is a city

Cities of Japan

||A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of...

 located in Okinawa

Okinawa Prefecture

is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...

, 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...

. The neighboring municipalities are Naha to the south, Ginowan to the north, and Nishihara to the east.

Urasoe was the original capital of the Okinawan kingdom of Chūzan

Chuzan

Chūzan was one of three kingdoms which controlled Okinawa in the 14th century. Okinawa, previously controlled by a number of local chieftains or lords, loosely bound by a paramount chieftain or king of the entire island, split into these three more solidly defined kingdoms within a few years after...

 for several centuries until it was supplanted by Shuri in the late 14th or early 15th century. For much of the 14th century, Urasoe Castle

Urasoe Castle

was an Okinawan castle, or gusuku, which served as the capital of the medieval Okinawan principality of Chūzan prior to the unification of the island into the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and the moving of the capital to Shuri....

 was the largest on the island of Okinawa.

As of March 2009, the city has an estimated population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 110,285 and a population 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 5,777 persons per km². The total area is 19.09 km².

The city was founded on July 1, 1970.

Urasoe is the hometown of Japanese actress, musician and former idol Yukie Nakama

Yukie Nakama

is a Japanese actress, singer and former idol. She was born in Okinawa, Japan, in a fisherman's family, the youngest of five siblings.At the start of her career she was a gravure idol and singer , and appeared in bit roles until her career breakthrough playing Sadako in "Ring 0: Birthday ."In 2000,...

.

The beer company Orion Breweries

Orion Breweries

is the 5th largest beer brewery in Japan, headquartered in Urasoe, Okinawa Prefecture. The company commands approximately 1% of the Japanese beer market. However, it controls over 50% of the beer market on Okinawa....

has its headquarters in Urasoe.

External links

Urasoe official website