This town’s eyewear-making began from the question of how to live through the winter, when snow shut the village in and the income from farming ran dry. One leading figure of the village rooted eyewear-making in the village as a winter side-trade, and it grew in time into an industry that makes the majority of the country’s eyewear frames. This town, once a castle town, has moved while adding population. Sabae-shi’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with eyewear-making that began from a winter side-trade, and with a castle town.
A city near the center of Fukui Prefecture, opening out at the south of the Fukui Plain. The population has risen gently, from 64,898 in 2000, through 67,450 in 2010, to 68,302 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “the town of eyewear,” but the causal thread: how the history — eyewear-making that began from a winter side-trade, and a castle town — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Sabae-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about sixty-eight thousand (68,302 in 2020). Its course is, rare for a regional city, a gentle increase. From 64,898 in 2000, through 66,831 in 2005, 67,450 in 2010 and 68,284 in 2015 to 68,302 in 2020, it added about three thousand four hundred over twenty years. Amid regional cities for which decline is ordinary, it is extending its population.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a town of manufacturing appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 18.5% in 2000 to 27.5% in 2020, but it is on the restrained side among regional cities. The household-with-children share was 27.7% in 2020 — high even among the towns treated in this article. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.66 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers a little over six-tenths of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. The numbers show the town of eyewear adding population while keeping a high household-with-children share. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of eyewear-making and the castle town.
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 castle town of the Sabae Domain, eyewear as a winter side-trade, the majority of the country — the history behind the numbers
Sabae’s skeleton is set by its making as a castle town and by an industry born of the deep-snow winter. The old layer is the castle town. In the Edo era, this land became the castle town of the Sabae Domain, whose lords were the Manabe family, and flourished as a center of government and economy. This town, which took city status in 1955, spreads with that castle-town land at its center.
And what made this town known across the country is eyewear-making. In this farm village, deep in snow, where the income from the fields ran dry in winter, how to uphold that winter living was a question from of old. In 1905, Gozaemon Masunaga, a leading figure of the village, thought, together with his younger brother, to root eyewear-making in the village as a winter side-trade for the season when farming ran dry. They invited craftsmen from urban areas to teach the villagers the technique, and eyewear-making sprouted on this land. Riding the flow of an age when the demand for eyewear grew along with the spread of printing and education, the technique was honed. In time this town came to account for the majority of the country’s production of metal eyewear frames. Its products hold a certain place in the world market too. Alongside this, the making of commercial lacquerware has continued as a specialty of this town. Beginning from a snow-bound farm village’s winter side-trade and growing into eyewear-making that bears the majority of the country — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a castle town and eyewear-making that the geography of a deep-snow land took in.
Source: Megane Museum, “The History of the Eyewear Region of Fukui and Sabae” (the brothers Gozaemon Masunaga, 1905; eyewear as a winter side-trade — overview) / Sabae City (the castle town of the Sabae Domain under the Manabe family; city status in 1955; the majority of Japan’s eyewear frames and a share of the world market; lacquerware — overview)
03 · In the town of manufacturing, the population grows
What characterizes Sabae-shi is that, while holding the history of eyewear-making that began from a winter side-trade and of a castle town, it is — rare for a regional city — adding population. From 64,898 in 2000 to 68,302 in 2020, it added about three thousand four hundred over twenty years. In this town, where manufacturing such as lacquerware and textiles gathers around eyewear-making, workplaces have been kept a certain thickness. Together with the convenience of the Fukui Plain’s transport, those workplaces can be read as upholding the living of young households and extending the population. That the share aged 65 and over was 27.5% in 2020, restrained among regional cities, is one expression of that.
On the other hand, the household-with-children share was high at 27.7% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The work of manufacturing can be read as having held a certain share of young households to the town. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.66 is a level whose own tax revenue covers a little over six-tenths of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. The establishments of eyewear and lacquerware can be read as giving a certain thickness to the tax source. The population added about three thousand four hundred over twenty years, aging stayed restrained among regional cities, and the household-with-children share passes twenty-seven percent. Amid regional cities for which decline is ordinary, what upholds these is the thickness of workplaces in which lacquerware and textile manufacturing gather around the eyewear-making raised from a winter side-trade. Sabae’s numbers stand upon that thickness.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · From a winter side-trade to eyewear-making that bears the majority of the country
Sabae flourished as the castle town of the Sabae Domain under the Manabe family, a center of government and economy. Upon that castle-town land, one more face is laid. In this farm village, deep in snow, where the income from the fields ran dry in winter, a leading figure of the village rooted eyewear-making in 1905 as a winter side-trade. It grew in time to account for the majority of the country’s production of metal eyewear frames, and its products hold a certain place in the world market. The making of commercial lacquerware has continued too as a specialty of this town.
In a deep-snow land, the income from farming ran dry in winter — and the judgment of one person, who sought to make good that disadvantage with another handicraft, gave birth, more than a hundred years on, to a production region that bears the majority of the country. Upon a land that opened as a castle town, eyewear-making, born of the question of how to live through the winter, was laid, and Sabae became a town of manufacturing. The disadvantage of a winter shut in by snow, on the contrary, raised this town into a production region known across the country.
Source: Megane Museum, “The History of the Eyewear Region of Fukui and Sabae” (the brothers Gozaemon Masunaga, 1905; eyewear as a winter side-trade — overview) / Sabae City (the castle town of the Sabae Domain under the Manabe family; city status in 1955; the majority of Japan’s eyewear frames and a share of the world market; lacquerware — overview)
05 · Atlas note — the numbers of the town of eyewear, from what question did they begin
A growing population, an aging rate of 27.5%, a household-with-children share of 27.7%, fiscal capacity of 0.66. Lay out Sabae’s indicators and, for a regional city, robust numbers come together. What I (Atlas), who have followed numbers with an accountant’s eye, want to read is the link between the population adding about three thousand four hundred over twenty years and the high household-with-children share. To extend the population in a regional city, where decline is ordinary, can be read as owing to the fact that, around eyewear-making, manufacturing such as lacquerware and textiles gathers, and workplaces have been kept a certain thickness. The workplaces of an industry rooted in the locality hold young households to the town and uphold the population and the household-with-children share.
Then, from what question did that eyewear-making begin? In this land, deep in snow, where the income from the fields ran dry in winter, the pressing question of how to uphold that running-dry season drew eyewear-making to a leading figure of the village in 1905. The judgment that sought to make good one land’s disadvantage with another industry gave birth, more than a hundred years on, to a production region that bears the majority of the country. That said, a town rooted deeply in a single industry can have its footing shaken when that industry is exposed to overseas competition or to shifts in demand. How to hand on to the next generation the industry raised from the question of “how to live through the winter” — the same question is being returned to this town once more, in a changed form. Just as a winter shut in by snow gave rise to the industry of eyewear, its answer too will rise, perhaps, from within the hands of the people of this land.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Megane Museum, “The History of the Eyewear Region of Fukui and Sabae” (the brothers Gozaemon Masunaga, 1905; eyewear as a winter side-trade — overview) / Sabae City (the castle town of the Sabae Domain under the Manabe family; city status in 1955; the majority of Japan’s eyewear frames and a share of the world market; lacquerware — 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: wave14_4