A little over a hundred years ago, from the station at this port one could change between ship and railway and reach Europe. The port opening onto the Sea of Japan was long a node joining the west and east of Honshu, and the continent beyond. Tsuruga-shi’s numbers are the record of a Sea-of-Japan town that has walked as a gateway where port and railway cross.
A port town in the southwest of Fukui Prefecture, facing Tsuruga Bay at the head of Wakasa Bay. The population fell gently from about sixty-eight thousand in 2000 to 64,264 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the present headline “a town the Shinkansen reached,” but the causal thread: how the history — the port, the international connection, and the founding of the city — is translated into today’s population and number of children.
01 · See the present Tsuruga-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about sixty-four thousand (64,264 in 2020). From 68,145 in 2000 it has fallen gently by about four thousand over twenty years. It is not a sharp plunge, but it lies within the quiet contraction shared by regional cities that lose population.
What I want to note here is that the number of children is falling faster than the total population. Those under 15 fell by a little over two thousand nine hundred — nearly three in ten — over twenty years, from 11,032 in 2000 to 8,110 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 18.6% in 2000 to 28.7% in 2020. The household-with-children share is 20.5% (2020). The elementary schools have fallen steadily from nineteen in the 2000s to eleven in recent years. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.86 in fiscal 2023. The numbers show, behind the gentle decline of the total population, the figure of a regional city where children fall faster than that. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of port and railway.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT) / Local Government Finance Survey (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
02 · The port, the international connection, the founding of the city — the history behind the numbers
Tsuruga’s skeleton is set by a port opening onto the Sea of Japan and by the railways that gathered there. From of old, this port at the head of Wakasa Bay served as a node for the ships plying the Sea of Japan and for joining the west and east of Honshu. And in the modern age a railway was laid here. In 1884 the stretch to Nagahama was joined by rail, and Tsuruga became one of the starting points of the railways of the Hokuriku region. The node where port and railway meet became this town’s foundation.
That port and railway came, in time, to bear an international role joining Japan and Europe. In 1912 the “Euro-Asia International Connecting Train” ran: from Shimbashi to Kanegasaki (later Tsurugako Station) by rail, from Tsuruga Port to Vladivostok by sea, and from there to points across Europe by the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Japanese gateway by which one went toward Europe, changing between ship and railway from Tokyo, was Tsuruga. A port town on the Sea of Japan served as a door to the continent and to Europe.
As such a town of port and railway, Tsuruga founded its city in 1937. And as the ages passed, in 2024 the Hokuriku Shinkansen extended from Kanazawa to this Tsuruga, and the town again became a railway node. Beginning as a port on the Sea of Japan, becoming a starting point of the railways of Hokuriku, bearing the gateway to Europe, and welcoming the terminus of the Shinkansen — this town’s shape stands upon the history of port and railway.
Source: Tsuruga City (the town of railway and port — the Euro-Asia International Connecting Train) / Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Heritage (the railway that crossed the sea — Tsuruga Port and its international connection) / Tsuruga City / Tsurugako Station (history; the origin of the Hokuriku Line; the Euro-Asia connection; the founding of the city; the Shinkansen — overview)
03 · People fall, and children fall faster still
What characterizes Tsuruga-shi is that, while the total population falls gently, the number of children falls faster than that. Against a fall of about four thousand in the total over twenty years, those under 15 fell by nearly three in ten. That children fall faster than the total is a shape typical of regional cities, where the thinning of births and the outflow of the younger generation work at once.
The figures of living infrastructure mirror this transition too. The elementary schools have fallen steadily, in step with the fall of children, from nineteen in the 2000s to eleven in recent years. This is the advance of consolidation reflecting the decline of children itself, not arising from a merger. The Childcare Waitlist has stayed at zero in recent years, but this includes the side of being the outcome of the very number of children to be enrolled thinning, as the absolute number of children falls. The total population falls gently, children fall faster still, and the elementary schools thin from nineteen to eleven. While keeping its nature as a node of comings and goings that flourished by port and railway, Tsuruga’s numbers are inscribed with an order of contraction in which the fall of children runs ahead. Even with the same zero waitlist, the meaning is turned inside out between a town where children increase and this town.
Source: Basic School Survey (MEXT) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
04 · Railways gathered at the port, and it became a door to the continent and Europe
Tsuruga, as a port at the head of Wakasa Bay, has from of old joined the ships plying the Sea of Japan with the east and west of Honshu. There a railway was laid in the modern age, and by the end of the Meiji era a connecting train ran: from Shimbashi to Tsuruga Port by rail, from Tsuruga Port to Vladivostok by sea, and on to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Japanese door by which one went toward Europe, changing between ship and railway from Tokyo, was this town.
Beginning as a port on the Sea of Japan, becoming a starting point of the railways of Hokuriku, bearing the gateway to Europe, and then, in 2024, welcoming the terminus of the Hokuriku Shinkansen. From the gathering of railways at the port, the function of a node has appeared in a different guise in each age. The port town from which, changing between ship and rail, one could reach Europe lives on as a crossing of the comings and goings of people and goods even in the age of the Shinkansen.
Source: Tsuruga City / Tsurugako Station (history; the origin of the Hokuriku Line; the Euro-Asia connection; the founding of the city; the Shinkansen — overview) / Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan Heritage (the railway that crossed the sea — Tsuruga Port and its international connection)
05 · Atlas note — read the numbers of the town of port and railway as the rise and fall of a node
A gentle decline in population, a fast fall of children, advancing aging, fiscal capacity of 0.86. Lay out Tsuruga’s indicators and the numbers of a regional city where the fall of children runs ahead come together. Within these, where my (Atlas’s) accounting eye stops is the fiscal capacity of 0.86, a fairly high level for a regional city. That a port town of about sixty thousand can cover more than eight-tenths of its expenditure with its own tax revenue can be read, as the proper course, as the siting of large-scale facilities, beginning with a power station, giving thickness to the tax source. The contracting indicators of a gentle population decline and a fast fall of children, and the high-side fiscal capacity of 0.86, dwell together in the same town.
This town’s role has appeared in a different guise in each age. As a port at the head of Wakasa Bay it joined the ships of the Sea of Japan with the east and west of Honshu, and in the Meiji era it became the Japanese gateway of the connecting train that ran from Tsuruga Port to Vladivostok and on to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Railway. The port town from which, changing between ship and rail, one could reach Europe welcomed the terminus of the Hokuriku Shinkansen in 2024 and stood again as a railway node. The starting point that railways gathered at the port has called the function of a node back, again and again, over more than a hundred years, from the Euro-Asia connection to the Shinkansen. The present numbers, in which children fall first, and the long history of bearing the role of a node, ride upon separate spans of time. The width of time that the statistics of a mere five years cannot reach is held by this port town beneath its feet.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Tsuruga City / Tsurugako Station (history; the origin of the Hokuriku Line; the Euro-Asia connection; the founding of the city; the Shinkansen — overview) / Tsuruga City (the town of railway and port — the Euro-Asia International Connecting Train)
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 2026-05-29)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave8e_0