is a town

Towns of Japan

A town is a local administrative unit in Japan. It is a local public body along with prefecture , city , and village...

 located in Chōsei District

Chosei District, Chiba

is a district located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. As of September 2010, the district has an estimated population of 63,382 and a density of 279 persons per km². The total area was 226.97 km²...

, Chiba Prefecture

Chiba Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. As of 2010 data, the town had an estimated population of 12,222 and a density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 of 445 persons per km². The total area was 27.46 km².

Geography

Shirako is located on the Pacific coast

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 of central Bōsō Peninsula

Boso Peninsula

thumb|Locationthumb|Landsat image with high-resolution data from Space Shuttle is a peninsula in Chiba prefecture on Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It forms the eastern edge of Tokyo Bay, separating it from the Pacific Ocean....

, encompassing the area of the popular Kujukuri Beach

Kujukuri Beach

is a sandy beach located on the east coast of the Bōsō Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Lying within 60 km of Tokyo and being the second longest beach in Japan, it is a popular swimming and surfing destination for inhabitants of Greater Tokyo....

 . The area has a warm maritime climate with hot summers and mild winters.

History

The area of present-day Shirako had numerous fishing hamlets during the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

. It was incorporated into Chōsei District after the Meiji period

Meiji period

The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 cadastral reforms. The modern town of Shirako was created on February11, 1955 from the merger of the town of Shirakata with neighboring villages of Seki and Nabaki. The name “Shirako” was adopted from a local Shinto shrine named Shirako Jinja, which claims to have been founded in the Heian period

Heian period

The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...

.

Economy

The primary industry of Shirako has traditionally been commercial fishing

Commercial fishing

Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions...

, however, the tourist and resort industry now dominates the local economy.

External links

• Shirako official website in Japanese