Wajima-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about twenty-five thousand (24,608 in 2020). This city’s population has a step from the merger. Wajima City merged in 2006 the old Wajima City and Monzen town to become a municipal area spreading over the tip of the Noto Peninsula. The old Wajima City before the merger was 26,381 in 2000 and 25,301 in 2005; after the merger it became 29,858 in 2010, including Monzen town, and from there, through 27,216 in 2015 to 24,608 in 2020, it has fallen gently since the merger.

Looking inside the figures, in the manner of a city at the tip of Noto, the decline of population and aging advance deeply. The share aged 65 and over reached 46.0% in 2020, drawing near a half. The household-with-children share is very low at 12.4%, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.24 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers only about a quarter of expenditure, with a very large reliance on the allocation tax. Note that all of these Census numbers are from before the Noto Peninsula Earthquake of New Year’s Day 2024. The numbers show the town of lacquerware losing population and deepening in age before the earthquake. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of Wajima-nuri and the tip of Noto.

What makes Wajima up is the geography of the tip of the Noto Peninsula and the lacquerware craft handed down there. Wajima-nuri is the lacquerware made in this land, which lays thick undercoats over the wooden base to hold both sturdiness and beauty together — and in particular, mixing finely crushed diatomaceous-earth powder (jinoko) into the lacquer for the undercoat is the mark of Wajima-nuri. This craft, handed down for hundreds of years, is designated a national Important Intangible Cultural Property and is, overseas, also called “japan” — one of Japan’s representative lacquerwares. At the tip of a peninsula, a land where people and goods do not move to and fro easily, a lacquerware tradition of its own was polished.

This town changes its shape in 2006. The old Wajima City merged with Monzen town, known as the temple gate (monzen) of Sojiji, and a municipal area spreading over the tip of the Noto Peninsula was born. To the town of lacquerware was added a Zen temple-gate town.

And on January 1, 2024, this town was beset by a great calamity. The Noto Peninsula Earthquake occurred, and in Wajima City a maximum seismic intensity of 7 was recorded. On the street of the morning market a large-scale fire broke out, buildings collapsed in many places, and the town suffered catastrophic damage. Many of the businesses of Wajima-nuri were stricken as well. Polishing the tradition of lacquerware at the tip of a peninsula, merging with a temple-gate town, and being beset by the earthquake — the history of lacquerware that the geography of the tip of the Noto Peninsula took in lies at the foundation of today’s Wajima.

What characterizes Wajima-shi is that, while holding a representative lacquerware tradition of Japan, as a city at the tip of Noto it had already been losing population heavily before the earthquake. From 2010, just after the merger, to 2020, it lost a little over five thousand, and the share aged 65 and over drew near a half at 46.0%. Because of the geography of the tip of a peninsula, a flow of the younger generation moving to cities such as Kanazawa runs strong, and the decline of population and the deepening of aging can be read as having advanced at a steep gradient. The low household-with-children share of 12.4% is one expression of that population composition.

That contraction appears in the fiscal figures too. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.24 is a level whose own tax revenue covers only about a quarter of expenditure, with a very large reliance on the allocation tax. Against the administrative expenditure that tends to run high because of the geography of the tip of a peninsula, it mirrors the limit on the tax source of a town with a fallen population. What I want to hold down here again is that all of these numbers are from before the Noto Peninsula Earthquake of New Year’s Day 2024. The damage from the earthquake is not reflected in these Census numbers. The town of lacquerware had already been losing population and deepening in age before the earthquake — that the disaster was laid on top of it is the order in time. Population fell, aging draws near a half, the stamina of finances is weak, and yet all those numbers are from before the disaster — mistake the order in time and Wajima’s numbers are misread. From a single sheet of statistics, the present image after the disaster cannot yet be drawn.

Wajima holds several functions of its own. One is the history of Wajima-nuri, the Important Intangible Cultural Property that uses jinoko for its undercoat, with its origin of having polished a lacquerware tradition of its own at the tip of a peninsula. Another is the character of a town where the morning market stands and the temple-gate town of Sojiji, which keeps the memory of a Zen temple gate laid over lacquerware. And the history of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake of 2024 inscribes in this town a heavy recent memory, as a town beset by a maximum seismic intensity of 7.

Wajima is a town that polished the tradition of lacquerware at the tip of a peninsula. From the lacquerware town of Wajima-nuri, to a town that merged with a temple-gate town, to a town beset by the earthquake — the geography of “opening onto the tip of the Noto Peninsula” called forth a lacquerware tradition of its own within the remove where people and goods do not move to and fro easily. At the tip of the Noto Peninsula, on a land that juts out toward the sea, the craft of Wajima-nuri, of hundreds of years, has put down roots. That is the town of Wajima.