The bag-making of this town goes back as far as the wickerwork woven from the willows by the river in the Nara period. And this town became the stage of an attempt without parallel in the world — to return to the wild a great bird that had once vanished from it. This town, the center of Tajima, having widened its city area by merger, is shedding its population. Toyooka’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with two histories — willow handwork and the reintroduction of a great bird to the wild.
The largest city of the Tajima region, opening where the Maruyama River pours into the Sea of Japan, in the northeastern part of Hyogo Prefecture. The population, which in the former Toyooka City was 47,308 in 2000 before the merger and 89,208 in 2005 when one city and five towns newly merged, has shed to 77,489 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a town of bags," but the causal thread: how the history — willow handwork, the stork, and the new merger — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Toyooka in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about 77,000 (77,489 in 2020). This city’s population has a large step from the new merger. Toyooka City newly merged in 2005 with five surrounding towns and one city, becoming the present city area. The former Toyooka City was 47,308 in 2000 before the merger, and in 2005, with the five towns added, it increased to 89,208 — nearly doubling. From there, through 85,592 in 2010 and 82,250 in 2015 to 77,489 in 2020, it has shed at a steep gradient after the merger.
Looking inside, the figure of a central city of Tajima shrinking appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 20.4% in 2000 to 34.2% in 2020, passing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 21.6% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.38 in fiscal 2023, able to cover only about four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large reliance on allocation tax. The figure of the town of bags and the stork, shedding its population and deepening its aging after the merger while holding the waitlist at zero, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of willow handwork and the great bird.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · The willow wicker boxes of the Nara period, the bag industry, the reintroduction of the stork to the wild — the history behind the numbers
Toyooka is made of the bounty that the Maruyama River carried, and of two endeavors that grew there. The old layer is willow handwork. On the banks of the Maruyama River, willows with supple branches grew of themselves. In the Nara period, boxes called wicker boxes, made by weaving this willow, were already delivered to the capital as a product of this land, and a part of them is told to have been placed in the treasury of Nara. The handwork of weaving from the willows by the river, over a long time, changed its form from boxes to bags, and still makes this town a producing area of bags known throughout the country. The handwork born from the river’s bounty set the oldest foundation of this town.
And this town became the stage of one more endeavor. In the wild of this area once lived a great bird, two meters across when it spreads its wings, but its figure once vanished from nature. This town has long continued an effort to protect that bird, raise it by human hands, and return it to the wild again. In 2005 an individual raised by human hands was released into the sky, and the attempt to return it to the wild in inhabited land began. This is held to be a grand effort without parallel in the world. The handwork woven from willow, and the attempt to return to the wild a great bird that had vanished from it — upon the history of handwork and natural regeneration that the great river called the Maruyama held, the present Toyooka stands.
Source: Toyooka Tourism Association, "Toyooka, the City of Bags, from Willow Wickerwork" (the willow wickerwork of the Nara period leading to the bag industry; the willow box of the Shosoin — overview) / "Living with the Oriental White Stork, Toyooka" (chronology) (the 2005 release; the reintroduction to the wild without parallel in the world — overview)
03 · In the central city of Tajima, shedding its population after the new merger
What characterizes Toyooka is that, holding the history of willow handwork and the reintroduction of the stork to the wild, it sheds its population and deepens its aging after widening its city area by new merger. From 89,208 in 2005 with the five towns added to 77,489 in 2020, about twelve thousand were lost over fifteen years. In the land of Tajima caught between mountains and sea, amid the flow in which the young generation moves to urban spheres such as Osaka and Kobe, it can be read that the population has shed. That the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten, at 34.2% in 2020, is also the expression of that population make-up.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero. It can be read that, against the decreased population, the receiver of childcare is held. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.38 is a level able to cover only about four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large reliance on allocation tax. It mirrors that, as a central city of Tajima based on bag-making, tourism, and agriculture-forestry-fisheries, its own tax base has its limits. The decline of population, the aging passing three in ten, the weaker finances relying on allocation tax, and the still-held waitlist of zero — these are different cross-sections of one phase, in which a central city of Tajima, far from the urban sphere, holds its receiver while shrinking. Take out only one indicator, and the image of the town cannot be grasped.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The town where willow handwork and the attempt to return a great bird to the wild overlap
Toyooka holds several functions of its own. One is the history of willow craft, begun in the Nara period from the willows on the banks of the Maruyama River, which changed its form from boxes to bags and holds the old layer of a producing area of bags known throughout the country. Another is the character of an attempt without parallel in the world — to raise by human hands a great bird that had once vanished from the wild, and to return it to the wild again — keeping the stage of natural regeneration. And the position of holding, where hot water has welled up from of old in the upper reaches of the river, a hot-spring resort with a history of over a thousand years, gives this town the peculiar structure of being the center of Tajima.
Toyooka is the town where willow handwork and the attempt to return a great bird to the wild overlap. From the handwork woven from the willows by the river, to a producing area of bags, and to a town that returns a great bird to the wild — the geography in which the Maruyama River grew the willow and nourished the great bird called in handwork and natural regeneration. Between the willow boxes delivered to the capital in the Nara period and the great bird released into the sky in 2005 lie more than twelve hundred years of time. The two ends of that long time are joined by the same one river — that is the shape of the town of Toyooka.
Source: Toyooka City, "The History of Each Town up to the Municipal Merger" (the 2005 merger of one city and five towns; Kinosaki Onsen — overview) / "Living with the Oriental White Stork, Toyooka" (chronology) (the 2005 release; the reintroduction to the wild without parallel in the world — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — the willow of the Maruyama River raised the handwork of bags and the regeneration of the stork
Lay out Toyooka’s numbers and indicators of a central city of Tajima line up: a decline of population after the merger, an aging rate of 34.2%, a household-with-children share of 21.6%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.38. But to put it in my (Atlas) habit, as an accountant, of confirming the origin of a step in the numbers, what I want to note first here is the fact that the step in the population is due to the 2005 new merger of one city and five towns. The 47,308 of 2000 is the number of the former Toyooka City alone, and cannot simply be joined to and read with the 89,208 of 2005 with the five towns added. The increase to nearly double is not the population having increased, but the result of the city area widening by merger. It makes sense to read the gradient of decline — about twelve thousand lost in the fifteen years after the merger.
One more thing I want to consider is that this town, taking the land’s bounty of "the willows by the river" as its starting point, raised two entirely different endeavors. One is the industrial road, which changed the handwork woven from willow from boxes to bags. The other is the road of natural regeneration, returning to the wild, in that riverside nature, a great bird that had once vanished. Both are rooted in the land’s bounty that the great river called the Maruyama raised. Industry and nature rooted in the land, unlike a factory that moves by a company’s judgment, do not suddenly leave this land. But the bearers of the handwork too, and the effort to protect the nature too, are supported by the number of people and by time. How a central city of Tajima passes these two on to the next generation while shedding its population is also a homework peculiar to this town. Whether one sees it as "a town of bags," or as "the town where willow handwork and the attempt to return a great bird to the wild overlap," changes with the reader’s way of life. Between the willow boxes delivered to the capital in the Nara period and the great bird now released into the sky flow more than twelve hundred years of time. Whether this land, through which one river runs for twelve hundred years, agrees with one’s daily life — the grip on that gauge is held by the one who would make a living here.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Toyooka Tourism Association, "Toyooka, the City of Bags, from Willow Wickerwork" (the willow wickerwork of the Nara period leading to the bag industry; the willow box of the Shosoin — overview) / "Living with the Oriental White Stork, Toyooka" (chronology) (the 2005 release; the reintroduction to the wild without parallel in the world — overview)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave14_2