Fukuroi-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 88,000 (87,864 in 2020). To read this city’s population, one must take the merger into account. In 2005 Fukuroi incorporated a neighboring town and widened its city area. The population of the former Fukuroi alone, before the incorporation, was 59,835 in 2000; on the merged city area it was 82,991 in 2005. The step in the population between 2000 and 2005 in this article reflects the expansion of the city area by that incorporation. From there, through 84,846 in 2010 and 85,789 in 2015 to 87,864 in 2020, it has consistently increased since the merger.

Looking inside the figures, the form of a city opening onto the Tokaido plain appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 16.1% in 2000 to 25.4% in 2020, but amid the many provincial cities nearing four in ten, it stays at the middle of the twenties. The household-with-children share is rather high at 22.5% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.81 in fiscal 2023 — an above-median level whose own tax revenue can cover eight-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a city taking the dead-center station of the Tokaido as its starting point, consistently increasing its population after the incorporation, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the Tokaido station and the temple gate.

This city’s skeleton is set by the history of the dead-center station of the Tokaido, by the gate of the nearby mountain temple, and by the incorporation of a neighboring town. The starting layer is the station. This city’s central town was the station that lay exactly at the center of the fifty-three stages of the Tokaido. As the station exactly in the middle counted from both Edo and Kyoto, travelers caught their breath here. It is handed down that several honjin were placed and inns lined up. The dead-center station of the Tokaido was this city’s old center.

Upon this station was layered the gate of a mountain temple. In this land there was an old temple counted as one of the three mountain temples of Enshu, and together with the travelers coming and going along the post road, people who came to worship at the temple also stopped here. The Tokaido station and the gate of the mountain temple drew in the coming and going of people. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this city. In 2005, this city, taking the post station as its starting point, incorporated a neighboring town and widened its present city area. The flat land of Enshu is also a land producing tea and fruit. The dead-center station of the Tokaido, the gate of an Enshu mountain temple, the incorporation of a neighboring town, and the plain of tea and fruit — this city’s shape stands upon the history of the post town and the temple gate held by the dead-center station of the Tokaido.

What characterizes Fukuroi is that, while holding the history of the dead-center station of the Tokaido, it has consistently increased its population after the incorporation. From 82,991 in 2005 on the merged city area to 87,864 in 2020, it rose by about five thousand in fifteen years. Behind the fact that, while many provincial cities lose population, this city has gone on increasing, can be read this: at the position of the Tokaido plain, the livelihoods of industry and agriculture between the great cities spread out, and households raising children moved in. That the share aged 65 and over stays in the middle of the twenties at 25.4% in 2020, and that the household-with-children share is rather high at 22.5%, are expressions of that.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. It can be read that, even as households raising children move in, the childcare capacity has caught up with demand. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.81 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover eight-tenths of expenditure, above the median. It can be read that the plain producing tea and fruit, and the manufacturing livelihoods located here, support the tax source above the median. The city taking the dead-center station of the Tokaido as its starting point still consistently increases its population after the incorporation. The population has consistently increased after the merger, the aging is in the middle of the twenties, and the fiscal stamina is above the median. The rising population, the youth and the thickness of the tax source branch off from a single foundation — manufacturing workplaces layered upon the plain of tea and fruit.

Fukuroi holds several functions of its own. One is the history of opening at the land exactly in the middle counted from both Edo and Kyoto, as the station that lay exactly at the center of the fifty-three stages of the Tokaido. Another is its character of holding nearby one of the three mountain temples of Enshu, drawing in the coming and going of people of the post town and the temple gate. And the flat land of Enshu, as a landform, spread across this city both the Tokaido station and the fields producing tea and fruit.

Fukuroi is a city where the dead-center station of the Tokaido became a city on the plain producing tea and fruit. From the dead-center station of the Tokaido, to the gate of the mountain temple, the incorporation of a neighboring town, and the plain of tea and fruit — the geography of "the flat land of Enshu" set down the Tokaido station and spread the fields of tea and fruit across the whole plain. Exactly in the middle counted from both Edo and Kyoto, at the center of the fifty-three stages, travelers caught their breath here. That advantage of being at the center of the comings and goings still gathers people on the plain of tea and fruit.