Ube, Yamaguchi

Ube Village (宇部村) as a modern municipality was established in Yamaguchi's Asa District as part of the modernization of municipalities in most prefectures in 1889. It became Ube City (宇部市) on November 1, 1921 in a rare direct elevation from village to city, without being a town in between.

Previously a coal mining town, the city has developed an effective policy to improve its environment. In particular it has combated the problem of air pollution and its success in doing so saw it being recognised by the United Nations Environment Programme as among UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1997.[2]

On November 1, 2004, the town of Kusunoki (from Asa District) was merged into Ube. This brought the city to its current extent, together with previous municipal mergers (Fujiyama in 1931, Kōnan in 1941, Nishi- (West) Kiwa in 1943, Great Shōwa mergers/1954: Kotō, Futamatase, Ono, Higashi- (East) Kiwa).

Tokiwa Park from the coal-mining museum tower in the park

Ube publicizes itself as "a city of greenery, flowers, and sculptures". Tokiwa Park is the centerpiece of this marketing, as it covers a large area near the center of the city and houses a large number of modern, mostly domestic sculptures on the shores of Lake Tokiwa. The sculptures can be found around the city. A sculpture competition is held biennially to provide new additions.

A well-known attraction of the park was a great white pelican called "Katta-kun", so named after his parents who were from Kolkata, India. Hatched in the park in 1985, he became famous as he began visiting schools in the vicinity. Katta-kun died in 2008, but there are a number of pelicans still residing in an enclosure there. In addition to the pelicans there were many mute swans and black swans residing there until 2011, when they were culled after an outbreak of H1N5 avian influenza. Two new mute swans were introduced in 2017.

There is a coal mining museum with a view over the city and airport.

A bridge in Tokiwa Park

A lamp in Tokiwa Park

Ube is twinned with:[5]

• Castellón de la Plana, Spain
• Newcastle, Australia (1980)
• Weihai, China

Ube holds two festivals each year, one in May and the other in November featuring food stands and carnival games.

Ube Industries is headquartered and has major plants in Ube. Also, petroleum product company of Solato, printer machine product company of Riso Kagaku, glass product company Central Glass, semiconductor and parts product company of Renesas, pharmaceutical research and product company of Kyowa Hakko Kirin, clinical laboratory research company of Miraca Holdings are plant and factory base on Ube.

• Masaki Kito, attorney at law
• Naoto Kan, former prime minister of Japan
• Tadashi Yanai, founder and president of Uniqlo
• Kazuo Hara, documentary film director
• Hideaki Anno, animator and film director
• Yoji Yamada, film director
• Aimi Kobayashi, pianist
• Shunsuke Kiyokiba, pop singer (formerly vocalist of Exile)
• Satomi', pop singer
• Sayumi Michishige, pop singer (former Morning Musume member)
• Tomomi Nishimura, actress
• Kishō Taniyama, voice actor
• Hitomi Harada, voice actress and singer
• Norihiro Akimura, baseball player
• Makiko Horai, volleyball player
• Sotaro Yasunaga, soccer player
• Daisuke Tomita, soccer player
• Yuji Nakagawa, soccer player
• Ryota Takasugi, soccer player

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ube, Yamaguchi.

• Official website (in Japanese)
• Geographic data related to Ube, Yamaguchi at OpenStreetMap