This town lies in the mountains, bordering all four prefectures of Shikoku, and its area is the largest among the municipalities of Shikoku. The market town at the city’s center had thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era, and at its height more than a hundred tobacco dealers lined merchant houses along the Honmachi street. Deep in the mountains remain a gorge carved by a river and vine-woven suspension bridges that hand down the legend of fleeing survivors. As the broadest mountain land of Shikoku, this town was born in the Heisei era when six towns and villages became one, and has lost population. Miyoshi’s numbers are the record of a town carved by the history of a leaf-tobacco market town and the bridges of Iya.
A mountain city at the western edge of Tokushima Prefecture, bordering three prefectures — Tokushima to the east, Ehime to the west, Kagawa to the north and Kochi to the south. As for population, it was founded in 2006 when six towns and villages became one. As far as the statistics at hand can be traced, it fell from 29,951 in 2010 to 23,605 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 at the prefecture’s western edge," but the causal thread: how the history — a leaf-tobacco market town and the bridges of Iya — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Miyoshi in its numbers
In the 2020 Population Census this city’s population is 23,605, thinned to a little over twenty thousand. Because this city was newly founded in 2006 when six towns and villages became one, the statistics are read on the broad post-founding city area. As far as can be traced at hand, it fell greatly on the post-founding city area, from 29,951 in 2010, through 26,836 in 2015, to 23,605 in 2020.
Looking inside, the figure of the broadest mountain land of Shikoku raising its age greatly appears. The share aged 65 and over was 46.0% in 2020, nearing five in ten. The household-with-children share was low at 12.9% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 3.5 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.23 in fiscal 2023 — a level below a quarter of expenditure covered with its own tax revenue. The figure of the broadest mountain land of Shikoku, losing population greatly after becoming one with six towns and villages, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of a leaf-tobacco market town and Iya.
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 mountains bordering three prefectures, the leaf-tobacco market town, the gorge and vine bridges, the merger of six towns and villages — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by the history of mountains bordering three prefectures, the leaf-tobacco market town, the gorge and vine bridges, and the merger of six towns and villages. The starting layer is the mountains. This city lies in the mountains, bordering all four prefectures of Shikoku, and its area is the largest among the municipalities of Shikoku. Deep mountains, and the rivers that carve them, have set the scenery of this land. The broad mountains bordering three prefectures were this town’s foundation.
In the market town at the center of these mountains, leaf tobacco flourished. The town at the city’s center had thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era, and at its height more than a hundred tobacco dealers lined merchant houses along the Honmachi street. Deep in the mountains remain a gorge carved by a river and vine-woven suspension bridges that hand down the legend of fleeing survivors. The second-highest peak in Shikoku also stands in the south of this city. The road by which it became a city mirrors this town, too. In 2006 six mountain towns and villages became one and were newly founded. The mountains bordering three prefectures, the leaf-tobacco market town, the gorge and vine bridges, and the merger of six towns and villages — this town’s shape stands upon the history of leaf tobacco and Iya, carved by the broadest mountain land of Shikoku.
Source: Miyoshi City / Awa-Ikeda and leaf tobacco (the former Ikeda Town, in the mountains of western Awa, had thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era; at its height more than a hundred tobacco dealers lined merchant houses along the Honmachi street — overview) / Miyoshi City / Oboke and Iya (the Oboke gorge carved by the Yoshino River, and the vine bridges of Iya where the legend of the fleeing Heike survivors remains; Tsurugi-san, the second-highest peak in Shikoku — overview) / Miyoshi City (at the western edge of Tokushima, bordering three prefectures — Tokushima to the east, Ehime to the west, Kagawa to the north and Kochi to the south; the largest area in Shikoku; formed on 2006-03-01 by the new merger of six towns and villages — Mino, Ikeda, Yamashiro, Ikawa, Higashi-Iyayama and Nishi-Iyayama; statistics treat the figures after its founding — overview)
03 · In the broadest mountain land of Shikoku, becoming one with six towns and villages and losing population
What characterizes Miyoshi is that, while holding the history of leaf tobacco and Iya, it has lost population greatly after becoming one with six towns and villages. As far as can be traced at hand, some six thousand fell over ten years, from 29,951 in 2010 to 23,605 in 2020. In this city, holding within its area the broadest mountain land of Shikoku, 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 five in ten at 46.0% in 2020 is one expression of this.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, the household-with-children share was 12.9% in 2020, and the crude birth rate was 3.5 per thousand in 2020. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.23 is a level below a quarter of expenditure covered with its own tax revenue. The broadest mountain land of Shikoku now walks on, just so on the broad city area that became one with six towns and villages, losing population greatly. The population that fell by some six thousand after the founding, the aging nearing five in ten, and the finances not reaching a quarter on tax revenue — these three are three faces of the same shrinking, in which the broadest city area of Shikoku holds six mountain villages and the young generation has slipped out of each one. The gap between area and population, in which the broader the area the more thinly population is scattered and the harder administration’s reach extends, runs beneath every number.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · People thinning out of the broadest city area of Shikoku
In Miyoshi, several mountain villages of differing character are held within the broadest city area of Shikoku, bordering all four prefectures. One is the origin of being a mountain land bordering all four prefectures of Shikoku and the largest among the municipalities of Shikoku. Another is the character of a leaf-tobacco market town, with thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era and, at its height, more than a hundred dealers lining merchant houses. And it has the face of a deep mountain land, holding a gorge carved by a river and the vine suspension bridges that hand down the legend of fleeing survivors.
The broadest mountain land of Shikoku, bordering its four prefectures — this single geography raised a leaf-tobacco market town, held a gorge and vine suspension bridges, and bound six towns and villages into one in the Heisei era. Breadth also means holding that many mountain villages. The Honmachi street where the leaf-tobacco merchant houses stood, and the vine bridges that span Iya, are things this broadest mountain land of Shikoku has carved into separate places age by age; Miyoshi’s outline is made of the very breadth of that scattering.
Source: Miyoshi City / Awa-Ikeda and leaf tobacco (the former Ikeda Town, in the mountains of western Awa, had thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era; at its height more than a hundred tobacco dealers lined merchant houses along the Honmachi street — overview) / Miyoshi City / Oboke and Iya (the Oboke gorge carved by the Yoshino River, and the vine bridges of Iya where the legend of the fleeing Heike survivors remains; Tsurugi-san, the second-highest peak in Shikoku — overview) / Miyoshi City (at the western edge of Tokushima, bordering three prefectures — Tokushima to the east, Ehime to the west, Kagawa to the north and Kochi to the south; the largest area in Shikoku; formed on 2006-03-01 by the new merger of six towns and villages — Mino, Ikeda, Yamashiro, Ikawa, Higashi-Iyayama and Nishi-Iyayama; statistics treat the figures after its founding — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — reading Miyoshi by the gap between breadth of area and thinness of population
Lay out Miyoshi’s numbers and the indicators of the broadest mountain land of Shikoku raising its age greatly line up: a population falling greatly after the merger, an aging rate of 46.0%, a household-with-children share of 12.9%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.23. But what I (Atlas) want to see, with the same eye I read financial statements with on the audit floor, is the gap between breadth of area and thinness of population — that this town "holds the broadest city area of Shikoku, bordering all four of its prefectures, yet the people who live there have thinned to a little over twenty thousand." To be broad is to hold that many mountain settlements, and from each one people thin away. The chain — that in a land where population is scattered thinly over a broad city area, administration’s reach grows hard to extend — explains this town’s numbers well.
The other thing I want to consider is that this town "holds a scenery that calls people from afar — a gorge carved by a river and the vine suspension bridges that hand down the legend of fleeing survivors." The scenery deep in the mountains draws those who visit. But the number of those who visit and the number of those who keep living there are separate indicators. That depth of mountain is at once the value of scenery and the inconvenience of living — this two-sidedness cannot be grasped by looking only at the figures of population and finance. Pass it off with the sign "a city at the prefecture’s western edge," or read it as "a town where the broadest mountain land of Shikoku, bordering three prefectures, bound a leaf-tobacco market town and Iya," and the meaning of the same breadth turns inside out. The more thinly a little over twenty thousand are scattered over the broadest city area of Shikoku, the harder administration’s reach extends. The gorge and the vine bridges call people from afar, but the volume of that visiting is a separate indicator from the number of those who live there. How to weigh the two-sidedness, that depth of mountain is at once the value of scenery and the inconvenience of living, is likely a question on the side of the one who would put down roots in this mountain village.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Miyoshi City / Awa-Ikeda and leaf tobacco (the former Ikeda Town, in the mountains of western Awa, had thriving leaf-tobacco cultivation from the Edo era; at its height more than a hundred tobacco dealers lined merchant houses along the Honmachi street — overview) / Miyoshi City / Oboke and Iya (the Oboke gorge carved by the Yoshino River, and the vine bridges of Iya where the legend of the fleeing Heike survivors remains; Tsurugi-san, the second-highest peak in Shikoku — overview) / Miyoshi City (at the western edge of Tokushima, bordering three prefectures — Tokushima to the east, Ehime to the west, Kagawa to the north and Kochi to the south; the largest area in Shikoku; formed on 2006-03-01 by the new merger of six towns and villages — Mino, Ikeda, Yamashiro, Ikawa, Higashi-Iyayama and Nishi-Iyayama; 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_