Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, Chūgoku Region, Japan

🇯🇵 Fukuyama is a city located on the Ashida River in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. After Hiroshima, it is the largest city in Hiroshima Prefecture. The city's symbol is the rose and it holds an annual Rose Festival in the month of May. The official mascot of Fukuyama is an anthropomorphic rose child by the name of Rola.

History The Fukuyama area is part of ancient Bingo Province, but until large-scale land reclamation projects in the Edo Period, it was largely tidal flats or part of the sea. An exception was the Ekiya neighborhood of northern Fukuyama, which was a post station on the old Sanyōdō highway. In the Edo Period, Fukuyama Castle and its surrounding castle town was founded as a castle town in 1619 by Mizuno Katsunari, a cousin of Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Mizuno was given command of a territory consisting of southern Bingo Province and south-western Bitchū Province. The Mizuno were later replaced by the Abe clan. Following the Meiji restoration, the town of Fukuyama was established on April 1,1889 with the creation of the modern municipalities system.

Fukuyama Town became Fukuyama City on July 1, 1916. The population of the city at that time was 32,356. In 1933, ten villages from surrounding Fukayasu District were merged into Fukuyama. Two additional villages from Numakuma District were similarly merged in 1942. On August 8, 1945 (two days after the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima), 91 American B-29 bombers made an air raid on Fukuyama, destroying much of the city.

On March 31, 1954, several towns and villages in Kōrimatsu District merged to found the city of Matsunaga. Matsunaga City would eventually merge with Fukuyama City on May 1, 1966. Several towns and villages from the Fukayasu District merged into Fukuyama in 1956, and Fukayasu Town merged in 1962. On April 1, 1974, Ashida Town in Ashina District merged with Fukuyama, followed by Kamo Town, Fukayasu District and Ekiya Town, Ashina District on February 1, 1975.

Fukuyama was promoted to core city status on April 1, 1998 with greater local autonomy.

Several other surrounding towns and districts subsequently merged with Fukuyama: • February 3, 2003, Utsumi Town in Numakuma District and Shin'ichi Town in Ashina District, thereby dissolving Ashina District • February 1, 2005 Numakuma Town, dissolving Numakuma District • March 1, 2006 Kannabe Town in Fukayasu District, dissolving the district.

Geography Fukuyama City is located in south-eastern Hiroshima Prefecture. The centre of the city is located in the Fukuyama Plain, which has been built by land reclamation projects since the Edo period, and the delta area that spreads out at the mouth of the Ashida River, which flows north and south through the city. The southern end of the city faces the Seto Inland Sea, and the northern mountainous area, which is the southern end of the so-called 'Jinseki Plateau', at the south-western end of the Kibi Plateau with an elevation of 400 to 500 meters in connected to the Chugoku Mountains. The highest peak in the city is Mt. Kyonoue at 611 meters above sea level. This is the basin of the Oda River, a tributary of the Takahashi River that flows into Kurashiki, Okayama. The urban area is roughly divided into the former Fukuyama city, the eastern (Zao, Kasuga) district, the southern (Tomo, Numakuma) district, the Matsunaga (former Matsunaga City) district, and the northern (Kannabe, Ekiya, Kamo) districts. Fukuyama expanded by incorporated neighboring municipalities one after another, but because the eastern part was blocked by the prefectural border and the southern part by the sea, the city limits expanded to the north and west.

Neighboring municipalities Hiroshima Prefecture • Onomichi • Fuchū • Jinsekikōgen.

Okayama Prefecture • Kasaoka • Ibara.

Economy Fukuyama is a major centre for heavy industry, notably steel. JFE Steel West Japan Works Fukuyama Area (former Nippon Kokan Fukuyama Works), which was completed in 1961, is not only the company's largest manufacturing base, but also the world's largest steelworks. Fukuyama is also a major manufacturing base for textiles, processed food, electronic equipment, pumps, cranes, machine inspection equipment, food trays, and rubber.

Education: Universities • Fukuyama City University • Fukuyama University, The university offers many courses of study, but is best known for its excellent pharmacology program. • Fukuyama Heisei University

Education: Other The Holocaust Education Center in Fukuyama, inaugurated on June 17, 1995, is dedicated to the memory of 1.5 million children who were murdered in the Holocaust. It has the distinction of being the first institution in Japan devoted to Holocaust education.

Transport: Rail JR West – San'yō Shinkansen • Fukuyama

JR West (JR West) - San'yō Main Line • Daimon - Higashi-Fukuyama - Fukuyama - Bingo-Akasaka - Matsunaga

JR West (JR West) - Akō Line • Fukuyama - Bingo-Honjō - Yokoo - Kannabe - Yudamura - Michinoue - Managura - Ekiya - Chikata - Tode - Kamitode - Shin-ichi

Ibara Railway Company • Goryō - Yuno - Kannabe

Transport: Road • San'yō Expressway • National Route 2 • National Route 182 • National Route 313 • National Route 314 • National Route 486.