| Kushiro 釧路 |
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| — City — | |||
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| Location of Kushiro in Hokkaidō (Kushiro Subprefecture) | |||
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Kushiro
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Japan | ||
| Region | Hokkaidō | ||
| Prefecture | Hokkaidō (Kushiro Subprefecture) | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Yoshitaka Itō | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,362.75 km2 (526.2 sq mi) | ||
| Population (August 31, 2011) | |||
| • Total | 183,757 | ||
| • Density | 140/km2 (362.6/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | Japan Standard Time (UTC+9) | ||
| City symbols | |||
| - Tree | Syringa reticulata | ||
| - Flower | Nasturtium | ||
| Phone number | 0154-23-5151 | ||
| Address | 7-5 Kuroganechō, Kushiro-shi, Hokkaidō 085-8505 |
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| Website | Kushiro City | ||
Kushiro (釧路市 Kushiro-shi) is a city located in Kushiro Subprefecture, Hokkaidō, Japan. It is the capital city of Kushiro Subprefecture, as well as the most populous city in eastern Hokkaidō.
Historically Kushiro has been 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 Hokkaidō such as Hakodate, which occasionally do freeze for short periods due to the lower salinity of the Sea of Japan. For this reason, Kushiro was considered a valuable target for the Tsars during the Russo-Japanese Wars, but it only became a really important port during the 1920s with the growth of commercial fishing, for which its reliable freedom from ice reduced costs[1].
On October 11, 2005 the town of Akan, from Akan District, and the town of Onbetsu, from Shiranuka District, was merged into Kushiro.
In 2008 the city had an estimated population of 189,539 and a total area of 1,362.75 km², giving a population density of 140 persons per km².
In addition to its port, Kushiro is serviced by Kushiro Airport with flights from Honshū and by the Super Ōzora railway which travels seven times per day to the main population centres in the west of Hokkaidō.
Kushiro was accorded city status on 1 August 1922. It is the sister city of Burnaby, British Columbia, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia, and Kholmsk, Russia.[2]
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Kushiro has a humid continental climate (Dfb) but its winter temperatures are less severe than those of inland East Asia at the same latitude. Its port is the most reliably ice-free throughout winter in all of Hokkaidō, due to the lack of indentation in the coastline and absence of large inflows of cold fresh water nearby. It is also markedly sunnier than the extremely gloomy Kuril Islands to its north, being sheltered by Hokkaidō‘s mountains from the heavy snowfalls produced on the Sea of Japan side by the Aleutian Low. It receives only a third as much snowfall as Sapporo and almost twice as much sunshine as the Kuril Islands are estimated to.
| Climate data for Kushiro, Japan (1981～2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 7.6 (45.7) |
7.9 (46.2) |
15.1 (59.2) |
23.5 (74.3) |
28.0 (82.4) |
28.3 (82.9) |
29.7 (85.5) |
31.0 (87.8) |
28.6 (83.5) |
22.6 (72.7) |
18.7 (65.7) |
12.4 (54.3) |
31.0 (87.8) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −0.9 (30.4) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
2.4 (36.3) |
7.4 (45.3) |
12.4 (54.3) |
15.1 (59.2) |
18.8 (65.8) |
20.9 (69.6) |
19.0 (66.2) |
14.5 (58.1) |
8.5 (47.3) |
2.4 (36.3) |
10.0 (50.0) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −10.6 (12.9) |
−10.8 (12.6) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
0.1 (32.2) |
4.5 (40.1) |
8.5 (47.3) |
13.1 (55.6) |
15.4 (59.7) |
12.2 (54.0) |
5.1 (41.2) |
−1 (30) |
−7.2 (19.0) |
2.0 (35.6) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −28.3 (−18.9) |
−27 (−17) |
−24.8 (−12.6) |
−14.1 (6.6) |
−4.6 (23.7) |
−0.4 (31.3) |
3.3 (37.9) |
5.4 (41.7) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
−6.9 (19.6) |
−15.2 (4.6) |
−25.7 (−14.3) |
−28.3 (−18.9) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 44.3 (1.744) |
29.4 (1.157) |
58.4 (2.299) |
78.8 (3.102) |
113.0 (4.449) |
106.5 (4.193) |
115.4 (4.543) |
123.3 (4.854) |
153.1 (6.028) |
106.5 (4.193) |
71.3 (2.807) |
45.2 (1.78) |
1,045.2 (41.15) |
| Snowfall cm (inches) | 54 (21.3) |
39 (15.4) |
48 (18.9) |
12 (4.7) |
1 (0.4) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
6 (2.4) |
27 (10.6) |
187 (73.6) |
| % humidity | 69 | 67 | 68 | 77 | 79 | 87 | 88 | 88 | 82 | 75 | 69 | 67 | 76.3 |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.5 mm) | 6.4 | 5.4 | 8.3 | 8.8 | 10.7 | 9.7 | 11.8 | 11.3 | 11.4 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 107.5 |
| Avg. snowy days | 15.8 | 15.7 | 15.6 | 7.2 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 3.8 | 10.9 | 69.9 |
| Sunshine hours | 182.0 | 181.9 | 200.6 | 181.9 | 188.3 | 129.3 | 107.4 | 127.1 | 149.7 | 180.9 | 166.6 | 173.6 | 1,969.3 |
| Source no. 1: Japan Meteorological Agency[3] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: Japan Meteorological Agency (records)[4] | |||||||||||||
Ice hockey is one of the most popular winter sports in Kushiro. In addition to several leagues devoted top amateur play of all ages, Kushiro is home to the Asia League Ice Hockey Nippon Paper Cranes, three time Asia League Champions.
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