This small seaside town sent two extraordinary things out into the world. One is a long tunnel bored beneath the strait between it and the main island — its northern exit is in this town. The other is two yokozuna. From the same town, the same elementary school, two men who stood at the summit of sumo emerged. Without knowing the town that produced these two off-the-scale things — the engineering of boring beneath the sea, and wrestlers at the summit — this town’s numbers cannot be read. Fukushima-cho’s numbers record a town inscribed with the history of a tunnel bored beneath a strait and two yokozuna.
A town in the southwest of the Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido, facing the Tsugaru Strait. The Hokkaido-side portal of the long undersea tunnel that joins the main island and Hokkaido is in this town. And it is "the home of yokozuna," having sent out two men who reached the summit of sumo — and from the same elementary school at that. But contrary to those two prides, the population fell from 6,795 in 2000 to 3,794 in 2020 — by more than four-tenths in twenty years. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the home of yokozuna," but the causal thread: how the history of an undersea tunnel and two yokozuna is translated into today’s population and aging.
01 · See the present Fukushima-cho in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about three thousand eight hundred (3,794 in 2020). From 6,795 in 2000 it fell by more than four-tenths in twenty years, and the share aged 65 and over rose from 25.8% in 2000 to 48.8% in 2020. With nearly half the residents elderly, the aging is among the harshest in the prefecture.
The Official Land Price of residential land is about 7,200 yen per m², which is low. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.22 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers about two-tenths of expenditure, and its reliance on the local allocation tax is large. The number of elementary schools was consolidated from four in 2000 to two in 2023. Why a town that holds the northern mouth of an undersea tunnel and produced two yokozuna reached these numbers cannot be read without tracing its history and geography.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Official Land Price / Prefectural Land Price Survey (MLIT) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC)
02 · The Tsugaru Strait, a tunnel bored beneath the sea, two yokozuna from the same elementary school — the history behind the numbers
What sets Fukushima down is the landform of the Tsugaru Strait lying between it and the main island, the long tunnel bored beneath that sea, and the two yokozuna who came from the same elementary school. The starting layer is the strait. This strait, dividing the main island from Hokkaido, was from of old a wall that blocked the coming and going of people and goods, and at the same time a key point of crossing. A fishery that took the sea’s bounty, and a livelihood of drying and processing squid, supported this seaside town.
In the twentieth century a great undertaking to bore beneath that strait by human hands was set in motion. A long tunnel passing under the seabed was dug, and its Hokkaido-side exit was placed in this town. The northern gateway of an undersea tunnel among the longest in the world is in this small town. And this town produced another off-the-scale thing. From this town two men reached the highest rank of sumo, the yokozuna — one being the disciple of the other. And the two were from the same elementary school. For two summit wrestlers to come from a town of a few thousand is no ordinary matter. The engineering of boring beneath the sea, and the individual feat of the summit of sumo — a seaside town of a few thousand sent two off-the-scale things out into the world.
Source: Seikan Tunnel (one of the world’s longest undersea tunnels; the Hokkaido-side portal and memorial hall are at Yoshioka, Fukushima Town — overview) / Yokozuna Chiyonoyama / Chiyonofuji Memorial Hall (the 41st yokozuna Chiyonoyama and the 58th yokozuna Chiyonofuji were both from Fukushima Town and from the same elementary school; the hall opened in 1997 — overview)
03 · Even at the elementary school that produced yokozuna, when children decrease the schools decrease
Even in a town that sent two yokozuna out from the same elementary school, the subsequent population decline did not stop. Fukushima Town’s elementary schools were consolidated from four in 2000 to two in 2023, and the number of pupils shrank from 362 in 2000 to 96 in 2023 — to nearly a quarter. The count of the schoolhouses that once raised summit wrestlers decreases together with the falling number of children. A history worth being proud of, and the number of children living in the town now, move as separate indicators.
The childcare capacity was 40 in both 2024 and 2025, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both years. But applicants stayed within capacity — 25 in 2024, 35 in 2025. The crude birth rate fell from about 6.2 in 2000 to about 3.4 in 2020. A figure of "zero Childcare Waitlist" must not be short-circuited into "ease of child-rearing," but read together with the background that the absolute number of children is thinning. The memory of a town that produced yokozuna, and the reality of continuing to raise children there, do not necessarily overlap.
Source: School Basic Survey (MEXT, via e-Stat System of Social and Demographic Statistics) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
04 · A seaside town that holds the gateway beneath the sea and the summit of sumo
Even so, Fukushima Town has two extraordinary histories. One is its geography of holding the northern portal of the undersea tunnel that joins the main island and Hokkaido. The northern gateway of a great undertaking to bore beneath the sea is in this town. The other is its character as "the home of yokozuna," having sent out two men who stood at the summit of sumo, from the same elementary school. The engineering of passing beneath the sea, and wrestlers standing at the summit — these two off-the-scale things give this seaside town an outline of its own.
That said, the undersea tunnel is something that passes beneath the town, and the trains do not stop in this town. To hold the northern gateway of the tunnel brought the town a memorial facility and a pride, but that is a separate matter from holding the flow of people in this town. While holding the gateway of a feat of boring beneath the sea and two yokozuna, this town has lost more than four-tenths of its population on the seaside of the Tsugaru Strait.
Source: Fukushima Town (“the home of yokozuna” — town introduction) / Seikan Tunnel (one of the world’s longest undersea tunnels; the Hokkaido-side portal and memorial hall are at Yoshioka, Fukushima Town — overview)
05 · Atlas note — the off-the-scale mismatch between a town of a few thousand and what it produced
Lay out Fukushima Town’s numbers and the harsh indicators of a small seaside town on the Tsugaru Strait line up: a population fall of more than four-tenths, an aging rate of 48.8%, a land price of 7,200 yen, fiscal capacity of 0.22, a consolidation from four schools to two. But, to put it with the eye by which I (Atlas) have handled figures large and small on the accounting floor, what I want to read first here is the history that this town of a few thousand holds two off-the-scale things: "the northern gateway of a long tunnel bored beneath the sea" and "two yokozuna from the same elementary school." Both the engineering feat of boring beneath the sea and the individual feat of the summit of sumo were born from this small town. Towns where the scale of the town and the scale of what the town produced diverge this greatly are rare.
One more thing to weigh is the point that those two off-the-scale things have not halted the population decline. The gateway of the undersea tunnel is something where no train stops and which passes beneath the town, and the memory of yokozuna, prideful though it is, moves by a logic separate from the number of households raising children there. To hold a history worth being proud of, and for people to keep living there, are measured by different indicators. In a town that bored beneath the sea and produced two yokozuna, the children now attending elementary school have fallen to nearly a quarter of twenty years ago. The most off-the-scale thing of all is that very mismatch — that the starting point which produced those two was a small town of just a few thousand on the Tsugaru Strait.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Fukushima Town (“the home of yokozuna” — town introduction) / Yokozuna Chiyonoyama / Chiyonofuji Memorial Hall (the 41st yokozuna Chiyonoyama and the 58th yokozuna Chiyonofuji were both from Fukushima Town and from the same elementary school; the hall opened in 1997 — overview) / Seikan Tunnel (one of the world’s longest undersea tunnels; the Hokkaido-side portal and memorial hall are at Yoshioka, Fukushima Town — overview)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (wave29-east 2026-06-04)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: w29e_145