Amakusa

Amakusa is a city in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan, set among the Amakusa Islands between the Yatsushiro Sea and the East China Sea. It covers most of the two main islands, Kamishima and Shimoshima, together with six smaller inhabited islands and many uninhabited islets, and large parts of it lie inside Unzen-Amakusa National Park. At the end of August 2024 it had an estimated 72,243 residents on 683.82 square kilometres, and it has been described as the fastest depopulating city in Japan since the 2005 census. The city was established on 27 March 2006 by merging the cities of Hondo and Ushibuka with eight towns, and its economy rests on agriculture, commercial fishing and tourism.