Oarai
Ōarai is a town located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency operates a research center in Ōarai with a number of nuclear research reactors, including the Jōyō and High-temperature engineering test reactor facilities. Located on the coast of central Ibaraki Prefecture, Ōarai is located in the flatlands near the Pacific Ocean and borders Lake Hinuma, the 30th largest body of freshwater in Japan.
History
The villages of Isohama and Ōnuki within Higashiibaraki District and the village of Natsumi within Kashima District were created with the establishment of the modern municipalities system on April 1, 1889. Ōnuki was elevated to town status on January 26, 1894. Ōnuki and Isohama merged on November 3, 1954, to create the town of Ōarai. A portion of Natsumi was annexed by Ōarai on July 23, 1955.
In 1928, Nisshō Inoue, the founder of the far-right militant organization Ketsumeidan, relocated to Ōarai, where he established Risshō Gokokudō, which served as a youth training center advocating a militarist revolution in Japan, eventually resulting in the 1932 League of Blood Incident.
Since 1998 the chief of a factory association in Oarai has invited Japanese descendants and migrants from North Sulawesi, Indonesia, to work for seafood industries. A majority of the Indonesian inhabitants were later arrested for being undocumented.