Nearly eight-tenths of this town’s area is forest. This mountain land, which has long felled, sawn and carried out wood, chose a path of not discarding but burning the offcuts and bark that arise in working wood, to make electricity. Further, it has made from local wood a new building material of boards crossed and glued at right angles, and used it in its own buildings. Turning wood into electricity, turning wood into building material — this attempt to use up the mountain wood to the last, even by burning it, even by assembling it, characterizes this land’s path. This town, a land that makes electricity and building material from mountain wood, was born in the Heisei era when nine towns and villages became one, and has lost population. Maniwa’s numbers are the record of a town etched by the history of forest and timber.
A mountain city that opens near the center of the Chugoku Mountains in the northern part of Okayama Prefecture. After nine towns and villages became one in 2005 and the city was founded, the population fell, from 51,782 in 2005 to 42,725 in 2020. Because this city was founded by a new merger, its recent population is read on the broad post-founding city area. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a city of the prefecture’s north," but the causal thread: how the history — forest and timber — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Measuring the present Maniwa in its numbers
In the 2020 Population Census, Maniwa’s population is 42,725 — about forty-three thousand. Because this city was newly founded in 2005 when nine towns and villages became one, the statistics are read on the broad post-founding city area. On that area it has fallen, from 51,782 in 2005, to 48,964 in 2010, to 46,124 in 2015, to 42,725 in 2020.
Looking inside, the figure of a mountain wood land raising its age greatly appears. The share aged 65 and over was 39.9% in 2020, nearing four in ten. The household-with-children share was 20.0% in 2020, high for a mountain city, and the crude birth rate was 5.7 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.29 in fiscal 2023 — a level able to cover only a little under three-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a land that makes electricity and building material from mountain wood, losing population after becoming one with nine towns and villages, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of forest, timber and the merger.
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 · A land covered in forest, the gathering of timber, the attempt to use wood up, and the merger of nine towns and villages — the history behind the numbers
What set this town is the forest-covered land, the gathering of timber, the attempt to use wood up, and the merger of nine towns and villages. The first layer is the forest. Nearly eight-tenths of this city’s area is forest; in the north the range of the Chugoku Mountains rises, and at its foot a highland spreads. It has walked as a timber land, long felling, sawing and carrying out wood. A forest-covered mountain land lies at this town’s feet.
This forest called forth the present attempt. On its merger, this town raised a banner of wood-centered town-building. It has not discarded but burned the offcuts and bark that arise in working wood, to make electricity, and made from local wood a new building material of boards crossed and glued at right angles, to use in its own buildings — an attempt to use wood up, turning wood into electricity and into building material. The road by which it became a city mirrors this town, too. In 2005 nine mountain towns and villages became one and were newly founded. The forest-covered land, the gathering of timber, wood electricity and wood building material, and the merger of nine towns and villages. A mountain land eight-tenths forest has changed its path, from a land that carries out wood to a land that uses wood up to the last. That is Maniwa’s present.
Source: Maniwa City / timber and biomass (about 79% of the city area is forest, one of western Japan’s foremost timber-producing regions; on its merger it raised a banner of wood-biomass town-building, working on power generation fueled by sawmill offcuts and on CLT — cross-laminated timber — as a building material — overview) / Maniwa City / the Hiruzen Highland and Katsuyama (in the north the three peaks of Hiruzen of the Chugoku Mountains rise, with the Hiruzen Highland spreading at their foot; the former Katsuyama Town was a timber-gathering town — overview) / Maniwa City (in northern Okayama, near the center of the Chugoku Mountains; formed on 2005-03-31 by the new merger of nine towns and villages — Katsuyama, Ochiai, Yubara, Kuse, Mikamo, Kawakami, Yatsuka, Chuka and Hokubo; statistics treat the figures after its founding — overview)
03 · In a land that makes electricity and building material from mountain wood, becoming one with nine towns and villages and losing population
What characterizes Maniwa is that, while bearing the history of forest and timber, it has lost population after becoming one with nine towns and villages. On the post-founding city area, about nine thousand fell over fifteen years, from 51,782 in 2005 to 42,725 in 2020. In this city, which holds a broad area in the mountains, one can read that the young generation has moved from the mountain settlements added by the merger toward the city center and larger cities, and that the age of the whole town has risen greatly. That the share aged 65 and over neared four in ten at 39.9% in 2020 is one expression of this.
Meanwhile the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, the household-with-children share was 20.0% in 2020 — high for a mountain city — and the crude birth rate was 5.7 per thousand in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.29 is a level able to cover only a little under three-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The population fell by about nine thousand after the founding, the aging neared four in ten, and the fiscal strength is thin on tax revenue alone. A mountain city that re-read the old livelihood of felling and sawing wood into offcut power generation and local-wood building material still walks on, losing population. Even a town that updated its use of wood could not stop the outflow of nine thousand — the re-reading of industry and the decline of population proceed at separate speeds.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A forest-covered mountain land bound the attempt to use wood up
Maniwa has, etched into a forest-covered land, several functions of its own. One is the history of a timber land, nearly eight-tenths forest, that has long felled, sawn and carried out wood. Another is the character of wood electricity, burning the offcuts and bark of working wood to make electricity. And it holds the face of wood building material, making from local wood a material of boards crossed and glued at right angles.
A mountain land nearly eight-tenths forest — that geography gave rise to the work of gathering and sawing wood, and in time held the attempt to burn and assemble wood to use it up. From a forest-covered land to the gathering of timber, wood electricity and wood building material, and the merger of nine towns and villages, the functions surrounding wood have laid layer upon layer. In the northern part of Okayama Prefecture, near the center of the Chugoku Mountains, this city has turned the forest covering eight-tenths of it toward burning, assembling and using up. Maniwa is also the name of that use of the forest.
Source: Maniwa City / timber and biomass (about 79% of the city area is forest, one of western Japan’s foremost timber-producing regions; on its merger it raised a banner of wood-biomass town-building, working on power generation fueled by sawmill offcuts and on CLT — cross-laminated timber — as a building material — overview) / Maniwa City / the Hiruzen Highland and Katsuyama (in the north the three peaks of Hiruzen of the Chugoku Mountains rise, with the Hiruzen Highland spreading at their foot; the former Katsuyama Town was a timber-gathering town — overview) / Maniwa City (in northern Okayama, near the center of the Chugoku Mountains; formed on 2005-03-31 by the new merger of nine towns and villages — Katsuyama, Ochiai, Yubara, Kuse, Mikamo, Kawakami, Yatsuka, Chuka and Hokubo; statistics treat the figures after its founding — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — in a land eight-tenths forest, where will life scatter
Lay out Maniwa’s numbers and the indicators of a mountain wood land raising its age line up: a population falling after the merger, an aging rate of 39.9%, a household-with-children share of 20.0%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.29. But when I (Atlas), with the eye of a certified public accountant reading ledgers, look at them, what I want to read here is the path by which it re-read its in-place industry without discarding it — that this town "chose, in the extension of the old livelihood of felling, sawing and carrying out wood, the attempt to turn offcuts into electricity and local wood into a new building material." While many mountain lands thinned their tie with the forest as the price of timber fell, this town turned toward using wood up to the last. The attempt to graft an in-place industry onto a new use shows a thickness that does not appear in this town’s numbers.
The other thing I want to consider is the very character of the land — that "nearly eight-tenths of its area is forest." The flat land where people can live and dwell stays within a part of the city area. To hold so broad a forest is also to be a land of thin population density, where the bases of living are scattered here and there. Overlay the numbers of the broad city area directly upon the figure of the city center, and one misreads the image. Then one question remains — in this city, where forest is eight-tenths and the flat land scatters along the city’s rim, where will life, after letting go of nine thousand, gather from here on? Where a mountain forest that turned its helm toward using wood up will bind people’s dwellings anew is the chapter Maniwa is yet to write.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Maniwa City / timber and biomass (about 79% of the city area is forest, one of western Japan’s foremost timber-producing regions; on its merger it raised a banner of wood-biomass town-building, working on power generation fueled by sawmill offcuts and on CLT — cross-laminated timber — as a building material — overview) / Maniwa City / the Hiruzen Highland and Katsuyama (in the north the three peaks of Hiruzen of the Chugoku Mountains rise, with the Hiruzen Highland spreading at their foot; the former Katsuyama Town was a timber-gathering town — overview) / Maniwa City (in northern Okayama, near the center of the Chugoku Mountains; formed on 2005-03-31 by the new merger of nine towns and villages — Katsuyama, Ochiai, Yubara, Kuse, Mikamo, Kawakami, Yatsuka, Chuka and Hokubo; statistics treat the figures after its founding — 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 (wave-cs1 2026-06-05)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wavecs1_