Arao City

Kumamoto Prefecture · City

Official website Kumamoto Prefecture page

Arao City, at the northwestern tip of Kumamoto Prefecture, faces the Ariake Sea and borders Omuta City in Fukuoka Prefecture. Both grew as Mitsui Miike coal mine towns, and the Manda Pit, a World Cultural Heritage Site, remains. The city is also known for Greenland, one of Kyushu's largest amusement parks, and the Arao tidal flats, with migratory birds.

Key facts

Population: 47,306 534th in Japan2025 Census
5-year change: −6.9% 879th in Japanfrom 50,832 in 2020
Area: 57.37 km² 1,236th in Japan
Population density: 825 people/km² 408th in Japan

Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2025 Population Census (population, area and density); area from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), Area Statistics of Prefectures and Municipalities (2025). National ranks are among the 1,741 municipalities, ordered by this site from these values.

Live information

Current weather (observed)

Places to visit

Chosen automatically, most popular first, from landmarks and cultural properties registered in Wikidata (we have not checked whether each is open). Names and descriptions: Wikidata (CC0); photos: Wikimedia Commons (photographer and license under each photo).

Neighboring municipalities

Municipalities sharing a boundary (computed from the National Land Numerical Information administrative boundaries, January 2021).

The description was written for this site, picking out representative features.

Figures come from official Japanese statistics (such as the 2025 Census by the Statistics Bureau of Japan), with the source and year shown next to each one. Photos are freely licensed images from Wikimedia Commons; the photographer and license are shown under each photo.

Prefectures Rankings Mountains & castles Places to visit National parks Sources & credits

Map layers

Map

Weather & safety

Nature

History

Seasons

Places to visit nearby