Kushiro

Kushiro is located in southeastern Hokkaido. The Kushiro River and Akan River flow through the city, as well as Lake Akan is within the city borders. Following a merger in 2005, the former town of Onbetsu is an enclave to the west of the main city. The northeastern portion of Kushiro borders Kushiro-shitsugen National Park.

The origins of Kushiro Port are said to date back to the mid-17th century, when Matsumae Domain sent trading ships to trade with the Ainu people who lived near the mouth of the Kushiro River. During the Edo period, Kushiro Port was called Kusuri-tomari. Around 1799 Itsukushima Jinja was founded by the Tokugawa shogunate. In 1869 the name of the settlement was changed from "Kusuri" to "Kushiro." In 1897 Yasuda Coal Mine opened. An Imperial decree in July 1899 established Kushiro as an open port for trading with the United States and the United Kingdom.^[6] On 10 July 1900, with the implementation of the Hokkaido First- and Second-Class Municipalities System, Kushiro Town, Kushiro District, was established.

Kushiro was an important port because it is more reliably ice-free during winter than alternative Russian Far East warm-water ports such as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky or other ports in Hokkaido such as Hakodate, which occasionally freeze for short periods due to the lower salinity of the Sea of Japan. For this reason, Kushiro was considered a valuable target during the Russo-Japanese Wars. Its importance grew during the 1920s with the growth of commercial fishing, for which its reliable freedom from ice reduced costs.^[7] Kushiro was accorded city status on August 1, 1922.

On 14-15 July 1945 the city of Kushiro was bombed by American naval aircraft; resulting in 192 mostly civilian deaths, 1,618 houses burned or destroyed, 6,211 people affected, and 273 people injured. The city center was reduced to a burnt wasteland..^[8] Following the Invasion of the Kuril Islands in August 1945, Kushiro was favoured by the Russians as the eastern cornerstone of a border between an American-occupied south and a Soviet-occupied north-coupled with Rumoi as the western cornerstone. However, these plans were cancelled after pressure by US President Harry S. Truman.^{[9][10][11][12]}

In October 1949, the neighboring town of Tottori was incorporated into Kushiro City. on 4 March 1952, The Tokachi-oki earthquake occurred, resulting in 15 deaths. A gas explosion at the Kushiro Mine of the Pacific Coal Mine occurred on 31 August 1954, killing 39 workers.

On October 11, 2005, the town of Akan, from Akan District, and the town of Onbetsu, from Shiranuka District, was merged into Kushiro. The town of Shiranuka now lies between the two sections of Kushiro.

Kushiro has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 28 members. Kushiro contributes four members to the Hokkaidō Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is part of the Hokkaidō 7th district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.^[13]

Kushiro is a regional commercial center. In terms of industry, paper and pulp, agriculture, commercial fishing and food processing and the chemicals industry are major contributors.

Kushiro has 24 public elementary schools, 13 public middle schools, one public combined elementary/middle school and two public high schools operated by the city. The city has six public high schools operated by the Hokkaido Board of Education and one private high school. The prefecture also operates two special education schools for the handicapped.^[14] In terms of higher education, the Kushiro Junior College, National Institute of Technology, Kushiro College and the Kushiro Public University of Economics are located in the city.

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  Kushiro Airport
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  Kushiro Station
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  Kushiro-nishi IC
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  Port of Kushiro

• Itsukushima Jinja
• Kushiro Wetland Park
• Kushiro City Museum
• Lake Akan
  • Lake Akan Kotan
• Manabot Nusamai
  • Kushiro City Museum of Art
• Moshiriya Chashi (Castle)
• Tottori Jinja

• Kazuhiko Chiba, footballer
• Yutaka Fukufuji, ice hockey goaltender
• Yukinobu Hoshino, manga artist
• Akira Ifukube, composer
• Keisuke Itagaki, manga artist
• Saori Kitakaze, sprinter
• Satoshi Kon, anime film director
• Luna H. Mitani, visual artist
• Hiromi Nagakura, photographer
• Maki Nomiya, singer (Pizzicato Five)
• Shinji Somai, film director
• Aina Takeuchi, ice hockey defenseman
• Kazuro Watanabe, astronomer
• Kenji Shiya (Actor)
• GUCHY(FM NORTH WAVE DJ)

• Kushiro wetlands megasolar issue