The specialty of this port town is a single boxed lunch sold at the station. The rice, with the body of a squid stuffed with grain and cooked, has held first place for many years at the nationwide station-lunch contest held by a Tokyo department store. A boxed lunch from a small port town in Hokkaido standing at the summit of the whole country — behind that lie the merger of two towns into one and the history of a port town on Funka Bay. Without knowing how the squid rice became the best in the country, this town’s numbers cannot be read. Mori-machi’s numbers record a town inscribed with the history of how two towns became one and a squid rice became the best in the country.
A port town on the Oshima Peninsula of Hokkaido, facing Uchiura Bay and opening out west of an active volcano. The old Mori Town and the neighboring Sawara Town to the east newly merged into one in the Heisei era. The boxed lunch sold at this town’s station — the body of a squid stuffed with grain and cooked — has for many years boasted top-class popularity at the nationwide station-lunch contest. The population fell from 19,149 in 2005, the year including the merger, to 14,338 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the town of ikameshi," but the causal thread: how the merger of two towns and a port town on Funka Bay is translated into today’s population.
01 · See the present Mori-machi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about fourteen thousand (14,338 in 2020). From 19,149 in 2005, when the two towns merged, it fell through 17,859 in 2010 to 14,338 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 25.7% in 2005 to 38.6% in 2020. As a port town on Funka Bay, post-merger decline and aging advance.
The Official Land Price of residential land is about 9,800 yen per m², and commercial land in the 18,000-yen range. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.30 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers about three-tenths of expenditure. The elementary schools numbered eight in 2023 — still many, reflecting the town area widened by the merger. Why these numbers come together in this town cannot be read without tracing the merger of two towns and a port town on Funka Bay.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Official Land Price / Prefectural Land Price Survey (MLIT) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC)
02 · A port town on Funka Bay, the merger of two towns, a squid rice that became the best in the country — the history behind the numbers
What sets Mori down is its character as a port town facing Uchiura Bay, the merger of two towns into one, and the history of a boxed lunch sold at the station becoming the best in the country. The starting layer is the port. West of an active volcano, facing Uchiura Bay, this place has walked as a port town landing the bounty of the sea. When the railway came through, this town’s station became one of the hubs of a line overlooking the active volcano and the bay. In the old history, at the end of the Edo period the army of the former shogunate landed on this town’s shore, making it the place where the war in Hokkaido began.
Into that port town, in the twentieth century, a single boxed lunch was born. The rice, with the body of a squid stuffed with grain and cooked, was sold at the station, and in time gained popularity enough to hold first place for many years at the nationwide station-lunch contest held by a Tokyo department store. A station lunch from a small port town in Hokkaido stood at the summit of the whole country. And in the Heisei era, this old Mori Town and the neighboring Sawara Town to the east newly merged into one. Two port towns became one, and the town area widened along Uchiura Bay. A port town on Funka Bay, becoming one through merger, pushed the station’s boxed lunch to the summit of the country — Mori’s present stands atop that history.
Source: Mori Town (Hokkaido), history (in 2005 the old Mori Town and Sawara Town newly merged; facing Uchiura Bay, west of Mt. Komagatake; in 1868 Enomoto Takeaki and others landed at Washinoki, making it the place where the Battle of Hakodate began — overview) / Ikameshi Abe Shoten / Mori Station (the boxed lunch "ikameshi" of Mori Station was devised in 1941 by Abe Shoten, and has long ranked among the top in popularity at famous station-lunch fairs nationwide — overview)
03 · The town area where two towns became one remains in the number of elementary schools
In this town, widened by the merger of two port towns, that history remains in the distribution of living infrastructure. Mori Town’s elementary schools numbered eight in 2023 — many for a town of about fourteen thousand people. This can be read as the expression of the town area stretching long along Uchiura Bay after the merger, with the settlements of each of the original two towns scattered through it, each having needed its own school. The breadth of the town area keeps the number of schools somewhat high.
That said, the number of pupils keeps falling. The 1,042 pupils at the time of the 2005 merger halved to 516 in 2023. The childcare capacity was reduced from 160 in 2024 to 150 in 2025, with a Childcare Waitlist of zero in both years. The share of households with children was 15.9% in 2020. Owing to the broad town area, the number of schools is kept somewhat high, but the number of children per school thins. The structure of a town area widened by merger, and the current of a falling number of children, move at the same time behind this town’s number of schools.
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 town where two port towns became one and made the station lunch the best in the country
In Mori, two histories overlap. One is its character of being a port town facing Uchiura Bay, where the squid rice sold at the station stood at the summit of nationwide station lunches. The other is its starting point: the old Mori Town and the neighboring Sawara Town to the east newly merged into one, and the town area stretched long along Uchiura Bay. The landform of a port on Funka Bay and the merger of two towns into one give this town both a broad town area and a specialty known across the country.
The position west of an active volcano brings a rich sea and soil, and at the same time gives the town the character of being at the foot of a living volcano. A port town on Uchiura Bay is adjacent to both the sea and the volcano. The town where two port towns became one and made the station lunch the best in the country now loses population on the seaside west of an active volcano.
Source: Mori Town (Hokkaido), history (in 2005 the old Mori Town and Sawara Town newly merged; facing Uchiura Bay, west of Mt. Komagatake; in 1868 Enomoto Takeaki and others landed at Washinoki, making it the place where the Battle of Hakodate began — overview) / Ikameshi Abe Shoten / Mori Station (the boxed lunch "ikameshi" of Mori Station was devised in 1941 by Abe Shoten, and has long ranked among the top in popularity at famous station-lunch fairs nationwide — overview)
05 · Atlas note — even though the squid rice is the best in the country, the eight schools were decided on the day of the merger
To put it in the habit by which I (Atlas), as a certified public accountant, search for the strength behind small numbers, what I want to read first in Mori’s numbers is the history that the single boxed lunch sold at this small port town’s station "has held first place for many years at the nationwide station-lunch contest." It is a plain rice, just the body of a squid stuffed with grain and cooked. And it kept standing at the summit, holding back the renowned station lunches of the whole country. In this town, where the indicators of a port town on Funka Bay line up — a population fallen since the merger, an aging rate of 38.6%, a land price of 9,800 yen, fiscal capacity of 0.30 — there is a specialty that stands at the summit of the country. A small regional port town makes its name ring across the country not by largeness of scale but by a single piece of outstanding quality — the instance is in this town.
One more thing to weigh is the number of eight elementary schools, somewhat many for a town of about fourteen thousand people. In my view, this number is the consequence of two port towns merging and the town area stretching long along Uchiura Bay. In a broad town area, the settlements of each of the original two towns are scattered, each needing its own school. Even with the same "many schools," behind it lies the structure of a town area widened by merger. Even as the squid rice keeps standing at the summit of the country, the form of eight elementary schools scattered through a town area stretched long along Uchiura Bay was already decided on the day two port towns became one.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Mori Town (Hokkaido), history (in 2005 the old Mori Town and Sawara Town newly merged; facing Uchiura Bay, west of Mt. Komagatake; in 1868 Enomoto Takeaki and others landed at Washinoki, making it the place where the Battle of Hakodate began — overview) / Ikameshi Abe Shoten / Mori Station (the boxed lunch "ikameshi" of Mori Station was devised in 1941 by Abe Shoten, and has long ranked among the top in popularity at famous station-lunch fairs nationwide — 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_1af