Minamiaiki-mura

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 960 (962 in 2020). From 1,584 in 2000, through 1,151 in 2005, 1,121 in 2010 and 1,005 in 2015, it reached 962 in 2020 — falling below a thousand over twenty years, with some six hundred lost.

Look into the makeup and the figure of a small village where settlements are scattered through a long narrow valley appears. The share aged 65 and over rose about eleven points over twenty years, from 29.2% in 2000 to 40.7% in 2020, passing four in ten. The share of households with children was 18.1% in 2020. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.61 in FY2023 — covering a little over six in ten of expenditure with its own tax revenue, a high level for a small village. A village where settlements are scattered through a long narrow valley, reducing its population below a thousand and pushing aging past four in ten, while its Fiscal Capacity Index is high for a small village — that seemingly ill-matched figure shows in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the valley, the settlements and the splitting off of the village.

The terrain of a single long, narrow valley running east to west. Settlements scattered along the river. And the history of a village splitting off, named after a warring-states lord. The shape of Minamiaiki is set by these three. The starting layer is the valley. This village forms a single long, narrow valley running east to west, about 80% of whose total area is taken up by forest and wasteland. The flat land where people live opens only a little along the river that flows through the valley, and some ten settlements string out, scattered along that narrow riverside. The terrain of a long narrow valley east to west set the shape of this village’s living.

The name of this valley village comes from the lord who ruled this area in the age of warring states. In that age, one village in this area split into north and south, and its southern part came into being as this village. In a long narrow valley closed in by mountains, people grew vegetables at a height of 1,000 meters and raised forests of Japanese larch as they lived. In this valley, poor in flat land and unable to draw any large industry, farming and forestry stayed the axes of living. In a long narrow valley closed in by mountains, the riverside settlements lived by farming and forestry — upon that history the present of this village stands.

What characterizes Minamiaiki is that, while carrying the history of a long narrow valley and scattered settlements, it has reduced its population below a thousand over twenty years. From 1,584 in 2000 to 962 in 2020, some six hundred — nearly four in ten — were lost over twenty years. With about 80% of its total area forest and wasteland and only a little flat land for living along the river, this valley cannot take residential or industrial land as a lowland city does, and is hard put to make a place for the young generation to stay. In a long narrow valley closed in by mountains, the outflow of population has continued, it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over reached 40.7% in 2020, past four in ten, is the consequence.

On the other hand, the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.61 in FY2023, high for a small village of under a thousand. This can be read as a sign that when a village holds a tax source large relative to its size, the Fiscal Capacity Index comes out high even though the population is small. The Fiscal Capacity Index is a measure separate from the richness or youth of a village’s living, and the figure of aging 40.7% and fiscal capacity 0.61 standing together in the same village shows well the difference between those two measures. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the share of households with children was 18.1% in 2020. A population fallen below a thousand, aging past four in ten, and yet a fiscal capacity high for a small village. These figures, lined up seemingly ill-matched, all come out of the same condition: “a long narrow valley 80% of which is forest and wasteland.” Read only one indicator pulled out on its own, and the image will instead be distorted.

Minamiaiki carries several distinctive histories. One is its terrain: a single long, narrow valley running east to west, about 80% of whose total area is forest and wasteland, where life has been carried on in some ten settlements scattered along the river. Another is its history of holding a village name after the lord who ruled this area in the age of warring states, having been born when one village split into north and south. The terrain of a long narrow valley closed in by mountains gave the village almost no flat land, and turned the people toward the riverside settlements and toward a living of farming and forestry.

Minamiaiki is the village where settlements along the river lived by farming and forestry in a long narrow valley closed in by mountains. From a long narrow valley east to west, to the settlements along the river, to the warring-states lord and the splitting off of the village, to a population fallen below a thousand — the geography of “a valley long and narrow east to west, about 80% forest and wasteland” set the village’s population and the shape of its living by leaving only a little flat land for people along the river. The very arrangement of some ten settlements strung out along the narrow riverside still quietly speaks, even now, of the constraint of this valley that has no flat land.