In this fishing town, once every ten minutes, hot water roars up out of the ground. It is a geyser rare even within Hokkaido. Beside that hot water, people have taken cod from the winter sea and raised its roe into the town’s specialty. Hot water spouting from deep in the earth, and cod taken from the sea — without knowing the two gifts that the landform of a seaside at the foot of a volcano gave, this town’s numbers cannot be read. Shikabe-cho’s numbers record a town inscribed with the history of a geyser that spouts every ten minutes and a fishing town of pollock roe.
A fishing town on the east coast of the Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido, at the foot of an active volcano, facing Uchiura Bay. It holds a geyser rare even within Hokkaido that spouts hot water about once every ten minutes, and it is also a hot-spring place with an old tradition. The cod taken in the winter sea and the specialty made from its roe have sustained the town. The population fell from 4,907 in 2000 to 3,760 in 2020 — by more than two-tenths over twenty years. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the hot-spring and fishing town," but the causal thread: how the gifts that the landform of a seaside at the foot of a volcano gave, and the choices of daily life atop them, are translated into today’s numbers.
01 · See the present Shikabe-cho in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about three thousand eight hundred (3,760 in 2020). From 4,907 in 2000 it fell by more than two-tenths over twenty years, and the share aged 65 and over leapt from 18.3% in 2000 to 40.3% in 2020 — more than doubling in twenty years. As a small fishing town at the foot of an active volcano, decline and aging advance.
The Official Land Price of residential land is about 35,000 yen per m². The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.23 in fiscal 2023. What catches the eye in this town’s numbers is that the values for daycare are all zero — there is no licensed daycare facility within the town, and capacity and use are recorded statistically as zero. There has consistently been one elementary school. Why these numbers come together in this town cannot be read without tracing the landform of a seaside at the foot of a volcano and the history of daily life in a small fishing town.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Official Land Price / Prefectural Land Price Survey (MLIT) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC)
02 · The foot of an active volcano, a geyser every ten minutes, cod of the winter sea — the history behind the numbers
What sets Shikabe down is the landform of the foot of an active volcano, the geyser spouting from deep in the earth, and the cod taken in the winter sea of Uchiura Bay. The starting layer is the volcano and the sea. This town, opening out at the foot of an active volcano on the east coast of the Oshima Peninsula, faces Uchiura Bay. The landform at the foot of a volcano holds heat deep in the earth, and it appeared at the surface as two gifts. One is hot water. By an old tradition, the hot spring is said to have been opened when a wounded deer was seen healing in the hot water. And a geyser rare even within Hokkaido roars up hot water from the ground about once every ten minutes.
The other gift comes from the sea. In the winter sea of Uchiura Bay, a kind of cod is taken in great quantity. People took this cod and processed its roe into a specialty representing the town. Hot water spouting from deep in the earth, and cod taken from the winter sea — one landform, a seaside at the foot of a volcano, gave this town two livelihoods, the hot spring and fishing. People come for the hot water, and life stands on taking the cod. The two gifts of hot water and cod, given by the single landform of a seaside at the foot of a volcano — Shikabe’s present stands atop them.
Source: Michi-no-Eki Shikabe Geyser Park (a geyser rare even within Hokkaido spouts hot water about once every ten minutes; a fishing town of about 3,800 people — overview) / Shikabe Town (east coast of the Oshima Peninsula; at the foot of Mt. Komagatake; facing Uchiura Bay; the Shikabe hot spring is traditionally dated to 1666; the roe of the winter walleye pollock is a specialty; adopted town status in 1983 — overview)
03 · What it means to raise children in a small town that holds no daycare
The most distinctive thing in this town’s numbers is that the values for daycare are all zero. Statistically, there is no licensed daycare facility within the town, and capacity and children using it are recorded as zero in both 2024 and 2025. This mirrors the reality of the scale of facilities a small fishing town of about three thousand eight hundred people can hold. Daily life is built, it can be read, on the premise of relying on the adjacent area outside the town for the care of small children, or of covering it in some other form.
The share of households with children was 15.1% in 2020, and there is consistently one elementary school. The number of pupils fell from 368 in 2000 to 125 in 2023. The crude birth rate dropped from about 8.4 in 2000 to about 3.7 in 2020. In a small town, whether there is one licensed daycare facility or not greatly governs the premise of raising small children there. The scarcity of facilities is the consequence of the town’s small scale, and ties directly to the breadth of choice in daily life. Even a town that holds the rare resource of a geyser is bound, in the number of places to raise children, by the scale of a small fishing town.
Source: Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
04 · A small fishing town that holds the hot water and cod at the foot of a volcano
In Shikabe, one landform inscribes two gifts. One is its geography: at the foot of an active volcano, facing Uchiura Bay, holding a geyser rare even within Hokkaido and a hot spring of old tradition. The other is its character of holding the cod taken in the winter sea and the specialty made from its roe. The single landform of a seaside at the foot of a volcano gives this small fishing town two gifts, hot water and cod.
That said, these gifts did not hold the power to enlarge the town’s scale. The geyser, the hot spring, and the cod give this town a face of its own, but a scale of about three thousand eight hundred people brings the choice of holding no licensed daycare within the town. Holding the rare gifts of hot water and cod, this town raises its children within the reality of the scale of a small fishing town.
Source: Michi-no-Eki Shikabe Geyser Park (a geyser rare even within Hokkaido spouts hot water about once every ten minutes; a fishing town of about 3,800 people — overview) / Shikabe Town (east coast of the Oshima Peninsula; at the foot of Mt. Komagatake; facing Uchiura Bay; the Shikabe hot spring is traditionally dated to 1666; the roe of the winter walleye pollock is a specialty; adopted town status in 1983 — overview)
05 · Atlas note — one landform gave hot water and cod, and daycare alone lies outside the town
Lay out Shikabe’s numbers and the indicators of a small fishing town at the foot of an active volcano line up: a population fall of more than two-tenths, an aging rate of 40.3%, a land price of 35,000 yen, fiscal capacity of 0.23, zero daycare. But, to put it in the habit by which I (Atlas), as a certified public accountant, follow how a single piece of capital is used, what I want to read first here is that this town’s daily life stands atop "two gifts given by one landform, a seaside at the foot of a volcano." A geyser spouting hot water every ten minutes from deep in the earth, and cod taken in the winter sea of Uchiura Bay — two gifts of entirely different nature were born from the same landform, the foot of an active volcano. One landform can give both a resource for tourism, a hot spring, and a livelihood, fishing — this town is the instance.
One more thing to weigh is the point that the values for daycare are all zero. In my view, this is, separately from whether resources like the geyser or the cod exist, a matter of the town’s scale itself. Whether a town of about three thousand eight hundred people holds a licensed daycare within it greatly governs the premise of daily life for raising small children there. Holding rare gifts, and being able to hold the facilities of child-rearing within the town, are decided by separate logics. Even in a town blessed with both the heat of hot water spouting every ten minutes from deep in the earth and the cold of the cod landed from the winter Uchiura Bay, a place to leave small children during the day alone is not found within the town.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Michi-no-Eki Shikabe Geyser Park (a geyser rare even within Hokkaido spouts hot water about once every ten minutes; a fishing town of about 3,800 people — overview) / Shikabe Town (east coast of the Oshima Peninsula; at the foot of Mt. Komagatake; facing Uchiura Bay; the Shikabe hot spring is traditionally dated to 1666; the roe of the winter walleye pollock is a specialty; adopted town status in 1983 — 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_b2b