This town was, from of old, the center of the land called Noto. In the age of the ritsuryo codes a provincial office of the realm was set here, and in the age of the warring states a great castle was built on a mountain overlooking the bay and became the seat of a clan that ruled the region. When that castle fell and a new lord entered, the castle was moved to a low hill near the port, and the center of the present town was set. At the head of the bay wells a hot spring said to be the only seawater hot spring of the Hokuriku region, and in recent years this town was shaken by a great earthquake. The port town at the head of the bay, set by a provincial office and a castle, widened its municipal area through merger. Nanao-shi’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the history of its castle town and the sea’s hot spring.
A city at the base of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, opening onto the head of a deeply indented bay. To read the population, the merger must be taken into account. In 2004 the old Nanao City made a new merger with three neighboring towns to become the present Nanao-shi. The population of the old Nanao City before the merger was 47,351 in 2000, and 61,871 in 2005 after the merger. From there it has fallen to 50,300 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “the center of Noto,” but the causal thread: how the history — the castle town set by a provincial office and a castle, and the sea’s hot spring — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Nanao-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about fifty thousand (50,300 in 2020). To read this city’s population, the merger must be taken into account. In 2004 the old Nanao City made a new merger with three neighboring towns to become the present Nanao-shi. The population of the old Nanao City before the merger was 47,351 in 2000, and 61,871 in 2005 after the merger. From there, through 57,900 in 2010 and 55,325 in 2015 to 50,300 in 2020, it has fallen gently since the merger. The step in population between 2000 and 2005 in this article mirrors the widening of the municipal area through this merger.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of the central town of the Noto Peninsula contracting appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 22.3% in 2000 to 38.5% in 2020, drawing near four in ten. The household-with-children share is 17.1% (2020), and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.44 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue does not reach half of expenditure, with a large reliance on the allocation tax. The numbers show a port town at the head of the bay, set by a provincial office and a castle, losing population within the post-merger municipal area and deepening in age. And at the beginning of 2024 a great earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of its castle town and the sea’s hot spring.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · The provincial office of Noto, the mountain castle overlooking the bay, the castle town moved near the port, the sea’s hot spring, the merger that widened the municipal area — the history behind the numbers
What makes Nanao up is the history of having remained the center of the land called Noto, the sea’s hot spring welling at the head of the bay, and the merger that widened the municipal area. The old layer is the provincial office and the castle. In the age of the ritsuryo codes, the provincial office of the land called Noto was set here, and it became the center of the region’s government. In the age of the warring states, a great castle was built on a mountain overlooking the bay and became the seat of a clan that ruled Noto. In time, that castle was taken by a renowned warlord of the neighboring province. The warlord who came to rule this land anew, in place of the mountain castle overlooking the bay, built a new castle on a low hill near the port. With the center of the castle town moved from the mountain to near the port, the position of the present town’s center was set.
Upon this castle town the history of the sea’s hot spring was laid. At the head of the deeply indented bay, hot water wells at the seaside, and as a hot spring containing seawater — said to be the only one of the Hokuriku region — it became a famed bathing land of old. This water welling at the head of the bay gave the town another face. The path by which it became a city also mirrors this town. In modern times this land became a city as a town of port and hot spring, and in 2004 it made a new merger with three neighboring towns — each of its own character, such as a town of wooden fittings, a town of theater, and an island of tourism — and took in a municipal area encircling the bay. And at the beginning of 2024 a great earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula, and this town too was beset by the shaking. The provincial office and castle town of Noto, the sea’s hot spring, and the merger — the history of a castle town and the sea’s hot spring that the head of the deeply indented bay took in lies at the foundation of today’s Nanao.
Source: Nanao City, “the Historic Site of Nanao Castle Ruins” (the seat of the Noto provincial office; the Hatakeyama clan’s Nanao Castle, fallen to Uesugi Kenshin in 1577; Maeda Toshiie’s entry in 1581; the building of Komaruyama Castle near the port in 1582, where the castle town moved — overview) / Nanao City, “Overview of Nanao City” (the 2004 new merger of the old Nanao City with Tatsuruhama, Nakajima and Notojima towns; a town of port and hot spring; Wakura Onsen — the only seawater hot spring of the Hokuriku region — overview)
03 · In the central town of Noto, the post-merger municipal area loses population
What characterizes Nanao-shi is that, while holding the history of having remained the center of Noto and the sea’s hot spring, it is losing the population of the municipal area widened by merger. From 61,871 in 2005, after the merger, to 50,300 in 2020, it lost about eleven thousand over fifteen years. Though the center of the Noto Peninsula and a town of port and hot spring, it lies far from the large cities under the geography of a peninsula, and amid a flow of the younger generation moving to urban areas in search of places to work and study, the population can be read as having fallen. The sea’s hot spring at the head of the bay too saw the number of its visitors swayed by the fashions of travel in each time, and it did not come to greatly increase places for the younger generation to work in the town. That the share aged 65 and over reached 38.5% in 2020, drawing near four in ten, is one expression of that population composition.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.44 is a level whose own tax revenue does not reach half of expenditure, with a large reliance on the allocation tax. As the central town of Noto, holding the various parts of the peninsula within its municipal area, it mirrors the limit on its own tax source. Further, the great earthquake at the beginning of 2024 cast a shadow over the seaside living and the bathing land too. Population fell after the merger, aging draws near four in ten, the stamina of finances is weak, and a disaster was laid on top of it — the contradiction of bearing the constraints of a peninsula while remaining its center appears in the numbers of Nanao at the head of the bay. The single phrase “the center of Noto” cannot read the weight this town now bears.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A port town at the head of the bay, set by the provincial office and castle of Noto and holding the sea’s hot spring
Nanao holds several functions of its own. One is the history of having remained the center of Noto — where a provincial office of the realm was set in the age of the ritsuryo codes and a mountain castle was built overlooking the bay in the age of the warring states — and the moving of that castle to a low hill near the port set the present town’s center. Another is the character of a town of port and hot spring, where, at the head of the deeply indented bay, wells a hot spring said to be the only seawater one of the Hokuriku region; through the merger it holds a municipal area encircling the bay. And the landform of the head of a deeply indented bay gathered the provincial office, the castle, the port and the sea’s hot spring into this land.
Nanao is a port town at the head of the bay, set by the provincial office and castle of Noto and holding the sea’s hot spring. From the provincial office of Noto and the mountain castle overlooking the bay, through the castle town moved near the port, to a hot spring said to be the only seawater one of the Hokuriku region — the geography of “opening onto the head of a deeply indented bay” called forth the center of Noto, called forth the port, and called forth the sea’s hot spring. At the base of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, at the head of a deeply cut bay, the provincial office, the castle town and the sea’s hot spring are gathered into one. That is the town of Nanao.
Source: Nanao City, “the Historic Site of Nanao Castle Ruins” (the seat of the Noto provincial office; the Hatakeyama clan’s Nanao Castle, fallen to Uesugi Kenshin in 1577; Maeda Toshiie’s entry in 1581; the building of Komaruyama Castle near the port in 1582, where the castle town moved — overview) / Nanao City, “Overview of Nanao City” (the 2004 new merger of the old Nanao City with Tatsuruhama, Nakajima and Notojima towns; a town of port and hot spring; Wakura Onsen — the only seawater hot spring of the Hokuriku region — overview)
05 · Atlas note — read the numbers of the port town at the head of the bay from the seams of its history
A population falling after the merger, an aging rate of 38.5%, a household-with-children share of 17.1%, fiscal capacity of 0.44. Lay out Nanao’s indicators and the numbers of the central town of the Noto Peninsula contracting come together. Because as a certified public accountant I (Atlas) am of the disposition to first check the seams of population statistics, what I want to set down is that this city’s step in population owes to the 2004 merger. The old Nanao City was 47,351 in 2000, and the 61,871 of 2005 is the result of a new merger with three neighboring towns; join the two directly and the town’s figure is misread. Setting down the value of the old city on its own, and then following the post-merger gradient, is the proper course.
On that basis, what one notices is that this town has gone on bearing the role of “the center of Noto” for more than a thousand years. The provincial office of the realm in the age of the ritsuryo codes, the mountain castle in the age of the warring states, and the town of port and hot spring in modern times are all proof that this land was the center of Noto. The moving of the castle from the mountain to near the port set the position of the present town’s center. But that role of being the center was always back to back with the constraint of lying far from the large cities under the geography of a peninsula. Remaining the center while the younger generation moves to urban areas and the population falls — this layering is proper to the central town of a peninsula. And onto it the earthquake of New Year’s Day 2024 cast its shadow over the seaside living and the bathing land. How a thousand-year center, now losing population within its post-merger municipal area, hands this role and the sea’s hot spring on to the next generation — that question, at the head of the bay at the base of Noto, will have its answer drawn out over a long time from here on.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Nanao City, “the Historic Site of Nanao Castle Ruins” (the seat of the Noto provincial office; the Hatakeyama clan’s Nanao Castle, fallen to Uesugi Kenshin in 1577; Maeda Toshiie’s entry in 1581; the building of Komaruyama Castle near the port in 1582, where the castle town moved — overview) / Nanao City, “Overview of Nanao City” (the 2004 new merger of the old Nanao City with Tatsuruhama, Nakajima and Notojima towns; a town of port and hot spring; Wakura Onsen — the only seawater hot spring of the Hokuriku region — 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 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave17_f