Yasugi-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 37,000 (37,062 in 2020). To read this city’s population, one must take account of a merger. In 2004 the former Yasugi City made a new merger with two neighboring towns to become the present Yasugi City. Before the merger, the former Yasugi City’s population in 2000 was 30,520; after the merger, 2005 was 43,839. From there it fell gently after the merger — to 41,836 in 2010, 39,528 in 2015, and 37,062 in 2020. The population step between 2000 and 2005 in this article mirrors this expansion of the limits through the merger.

Looking inside the figures, the shape of a town holding both a port and mountain country contracting appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.3% in 2000 to 37.3% in 2020, nearing four in ten. Households with children make up 22.7% (2020), on the higher side, and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.35 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue covers only about the mid-three-tenths of expenditure, with a large dependence on the allocation tax. The figure shows the port that shipped Japanese steel losing population and deepening in age in its post-merger limits. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without tracing the history of the iron of the tatara and the port.

This town’s skeleton is set by the port that shipped out the iron of the San’in mountains, by the land of specialty steel that inherited that iron craft, and by the merger that widened the limits. The old layer is iron and the port. In the mountains of the Chugoku region, an iron-making called tatara — roasting iron sand long in charcoal fire to draw out iron — has been practiced since old times. This land was a place where the iron made in those mountains gathered by river and road and was carried out by ship from the port. From the mid-Edo era, this land’s port, as a hub of trade by the kitamae-bune, became the commercial town that handled the iron made in San’in single-handedly, shipping out fine iron — the raw material for blades and tools — across the country.

Then, in the modern era, this land inherited that iron history into a new industry. Descended from the old iron-making that roasts iron sand to draw out iron, this land came to make a specialty steel for uses demanding strength and precision. Used in blades, dies, and high-performance machinery, the name of that steel was taken from the name of this town, and it is still made here, with advanced technology, at the centers of research and manufacturing set in this land. The path by which it became a city mirrors the town as well. In the mid-Showa era this land became a city around its port town, and in 2004 it made a new merger with two neighboring towns, embracing a municipality from the shore of Nakaumi to the mountain country. A port that shipped out iron-sand iron, and a specialty steel descended from the tatara — this town’s form stands on the history of iron and the port held by this land facing Nakaumi.

What characterizes Yasugi-shi is that, while carrying the history of a port that shipped out Japanese steel and a land of specialty steel, it has lost the population of the limits widened by merger. From the 43,839 of 2005, after the merger, to the 37,062 of 2020, it lost some seven thousand over fifteen years. This town still holds centers of specialty-steel manufacturing and research descended from the old iron-making craft, yet that industry has a side that does not reach enough workplaces to hold the population of the limits taken in by merger. In this land holding the shore of Nakaumi and the mountain country, at a distance from the major cities, one can read younger generations moving to the cities for work, and the population falling. That the share aged 65 and over neared four in ten at 37.3% in 2020 is the sign of that population structure.

Meanwhile households with children make up 22.7% (2020), on the higher side, and the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. One can read households working in the specialty-steel industry as keeping a certain number of child-rearing households in the town. A fiscal capacity of 0.35 is a level whose own tax revenue covers only about the mid-three-tenths of expenditure, with a large dependence on the allocation tax, mirroring that, as a town holding a port and mountain country, its own tax base has its limits. The port that shipped out Japanese steel now loses population and deepens in age in its post-merger limits. The population fell after the merger, aging nears four in ten, and fiscal strength is on the weaker side; meanwhile the household-with-children share is on the higher side at 22.7%. A contracting population and a high share of households with children — this seemingly mismatched pair makes sense only once you set the industry of specialty steel, which keeps households in the town, as its background.

In Yasugi, roles around iron fold over one another across the eras. One is the history of a port that shipped out, by kitamae-bune, the iron made in the San’in mountains — an old layer of the commercial town that handled single-handedly the iron drawn from roasting iron sand. Another is its character as a land of specialty steel, descended from that old iron-making craft, making a strong, precise steel whose name was taken from the name of this town and which still keeps centers of manufacturing and research. And that this land, facing Nakaumi with iron-producing mountains behind it, called forth the gathering and shipping of iron and the port.

The location of facing Nakaumi with iron-producing mountains behind it gathered into this land the iron drawn from roasting iron sand, and nurtured the port that shipped it out across the country by kitamae-bune. The craft that handled that iron was inherited, in the modern era, into the manufacture and research of a strong, precise specialty steel, and the name of this town remained in the name of the steel. In the eastern part of Shimane Prefecture, between iron-producing mountains and Nakaumi — two faces, a port that carries iron and a land that makes iron, are joined here across the eras. To read Yasugi, I would enter from this inheritance.