Suō-Ōshima

Suō-Ōshima is both a town and an island in Ōshima District, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. The present town was created on 1 October 2004, when four earlier towns of the district, Ōshima, Kuka, Tachibana and Tōwa, merged into one municipality. Its population was counted as 14,798 in the 2020 census, and it covers about 138.17 square kilometres. The climate is humid subtropical, with hot summers, cool winters and the heaviest rain in June, and the average annual temperature is about 16.0 degrees Celsius. Schooling runs from nine elementary schools through junior high schools to two high schools, and the main road link named in its article is National Route 437. Suō-Ōshima has been a sister island of the County of Kauai in Hawaii since 1963, an association marked by a 50th anniversary commemoration in 2013 and by a reaffirmation of friendship signed by the two mayors.