In ancient times, the bounty of this land’s sea was carried for the table of the capital. Fish taken in the Wakasa sea were salted, borne over the mountains to the capital, and the road came in time to be called by the name of a fish. The port town that joined the sea and the capital is now losing population. Obama-shi’s numbers are the record of a port town inscribed with a Miketsukuni — a land that carried tribute to the capital — and the starting point of a road that linked the sea and Kyoto.
A city in the southwest of Fukui Prefecture, opening out at the head of Wakasa Bay. The population has fallen gently from 33,295 in 2000, through 31,340 in 2010, to 28,991 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “the town of the Saba Kaido,” but the causal thread: how the history — the Miketsukuni, the Saba Kaido, and the port — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Obama-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about twenty-nine thousand (28,991 in 2020). Its course is a gentle decline. From 33,295 in 2000, through 32,182 in 2005, 31,340 in 2010 and 29,670 in 2015 to 28,991 in 2020, it lost more than four thousand over twenty years. A population that had passed thirty thousand fell below it.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a regional city on the Sea-of-Japan side appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.4% in 2000 to 32.0% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share was 19.7% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.42 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue does not reach half of expenditure, with a large reliance on the local allocation tax. The numbers show the port town of the Miketsukuni losing population gently and deepening in age, while keeping the Childcare Waitlist at zero. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the Miketsukuni and the Saba Kaido.
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 Miketsukuni of Wakasa, the starting point of the Saba Kaido, the port town — the history behind the numbers
Obama’s skeleton is set by Wakasa Bay, which held a rich bounty of the sea, and by the road that carried that bounty to the capital. The old layer is the Miketsukuni. In the age of the burial mounds, Wakasa is held to have been a land governed by an office in charge of the imperial table, and was counted among the Miketsukuni — the lands that delivered the bounty of the sea and salt to the capital. This role of supplying the tribute offered to the emperor goes back as far as the Nara era. The rich bounty of the sea gave this land a standing from of old.
And the road that carried that bounty to the capital ran out from this land. Along the road by which the most goods came and went, among the several roads joining Wakasa and the capital, cultural properties that tell of the traffic between the sea and the capital lie scattered, from ancient tombs to early-modern post stations. In the Edo era, the lord who governed this land set up a market as a hub of distribution, and the trade of bearing salted fish to the capital flourished. This road, by which salted fish were carried to the capital, came in time to be called by the name of that fish. The port town that became the starting point of the road grew into a harbor city where goods and people and culture gathered, as the knot between the road joined by the sea and the land road toward the capital. The port of the Miketsukuni that carried the bounty of the sea to the capital — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the sea of Wakasa Bay and of the road toward the capital.
Source: Japan Heritage Portal, “The Cultural Heritage of Wakasa’s Traffic Linking the Sea and the Capital” (the Miketsukuni and the Saba Kaido — overview, Agency for Cultural Affairs) / Obama City (Wakasa as a Miketsukuni; the origin of the Saba Kaido; the Obama market of Kyogoku Takatsugu — overview)
03 · In the port town that joined the sea and the capital, the population falls gently
What characterizes Obama-shi is that, while holding the history of being a Miketsukuni and the starting point of the Saba Kaido, it has lost population gently and deepened in age. From 33,295 in 2000 to 28,991 in 2020, it lost more than four thousand over twenty years. As the age of railways and roads came and the role of being the starting point of a road joining the sea and the land grew thin, a flow of the younger generation moving to cities can be read as continuing. As a regional city on the Sea-of-Japan side, the population has fallen gently. That the share aged 65 and over reached 32.0% in 2020, passing three in ten, is one expression of that population composition.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist has stayed at zero. Against the fallen population, the childcare capacity can be read as held. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.42 is a level whose own tax revenue does not reach even half of expenditure, with a large reliance on the local allocation tax. As a regional city on the Sea-of-Japan side founded on fishing and farming, it mirrors the limit of its own tax source. The population falls gently, aging passes three in ten, and the finances cannot cover half on their own and are upheld by the allocation tax. Even so, the childcare capacity is held. Beyond the receding of both the standing of the Miketsukuni that carried tribute to the capital and the bustle of being the starting point of the road, the port town of Wakasa stands within this balance of numbers.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The Miketsukuni that carried the bounty of the sea to the capital, and the starting point of its road
Obama is a land that, as a Miketsukuni going back to the Nara era, delivered the bounty of the sea and salt to the table of the capital. And it was also the starting point of the road that carried that bounty to the capital. The trade of bearing salted fish over the mountains to the capital flourished, and the road came in time to be called by the name of the fish it carried. Along it, cultural properties that tell of the traffic between the sea and the capital remain scattered, from ancient tombs to early-modern post stations.
The bounty of the Wakasa Bay sea, and the nearness of the capital once the mountains were crossed — this geography gave a single port town two roles: the standing of a Miketsukuni delivering tribute, and the starting point of the road that carried it. The road joined by the sea and the land road toward the capital met at this port. Even after the flow of people moved to land and rail routes and the role of being the starting point of the road grew thin, the food culture of the Miketsukuni that carried fish to the capital is still carried on within the living of Wakasa.
Source: Japan Heritage Portal, “The Cultural Heritage of Wakasa’s Traffic Linking the Sea and the Capital” (the Miketsukuni and the Saba Kaido — overview, Agency for Cultural Affairs) / Obama City (Wakasa as a Miketsukuni; the origin of the Saba Kaido; the Obama market of Kyogoku Takatsugu — overview)
05 · Atlas note — read the port town of the Miketsukuni through its function as a knot
A gentle population decline, an aging rate of 32.0%, a household-with-children share of 19.7%, fiscal capacity of 0.42. Lay out Obama’s indicators and the numbers of a regional city on the Sea-of-Japan side come together. What I (Atlas) want to read in this town is that Obama flourished by the function of being a “knot.” As the knot between the road joined by the sea and the land road toward the capital, goods and people and culture all gathered at this port. It did not merely hold much of the bounty of the sea itself; the function of being the starting point of the road that carried it to the capital gave this town its standing and its bustle.
But the function of a knot loses its footing once that flow moves. As the age of railways and roads came and the role of the road joining the sea and the land grew thin, the bustle of being a starting point receded too. In the figure of a fiscal capacity of 0.42 — not reaching half of expenditure on its own — the limit of the tax source held by a port town after that function has thinned appears. On the other hand, the history of being a Miketsukuni that carried the bounty of the sea to the capital still remains in the town as a food culture. Some read this town with the standing of the Miketsukuni placed before them; others call to mind the bustle of the starting point of the Saba Kaido. Both Obamas lie at the same head of Wakasa Bay, and stand upon the same question: how a town that flourished as the pivot of a flow goes on living once that flow has moved. The image of the answer will be drawn quite differently depending on which land one looks at this port from.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Japan Heritage Portal, “The Cultural Heritage of Wakasa’s Traffic Linking the Sea and the Capital” (the Miketsukuni and the Saba Kaido — overview, Agency for Cultural Affairs) / Obama City (Wakasa as a Miketsukuni; the origin of the Saba Kaido; the Obama market of Kyogoku Takatsugu — 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: wave13_1