270pxWinding tower and slant entrance of 8th mine of former Shime Coal Mine is a town located in Kasuya District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , 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 46,388 in 21035 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 5300 persons per km². The total area of the town is

Geography

Shime is located in northwestern Fukuoka Prefecture. Although there are hilly areas in the southern and western parts of the town, it is generally flat. Almost the entire area has been urbanized.

Neighboring municipalities

Fukuoka Prefecture *

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

* Kasuya * Sue *

Umi Umi or UMI may refer to: Geography * Umi, Iran, a village in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran * Umi, Fukuoka, a town in Japan People * Umi-a-Liloa, king of the island of Hawaii *Umi Dachlan, Indonesian female artist *Umi Garrett, American female pian ...

Climate

Shime 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 Shime is 15.2 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1766 mm with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 26.5 °C, and lowest in January, at around 4.4 °C. Shime climate: Average Temperature, weather by month
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Demographics

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

History

The area of Shime was part of ancient

Chikuzen Province was a province of Japan in the area of northern Kyūshū, corresponding to part of north and western Fukuoka Prefecture. Chikuzen bordered on Hizen to the east, and Buzen east, and Bungo to the southeast. Its abbreviated form name was (a ...

. 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 under the control of

Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagamasa, the 1st daimyo of Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagahiro, the 11th next to last daimyo of Fukuoka Domain 270px, Kuroda Nagatomo, final daimyo of Fukuoka Domain was a Japanese domain of the Edo period. It was assoc ...

. 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 village of Shime was established with the creation of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. It was elevated to town status on April 17, 1939

Government

Shime 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 14 members. Shime, together with the other municipalities in Kasuya District contributes three members to the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the town is part of the

Fukuoka 4th district Fukuoka 4th district (福岡県第4区, ''Fukuoka-ken dai-yonku'' or simply 福岡4区, ''Fukuoka-yonku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefec ...

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

Shime is located in the center of the Kasuya Coalfield, and the town once had several coal mines and prospered as a coal industry, but the last mine closed in the 1960s. Currently, due to its proximity to Fukuoka City and moderately low land prices, many houses have been built as a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

, and the population is increasing.

Education

Shime has four public elementary schools and two public junior high schools operated by the town government. The town does not have a high school.

Transportation

Railways

Shime has no passenger rail service, but is connected by direct bus to

Hakata Station is a major railway station in Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. It is the largest and busiest railway terminal in Kyushu, and is a gateway to other cities in Kyushu for travelers coming from Honshu by rail travel. The San'yō Shinkansen from Osaka en ...

in Fukuoka.

Highways

Shime is not located on any National Highway or Expressway.

Local attractions

* Tanabataike Kofun, National Historic Site

Notable people from Kasuya

Yasuko Tomita is a japanese former idol, singer and actress. She won the Award for Best Newcomer at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival and at the 8th Japan Academy Prize for '' Aiko 16 sai''. She also worked with director Nobuhiko Obayashi in the acclaimed fant ...

, Actress

References

External links

*
Shime official website
Towns in Fukuoka Prefecture {{Fukuoka-geo-stub