Minamimaki-mura

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 3,200 (3,242 in 2020). From 3,540 in 2000, through 3,494 in 2005, 3,528 in 2010 and 3,408 in 2015, it reached 3,242 in 2020 — a decline of only about three hundred over twenty years, holding around three thousand.

Look into the makeup and the figure of a highland-vegetable village on the eastern foot of a volcano appears. The share aged 65 and over rose only about five points over twenty years, from 25.7% in 2000 to 30.7% in 2020, having only just passed three in ten. Where the mountain villages around it pass four in ten, the gentleness of this rise stands out. The share of households with children was 19.8% in 2020. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.28 in FY2023. The figure of a village of highland vegetables and the keeping of cattle, holding its population around three thousand and keeping the rise in aging gentle, shows in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the highland, the vegetables and the railway.

The terrain of a cold upland on the eastern foot of a volcano. Highland vegetables and the keeping of cattle. And the railway that runs at the highest elevation in the country. The shape of Minamimaki is made of these three combined. The starting layer is the cold upland. This highland spreading across the eastern foot of a volcano lies at a height of 1,000 to 1,500 meters, is cool even in summer, and has a low annual mean temperature. Its winters are long and harsh, but that coolness became the condition that turned vegetables hard to grow in summer in the lowlands into crops harvested in summer. The cold upland on the eastern foot of the volcano was this village’s foundation.

Upon that cold upland ride two livelihoods. One is highland-vegetable cultivation drawing on the cool summer climate. Alongside the headwaters village next door, this village’s fields became one of the foremost highland-vegetable producing areas in the country. The other is the keeping and milking of cattle. The wide grasslands of the highland supported that livelihood. And on the railway that runs across this highland stands the highest-elevation station in the country, and near the boundary with the neighboring prefecture a marker stands at the highest point of that railway. The height on the eastern foot of the volcano turned a coolness unsuited to rice into the strength of summer-harvested vegetables and wide-grassland pasture — upon that history the present of this village stands.

What characterizes Minamimaki is that, while carrying the history of a cold upland on the eastern foot of a volcano, it has held its population around three thousand. From 3,540 in 2000 to 3,242 in 2020, the decline over twenty years stayed at about three hundred. While mountain villages lose population one after another, that this village could hold around three thousand can be read to mean that two livelihoods — highland vegetables and the keeping of cattle — have given young households a way to make a living on this highland. Both the fields and the pasture require many hands and hold the power to keep young workers on this highland.

On the other hand, the share aged 65 and over was 30.7% in 2020, having only just passed three in ten, and where the mountain villages around it pass four in ten, its rise is gentle. The share of households with children was 19.8% in 2020, and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.28 in FY2023, not reaching three in ten of expenditure from its own tax revenue — but this too is a sign that the strength of a producing area does not readily mirror itself in the figure of a small village’s Fiscal Capacity Index. A population held around three thousand, a gentle rise in aging, a Fiscal Capacity Index staying at the level of a small village. These three are separate figures, yet each is an appearance of the same single history: “drawing on the summer coolness as a weapon, it became a village of vegetables and pasture.” To look at only one indicator pulled out on its own is not enough for the image to form.

Minamimaki carries several distinctive histories. One is the terrain of a cold upland of 1,000 to 1,500 meters spreading across the eastern foot of a volcano, cool even in summer and with long, harsh winters. Another is its character of turning, with that summer coolness as a weapon, vegetables hard to grow in summer in the lowlands into crops harvested in summer, becoming alongside the headwaters village next door one of the foremost highland-vegetable producing areas in the country, and thriving as well at the keeping of cattle. And on the railway that runs across this highland it holds the highest-elevation station in the country and the highest point of that railway. The terrain of a height on the eastern foot of the volcano turned a coolness unsuited to rice into the strength of summer-harvested vegetables and wide-grassland pasture.

Minamimaki is the village where a height on the eastern foot of a volcano became, with the summer coolness as a weapon, a village of vegetables and pasture. From the cold upland on the eastern foot of Yatsugatake, to highland vegetables and dairy farming, to the highest railway in the country — the geography of “a highland above 1,000 meters on the eastern foot of a volcano” made a coolness unsuited to rice be re-read as the strength of summer-harvested vegetables and pasture. The fields of the cold upland, the pasture of the wide grasslands, and the railway running at the highest elevation in the country all extend from the single condition of the summer coolness. In some lands coolness makes a village poor, yet this village turned it into the foundation of two livelihoods.