Fuchu-shi

In the 2020 Population Census, this city’s population is 37,655 — about thirty-eight thousand. Because this city annexed one town in 2004, reading the population trend requires care over that step. The 41,271 of 2000 is the value of the former city area before annexation, and from the 45,188 of 2005 it is the value of the broad city area after annexation. Thereafter it has fallen on the post-annexation city area — 42,563 in 2010, 40,069 in 2015, 37,655 in 2020.

Looking inside, the figure of a craftsmanship town raising its age appears. The share aged 65 and over was 38.2% in 2020, nearing four in ten. The household-with-children share was 18.2% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 4.3 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.43 in fiscal 2023 — a level able to cover only a little over four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a furniture land that rose from paulownia chests, losing population after annexing one town, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of paulownia, the highway and furniture.

This town’s skeleton is set by the history of a highway linking a silver mine and the sea, the gathering of paulownia, the craftsmanship that piled up from chests into furniture, and the annexation of one town. The first layer is the highway and the river. This land lay along a highway linking a silver mine and a great coastal road, and faced a river. The coming and going of people and goods linking the silver mine and the sea made this land a gathering place. A position facing the highway and the river was this town’s foundation.

Upon this gathering place, fine timber such as paulownia gathered. Light, warp-resistant paulownia was prized as a material for chests, and this land became a gathering place for paulownia. In the mid-Edo era, a person of this land is said to have learned the craft of chest-making in a distant great city and brought it home as its origin; thereafter, woodcraft piled up from chests into furniture. The road by which it became a city mirrors this town, too. It became a city in the mid-Showa era, and in the Heisei era annexed one mountain town to become the present city area. A highway linking a silver mine and the sea, the gathering of paulownia, from chests to furniture, and the annexation of one town — this town’s shape stands upon the history of paulownia and furniture, etched by a gathering place facing the highway and the river.

What characterizes Fuchu is that, while bearing the history of paulownia and furniture, it has lost population after annexing one town. On the post-annexation city area, a little over seven thousand fell over fifteen years, from 45,188 in 2005 to 37,655 in 2020. Even in this town known as a furniture-producing region, one can read that the aging of the bearers of craftsmanship and the movement of a part of the young generation to larger cities overlapped, and the age of the whole town rose. Especially in the mountain district added by annexation, the decline of population is seen to be faster than in the city center. That the share aged 65 and over neared four in ten at 38.2% in 2020 is one expression of this.

Meanwhile the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, the household-with-children share was 18.2% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 4.3 per thousand in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.43 is a level able to cover only a little over four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The siting along a highway linking a silver mine and the sea first gathered fine timber such as paulownia. The gathered timber called forth the craft of chests, and the craft raised a furniture-producing region. One can read that being a thoroughfare assembled this town’s craftsmanship in order.

Fuchu’s craftsmanship rises from its siting. It lay along a highway linking a silver mine and a great coastal road, and faced a river too. That it was a thoroughfare where people and goods came and went made this land a gathering place.

Upon this gathering place, fine timber such as light, warp-resistant paulownia gathers. Where paulownia gathers, the craft of chests calls upon it. In the mid-Edo era, the craft of chest-making learned in a distant great city was brought home, and thereafter woodcraft branched out from chests into furniture. Precisely because it was a thoroughfare where things come and go, materials, craft and people halted their feet. The key to reading Fuchu on the middle Ashida River lies, before the count of its products, in the single point that it was "set at a node."