Kawakami-mura

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 4,300 (4,344 in 2020). From 4,908 in 2000 it rose once to 4,972 in 2010, by way of 4,759 in 2005, then through 4,607 in 2015 reached 4,344 in 2020 — holding around four thousand. While mountain villages lose two or three in ten of their people over twenty years, Kawakami’s decline has been on the gentle side.

Look into the makeup and the figure of a village that staked itself on highland vegetables appears, moving against the other indicators. The share aged 65 and over rose only about five points over twenty years, from 22.4% in 2000 to 27.5% in 2020, and where the mountain villages around it pass four in ten, here it does not reach three. This is strikingly low among the mountain towns and villages of Minamisaku. The share of households with children was 24.3% in 2020, high for an inland town or village. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.26 in FY2023. The figure of the poorest mountain village, which by becoming a village of highland vegetables held young households in place and kept its aging lower than its neighbors, shows in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the land island and the highland vegetables.

The poverty once called a “land island.” The height above 1,000 meters. And the turn to highland vegetables. These three set the shape of the village called Kawakami. The starting layer is poverty. This highland, forming the headwaters of a long river, was cut off far from the lowlands; its winters were long and harsh, and it did not suit growing rice as a lowland would. To be called a “land island,” among the prefecture’s most inaccessible and poorest mountain villages — that was this village’s long point of departure.

But that height and coolness turned, at a certain point, into a weapon. After the war, as demand rose for vegetables that grow in highlands cool even in summer, this village staked itself on that cultivation. Once the growing techniques were established and a system for cooling the harvested vegetables and shipping them was in place, the village’s fields changed their shape into one of the country’s foremost highland-vegetable producing areas. Vegetables hard to grow in summer in the lowlands could be harvested in summer in the cool fields at 1,000 meters — the very height that had once blocked rice became, just as it was, the village’s strength as a producing area. The poorest of mountain villages turned into a village where young households stay, whose village office stands at the highest elevation in the country. A height unsuited to rice was re-read as fields of highland vegetables — upon that history the present of this village stands.

What characterizes Kawakami is that, while carrying the history of having been called a “land island,” it has, through the turn to highland vegetables, held young households in place and kept its aging lower than the villages around it. From 4,908 in 2000 to 4,344 in 2020 the population held around four thousand, and in 2010 it even recovered once. While mountain villages lose population one after another and push aging past four in ten, that Kawakami’s share aged 65 and over does not reach three in ten in 2020 (27.5%) can be read to mean that the livelihood of highland vegetables has given young households a way to make a living in this village. Highland vegetables, which require taking over the fields and many hands during the summer harvest, hold the power to keep young workers on this highland.

On the other hand, the share of households with children was 24.3% in 2020, high for an inland town or village, and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.26 in FY2023, covering only a little over a quarter of expenditure with its own tax revenue. This shows two faces at once: the strength of the producing area connects directly to the richness of the villagers’ livelihoods, while in the village’s tax structure it appears as the figure of a small village. A population held around four thousand, aging that stays below three in ten, a share of households with children high for an inland area — these are separate indicators, but all extend from the same single history: “the poorest mountain village held young households with highland vegetables.” Pull out any one figure on its own and gaze at it, and the image of this village will not form.

Kawakami carries several distinctive histories. One is its starting point: a highland above 1,000 meters forming the headwaters of a long river, once called a “land island,” among the prefecture’s most inaccessible and poorest mountain villages. Another is the turn by which that height and coolness were re-read after the war as a strength as a highland-vegetable producing area, the village becoming one of the country’s leading producers and the one whose office stands at the highest elevation in Japan. At the root of this village lies a re-reading of terrain in which the very height that blocked rice became, just as it was, the strength of fields whose vegetables are harvested in summer.

Kawakami is the village where a height unsuited to rice was re-read as fields of highland vegetables. From the poverty called a land island, to highland vegetables at 1,000 meters, to a population that keeps its youth — the geography of “a highland at 1,000 meters forming the headwaters of a long river” once made the village poor, and now sustains it as a producing area whose vegetables are harvested in summer. The same height made the village the poorest of mountain villages in one era and a producing area where young households stay in another. The memory of being called a land island and the present of the highland-vegetable fields both branch from the single condition of an elevation of 1,000 meters.