In this town, two chimneys stand up toward the sky. Once this land held the largest coal mine in Chikuho, and beneath those chimneys countless people dug coal. That coal song that begins "the moon has come out" was born in this town. The chimneys it sang of — "so tall the chimneys, the moon must be smoky" — still remain, two of them, in the sky. After the age of coal departed, this company town that kept its two chimneys walked on alone, without merging, quietly losing population. Tagawa’s numbers are the record of a town in which the coal of Chikuho and a company town are inscribed.
A city that opens in the Tagawa basin, in the central part of Fukuoka Prefecture. The population fell from 54,027 in 2000 to 46,203 in 2020. This city did not go through the Heisei mergers and has walked on alone, so its recent population course has no step deriving from a merger. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a city of Chikuho," but the causal thread: how the history of the coal of Chikuho and a company town is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Tagawa in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about 46,000 (46,203 in 2020). This city did not go through the Heisei mergers and has walked on alone, so its recent population course has no step deriving from a merger. From 54,027 in 2000, to 51,534 in 2005, to 50,605 in 2010, to 48,441 in 2015, to 46,203 in 2020, it has fallen.
Looking inside, the figure of a company town that has passed through the age of coal appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 32.0% in 2015 to 34.5% in 2020, well over three in ten. The household-with-children share is 18.3% (2020), and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.43 in fiscal 2023 — its own tax revenue can cover only a little over four-tenths of expenditure, a level with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. A town that was the company town of the largest coal mine in Chikuho loses population and advances its aging after the age of coal. To trace why this came to be, there is no way but to go back over the history of coal, the mine and a company town.
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 coal of Chikuho, the company town of the largest mine, two chimneys and a coal song, the walk alone — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by the coal of Chikuho, the company town of the largest mine that opened upon it, the two chimneys and a coal song, and the walk alone. The starting layer is coal. This land lies within the coal land called Chikuho, and as the modern era came in, the largest coal mine of Chikuho was opened here. The coal dug out became a force that moved the factories and railways of modern Japan. Coal, the blessing beneath the ground, was the foundation of this town.
Upon this coal land a company town stood. The largest mine called people, built dwellings, gave rise to commerce, and formed a company town. The two tall chimneys raised in 1908 were the symbol of that mine. That coal song that begins "the moon has come out" was born in this town and sang of the tall chimneys — "so tall, the moon must be smoky." The path to becoming a city also reflects this town. The city did not go through the Heisei mergers, and has walked on alone. In time, as the age of coal departed, the mine closed, and the two chimneys and the headframe of the shaft were left as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of the nation. The coal of Chikuho, the company town of the largest mine, two chimneys and a coal song, and the walk alone. The history of a mine, carved by a company town that opened upon a coal land, has set the present shape of the town.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
03 · In a company town that has passed through the age of coal, losing population while alone
What characterizes Tagawa is that, while it holds the history of the company town of the largest coal mine in Chikuho, it has been losing population alone, without merging, after the age of coal. From 54,027 in 2000 to 46,203 in 2020, some eight thousand were lost over twenty years. Even in this town where coal supported modern Japan, once the nation’s energy axis shifted from coal to oil, the mine closed, part of the young generation seeking work moved toward larger cities, and one can read that the age of the town as a whole rose. That the share aged 65 and over was well over three in ten at 34.5% in 2020 is an expression of that.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 18.3% (2020). The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.43 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover only a little over four-tenths of expenditure, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen commonly in lands whose core industry has departed. The population keeps declining, the aging approaches the mid-three-tenths, and the fiscal stamina is not thick by tax revenue alone. These are things that proceeded in linkage upon the history of a company town, and however you pull out a single number, you cannot grasp the whole picture of a company town.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A coal land became the company town of the largest mine in Chikuho
In Tagawa, several functions of differing histories are folded together. One is the old layer of a company town that opened upon the coal land called Chikuho and held the largest mine in the modern era. Another is its character as a land of the memory of coal: keeping the two tall chimneys raised in 1908 and the headframe of the shaft as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of the nation, and having given birth to the coal song that begins "the moon has come out." The landform of the Tagawa basin in central Fukuoka Prefecture, and the coal sleeping beneath it, drew the mine, and then the company town, into this land.
The Tagawa basin and the coal beneath it — first this condition existed, and it caused the mine to open and the company town to stand, fashioning the framework of the town. In the central part of Fukuoka Prefecture, a coal land and a company town overlap. The mine has long since closed, but the two tall chimneys raised in 1908 still stand side by side in the basin sky. Under the same sky where the coal song that begins "the moon has come out" was born.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
05 · Atlas’s note — a town that lost its mine kept the chimneys and the song without demolishing them
Lay out Tagawa’s numbers and the indicators of a company town that has passed through the age of coal line up: a population declining while alone, an aging rate of 34.5%, a household-with-children share of 18.3%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.43. But to my eye (Atlas), used to handling numbers, what I want to read here is the history that this town "was the company town of the largest coal mine in Chikuho, and still keeps its two chimneys." It dug the coal that moved modern Japan, called people, gave rise to dwellings and commerce, and stood a company town. But once the nation’s energy axis shifted from coal to oil, a core industry departed, and the town began to lose population. The course by which a town supported by the mine of a single company walked after losing that mine explains the town’s numbers well.
Another thing I want to consider is that this town "kept the memory of two chimneys and a coal song at the heart of the town." Even though the mine closed, the two tall chimneys of 1908 and the headframe of the shaft remain as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of the nation, and the coal song that begins "the moon has come out" is still sung on. The way of choosing — to leave that memory unerased at the heart of the town while losing a core industry — is peculiar to this town. What one thinks on hearing of a city of Chikuho that keeps its chimneys differs from person to person. Some see it by the distance to their workplace, some by the affordability of buying a home, some by where to let their children play. Where a town that lost its mine would ordinarily demolish the memory along with it and level the ground, Tagawa chose the side of keeping the two chimneys and the headframe of the shaft, and of singing the coal song on. To have turned the loss of an industry into the preservation of a memory at the town’s core — the trace of that choice remains, just as it is, behind the numbers today.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (wave31-west 2026-06-04)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave31w_