Bibai

Bibai is a city in the Sorachi Subprefecture of Hokkaido, Japan, west of which the Ishikari River flows. Its name comes from the Ainu words meaning a place with many cockscomb pearl mussels. The settlement began as the village of Numakai in 1890, was renamed Bibai in 1926 and became a city in 1950. At its peak it was a coal town producing more than a million tonnes a year, but the mine closed in 1972 and the population has declined slowly since. The Bibai Dam stands on a tributary of the Ishikari, Lake Miyajima is a Ramsar wetland, and a stretch of national Route 12 here is the longest straight road section in Japan.