This town’s name, by tradition, derives from a great star that long ago descended upon a pine on the seaside. The star was said to be the spirit of the god who governs the northern sky, descending as a herald of a noble person coming from across the sea; people revered the pine on which the star fell and built a shrine enshrining the god. In time, as the ages passed, a shipyard was built on this seaside. On that shipyard’s site, a certain enterprise began making railway rolling stock, and the town became a town of a factory producing everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock. The pine-clad shore where a star fell still keeps its population. Kudamatsu’s numbers are the record of a town etched by the history of a shipyard site and a rolling-stock factory.
A city that opens on flat land facing the Seto Inland Sea in the southeastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture. The population rose gently, from 53,101 in 2000 to 55,887 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a town of the star," but the causal thread: how the legend of the pine where a star fell, and the history of building railway rolling stock on a shipyard site, are translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Kudamatsu in its numbers
In the 2020 Population Census, this city’s population is 55,887 — about fifty-six thousand. Its course is a gentle increase, rare for a regional city. From 53,101 in 2000, to 53,509 in 2005, to 55,012 in 2010, to 55,812 in 2015, and then to 55,887 in 2020, it has increased little by little over twenty years.
Looking inside, a figure befitting a Seto Inland Sea industrial town appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 19.5% in 2000 to 29.6% in 2020, nearing three in ten. The household-with-children share was somewhat high at 21.8% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was nine in 2024 and two in 2025, arising slightly. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.83 in fiscal 2023 — a high level for a regional city, able to cover more than eight-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a town building railway rolling stock on a pine-clad shore where a star fell, keeping fiscal strength while increasing population, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of a shipyard site and a rolling-stock factory.
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 legend of the pine where a star fell, a seaside shipyard, its site’s rolling-stock factory — the history behind the numbers
This town’s history can be traced from two layers: the old origin of the name, the legend of the pine where a star fell, and the railway-rolling-stock factory built on a seaside shipyard’s site. The old layer is the star and the pine. This town’s name, by tradition, derives from a great star that long ago descended upon a pine on the seaside. The star was said to be the spirit of the god who governs the northern sky, descending as a herald of a noble person coming from across the sea; people revered the pine on which the star fell and built a shrine enshrining the god. This legend bound to sea and sky became the origin of the town’s name and formed its old foundation.
Upon this old foundation, modern industry was layered. On this land facing the Seto Inland Sea, a shipyard was built in the modern era. In time, at the start of the twentieth century, a certain enterprise bought this seaside shipyard and began making railway rolling stock on its site. This enterprise soon completed the nation’s first large electric locomotive, and thereafter produced, in this town, everything from locomotives to commuter trains and Shinkansen rolling stock. The site of a seaside shipyard changed into a great factory building railway rolling stock, and the town became an industrial town. The road by which it became a city mirrors this town, too. In the latter half of the 1930s a seaside town and nearby villages joined to become the seventh city in the prefecture. The legend of the pine where a star fell, and the rolling-stock factory on a seaside shipyard’s site — Kudamatsu’s present continues from this history of legend and industry, held by flat land facing the Seto Inland Sea.
Source: Kudamatsu City, "City Profile" / Kudamatsu Shrine (the Asuka-era legend of the star that fell upon the pine = the origin of the place-name; took city status in 1939, the seventh in the prefecture, by merging Kudamatsu Town and others — overview) / Hitachi Kasado Works (in 1920 it acquired the Kasado shipyard of Nippon Kisen and made it the Kasado Works for railway-rolling-stock manufacture; the Kasado Works opened in 1921; in 1924 Japan’s first large electric locomotive; it has built Shinkansen rolling stock — overview)
03 · In a rolling-stock-factory town, increasing population and keeping fiscal strength
What characterizes Kudamatsu is that, while bearing the history of a railway-rolling-stock factory, it has, rarely for a regional city, increased population and kept fiscal strength. From 53,101 in 2000 to 55,887 in 2020, it increased little by little over twenty years. Behind this town increasing population while many regional cities lose it, one can read that a great factory on a seaside shipyard’s site, producing everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock, has continued to form a stable place of work. The factory and its related industries support the living of the young generation, and, blessed too with convenient commuting to nearby cities, it has kept and slightly increased its population. That the share aged 65 and over neared three in ten at 29.6% in 2020 while the household-with-children share is somewhat high at 21.8% is also an expression of young households continuing to live there.
Meanwhile the Childcare Waitlist was nine in 2024 and two in 2025, arising slightly. It can be read as mirroring that, as a town where young households live, there are phases in which demand for childcare places slightly exceeds supply. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.83 is a high level for a regional city, able to cover more than eight-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. It can be read that the railway-rolling-stock factory and its related industries, and the income of those who live there, support the tax source highly. The town building railway rolling stock on a pine-clad shore where a star fell still keeps fiscal strength while increasing population. The population slightly increases, aging nears three in ten, and the fiscal strength is high — on this Seto Inland Sea town, those movements come out in the numbers in a bundle. Pull out only a single indicator, and the image does not form.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The shipyard site was handed on to a rolling-stock factory
Kudamatsu holds two distant histories, the star legend and the rolling-stock factory. It takes as the origin of its name the legend that long ago a star descended upon a seaside pine, and keeps the shrine enshrining the god of that star. On the site of a seaside shipyard on the Seto Inland Sea, a certain enterprise began making railway rolling stock and has produced everything from the nation’s first large electric locomotive to Shinkansen rolling stock. The landform of flat land facing the Seto Inland Sea drew the seaside shipyard, and then its site’s rolling-stock factory, to this land.
Kudamatsu is a town that builds everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock on a pine-clad shore where a star fell. From the legend of the pine where a star fell, to a seaside shipyard, and then to a factory building everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock on its site — the geography of "opening on flat land facing the Seto Inland Sea" called the shipyard, called the rolling-stock factory, and shaped the town’s outline. The seaside that once built ships now sends out locomotives and Shinkansen rolling stock.
Source: Kudamatsu City, "City Profile" / Kudamatsu Shrine (the Asuka-era legend of the star that fell upon the pine = the origin of the place-name; took city status in 1939, the seventh in the prefecture, by merging Kudamatsu Town and others — overview) / Hitachi Kasado Works (in 1920 it acquired the Kasado shipyard of Nippon Kisen and made it the Kasado Works for railway-rolling-stock manufacture; the Kasado Works opened in 1921; in 1924 Japan’s first large electric locomotive; it has built Shinkansen rolling stock — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — reading Kudamatsu’s numbers together with its history
Lay out Kudamatsu’s numbers and the indicators of a Seto Inland Sea industrial town increasing population and keeping fiscal strength line up: a population increasing little by little over twenty years, an aging rate of 29.6%, a household-with-children share of 21.8%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.83. In the habit of seeing numbers with the eye of accounting, what I want to read here is that this town, while a regional city, has "increased" population over twenty years. It is not easy to increase population while many regional cities lose it. Behind it, one can read, lies that a great factory on a seaside shipyard’s site, producing everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock, has long continued to form a stable place of work. A single great factory has supported the living of the young generation, held people in the town, and slightly increased it — Kudamatsu’s population increase mirrors that thread.
The other thing I want to consider is that this town’s industry begins from "a shipyard’s site," the trace of another industry. A certain enterprise bought a shipyard built on the Seto Inland Sea shore and began making railway rolling stock on its site. The seaside that built ships built locomotives, and in time changed into a factory building Shinkansen rolling stock. The overlapping, in which the trace of one industry was handed on as the foundation of another and kept supporting the town’s industry, is peculiar to this town. Further, recalling that the town’s name derives from the legend that long ago a star fell, the road by which a shore of an old name bound to sea and sky came in the modern era to hold a railway-rolling-stock factory has a singular range of swing. How the town ties this history of legend and rolling-stock factory to the next generation’s living, while increasing population, is a question peculiar to a Seto Inland Sea town. Behind increasing population over twenty years while many regional cities lose it lies that a great factory on a seaside shipyard’s site, producing everything from locomotives to Shinkansen rolling stock, has long continued to form a stable place of work. The seaside that built ships built locomotives, and in time changed into a factory building Shinkansen rolling stock. The trace of one industry was handed on as the foundation of another and held people in the town. Beside the seaside pine where, by tradition, a star fell, Shinkansen rolling stock is now assembled and sent out onto the rails.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Kudamatsu City, "City Profile" / Kudamatsu Shrine (the Asuka-era legend of the star that fell upon the pine = the origin of the place-name; took city status in 1939, the seventh in the prefecture, by merging Kudamatsu Town and others — overview) / Hitachi Kasado Works (in 1920 it acquired the Kasado shipyard of Nippon Kisen and made it the Kasado Works for railway-rolling-stock manufacture; the Kasado Works opened in 1921; in 1924 Japan’s first large electric locomotive; it has built Shinkansen rolling stock — 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: wave17_5