Kimotsuki, Kagoshima


Kimotsuki is a town in Kimotsuki District. It is located in the eastern part of the Ōsumi Peninsula in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.
The town was formed on July 1, 2005 from the merger of the towns of Kōyama and Uchinoura, both from Kimotsuki District. As of October 2019, the town has an estimated population of 15,169. The total area is 308.12 km².
The Uchinoura Space Center is located in this town.

Points of Interest

Events and festivals

Kimotsuki has two town mascots created by the Kimotsuki Tourism Association. Both wear purple outfits based on the traditional costume of the Yabusame Festival archer and have satellite heads. They generally make appearances at town sanctioned events.

The Galaxy Federation

Before the merger, the town of Uchinoura was a part of the Galaxy Federation, a chain of friendship cities that each house a JAXA space center. It joined the federation as a founding member on November 8th, 1987 and received the name the Republic of Uchinoura. The friendship city relations were still retained when Uchinoura merged with Koyama to become Kimotsuki town, and it is now called the Republic of Uchinoura Kimotsuki within the federation. The most recent member of the federation, the city of Kakuda in Miyagi Prefecture, joined on April 2nd, 2016.
Kimotsuki and the town of Minamitane, home to Tanegashima's JAXA space center, signed the “Space Brother Cities Declaration” on July 3rd, 2013. The naming comes from the manga and anime series Space Brothers, and the official document even features an illustration of the two main characters, the Nanba brothers.