Sakaiminato-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 33,000 (32,740 in 2020). Its movement is a gentle decline. From 36,843 in 2000, to 36,459 in 2005, 35,259 in 2010, 34,174 in 2015, and 32,740 in 2020, it lost some four thousand over twenty years.

Looking inside the figures, the shape of a port town at the peninsula’s tip appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 21.0% in 2000 to 32.8% in 2020, passing three in ten. Households with children make up 20.5% (2020), and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.54 in fiscal 2023 — covering a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue, a mid-level for a small-to-mid city. The figure shows the port town across a channel losing population gently while deepening in age. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without tracing the history of the harbor and the fishing port.

This town’s skeleton is set by the land at the northern tip of a sandy peninsula stretching like a bow, and by the harbor that opened there. What set the skeleton was landform and sea. This town sits at the northern tip of a bow-curved sandy peninsula, formed over long ages by sand carried by coastal currents. Beyond a single narrow channel lies an island of the next prefecture, and this town and the island opposite face each other across the channel. This position, at the boundary of open sea and inland sea, became a harbor land suited to the coming and going of ships. Around the end of the Edo period an office for handling ships was set up here, and through the coastal cargo ships that rounded the north, trade was carried on with the Seto Inland Sea, Kyushu, and Hokuriku.

Then, in the modern era, this harbor widened its character. In the mid-Meiji era this land received designation as a port of foreign trade, and trade with beyond the sea advanced. Further, against the backdrop of its location at the boundary of open sea and inland sea and the rich fishing grounds nearby, this land grew greatly as a base of fisheries, and was later designated one of the fishing ports that represent the nation. From a harbor across a channel, to a port of foreign trade, and on to a fishing port that represents the nation — this town’s form stands on the history of harbor and fishing port held by the geography of the bow-shaped peninsula’s northern tip.

What characterizes Sakaiminato-shi is that, while carrying the history of a harbor across a channel and a fishing port, as a port town at the peninsula’s tip it is losing population gently. From the 36,843 of 2000 to the 32,740 of 2020, it lost some four thousand over twenty years. Fisheries and the harbor have supported the town’s living, but fisheries carry a side that is swayed by the state of grounds and catches. The location at the northern tip of a bow-shaped peninsula, open to the sea, is near a dead end from the land side, making it hard to draw in a broad range of new workplaces. One can read that younger generations moved to urban areas seeking work, and the town gently contracted. That the share aged 65 and over reached 32.8% in 2020, passing three in ten, is the sign of that population structure.

Meanwhile the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. A fiscal capacity of 0.54 is a level covering a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue, a mid-level for a small-to-mid city. One can read the establishments connected to the fishing port, and the income of the people who live here, as supporting the tax base at a mid-level. The port town across a channel now loses population gently while deepening in age. Population falling gently, aging past three in ten, fiscal strength at a mid-level. Yet without the peninsula-tip landform — open to the sea, near a dead end from the land — the reason for this gentle decline cannot be read. The numbers make sense only together with the condition of location.

Sakaiminato gathers roles derived from the sea at the peninsula’s tip. One is the history of the northern tip of a bow-shaped peninsula, formed by sand carried by coastal currents — an old layer of being the boundary of open sea and inland sea. Another is its position facing, across a narrow channel, an island of the next prefecture, leaving the character of a harbor that grew from the coastal cargo ships rounding the north into foreign trade, and on into a fishing port that represents the nation. And the location at the boundary of open sea and inland sea became the foundation that called forth a harbor suited to the coming and going of ships and nurtured a base of fisheries.

Sand carried by coastal currents made a bow-shaped peninsula, and its northern tip faces, across a narrow channel, an island of the neighboring prefecture — this location at the boundary of open sea and inland sea called forth a harbor suited to ships’ coming and going, and nurtured roles from the trade of coastal cargo ships rounding the north into foreign trade, and on into a fishing port that represents the nation. At the northwestern edge of Tottori Prefecture, a harbor opening at the tip of a sandy peninsula. This very position, opened toward the sea, is the foundation of Sakaiminato’s living and its numbers.