fishing Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for Commerce, commercial Profit (economics), profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice ...

and agriculture. In addition to rice, various vegetables such as potatoes, peppers, and corn are grown. Flowers such as bellflowers have been actively cultivated in Obira due to the cool climate, and Japanese black beef is also shipped. In terms of seafood,

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famili ...

s are cultivated and seed scallops are shipped to production areas around the country. Octopus are also landed.

Sea urchin Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...

s and

sea cucumber Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number be ...

s can be caught for a short period in summer.

Education

Obira has two public elementary schools and one public junior high school operated by the town government, and one public high school operated by the Hokkaidō Board of Education.

Transportation

Railways

After the closure of the Japan National Railway Teshio Line in 1987, the town has not had any passenger rail service.

Highways

Local attractions

* Hanada Family Banya, Former herring fishery, National Important Cultural Property

Mascot

Obira's mascot is who is a curious and kind heart superhero that resembles a bull. Legend has it that this figure was formed from a bull, a melon, an octopus, two scallops, two fishes and a rice bowl on 12 August 2014. No one knows its gender yet. It can eat anything that is locally produced especially melon, beef, octopus, scallops, herring and rice. His charm point is a red star on his forehead to show its status has mascot of the town.

Notable people

* Masashi Abe, nordic combined skier and Olympic champions

References

External links

*
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obira, Hokkaido Towns in Hokkaido Rumoi Subprefecture Populated coastal places in Japan