Handa-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 118,000 (117,884 in 2020). Its trajectory is almost flat. From 110,837 in 2000, through 115,845 in 2005, 118,828 in 2010 and 116,908 in 2015 to 117,884 in 2020, it has moved over twenty years without greatly collapsing.

Looking inside the figures, the form fitting a mid-sized city of over a hundred thousand appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 14.6% in 2000 to 24.3% in 2020, but amid the many provincial cities nearing four in ten, it stays at the middle of the twenties and keeps its youth. The household-with-children share is high at 22.2% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.96 in fiscal 2023 — a high level near one, whose own tax revenue can cover nearly all expenditure. The figure of a brewing town that shipped vinegar to Edo, keeping its population while retaining its youth and fiscal stamina, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the cargo ships and kasu vinegar.

This town’s skeleton is set by the cargo ships that carried goods to Edo, and by the brewing that grew upon that advantage of the land. The foundational layer is the cargo ships. In the Edo era, in this land at the base of the peninsula, sake-making thrived, and the town’s ships carried the sake and vinegar they made across the sea to Edo, a great consuming center. The advantage of this land, open to the sea, opened a road to deliver what was brewed to a distant market, and nurtured the town as a land of brewing.

Upon these cargo ships and this brewing, a single invention was layered. The master of a certain brewing house in this town created, from the lees left after pressing sake, a vinegar far cheaper than the rice vinegar then widely used. At just that time, in Edo, nigiri-zushi — fish placed on rice seasoned with vinegar — had just been born. This town’s cheap kasu vinegar became renowned as suiting the rice of that nigiri-zushi, and it spurred the vogue for Edo-style sushi. This town, carrying vinegar to Edo by ship, and the vogue for nigiri-zushi spreading in Edo, were joined across the sea. That vinegar-brewing house later connects to a food company widely known to the world. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In the late 1930s, three towns at the base of the peninsula joined to become the first city on the peninsula. The cargo ships that carried goods to Edo, and the vinegar born from sake lees — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the cargo ships and brewing held by the base of the peninsula open to the sea.

What characterizes Handa is that, while holding the history of the cargo ships that carried goods to Edo and of kasu vinegar, it keeps its population and retains its youth and fiscal stamina. From 110,837 in 2000 to 117,884 in 2020, it has moved over twenty years without greatly collapsing. The tradition of brewing grown upon the advantage of a land open to the sea still takes root in the town as a food industry known to the world, and from the modern era on, industries such as railways and transport equipment also gathered in the town. It can be read that, in this land near the economic sphere of the great cities, such industries form workplaces for the young generation and have kept the population. That the share aged 65 and over stays at the middle of the twenties at 24.3% in 2020, and that the household-with-children share is rather high at 22.2%, are also expressions of young households continuing their lives here.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.96 is a high level near one, whose own tax revenue can cover nearly all expenditure. It can be read that the food industry inheriting the brewing tradition, the industries gathered in the modern era, and the income of the residents support the tax source high. The brewing town that shipped vinegar to Edo still keeps its population while retaining its youth and fiscal stamina. The population is almost flat, the aging is in the middle of the twenties, and the fiscal stamina is rather high. That it inherited workplaces from brewing on to modern industry supports this youth and stamina as a single continuous thread.

Handa holds several functions of its own. One is the history of the cargo ships, opening at the base of the peninsula, where the town’s ships carried sake and vinegar to Edo, a great consuming center — the advantage of a land open to the sea that joined brewing to a distant market. Another is its character as a brewing town that created cheap vinegar from sake lees and spurred the vogue for nigiri-zushi in Edo, where that vinegar-brewing house still connects to a food company known to the world. And the landform of the base of the peninsula, open to the sea, nurtured brewing, the cargo ships, and the joining to a distant market in this land.

Handa is the town that shipped vinegar to Edo and spurred the vogue for nigiri-zushi. From the cargo ships that carried goods to Edo, to the cheap vinegar born from sake lees, and the vogue for Edo-style sushi — the geography of "opening at the base of the peninsula open to the sea" called brewing, called the cargo ships, joined the town to a distant market, and set the town’s skeleton. Brewing was everywhere. But this town held the advantage of being able to carry the sake and vinegar it made to Edo by ship, and added the skill of making cheap vinegar from sake lees. When that vinegar meshed with the vogue for Edo-style nigiri-zushi, a provincial storehouse grew into an industry supported by a great market.