Itoshima-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 99,000 (98,877 in 2020). What should be noted first is that this city’s population statistics begin in 2010. Itoshima City was born in 2010 from the merger of Maebaru City and two towns, and does not connect continuously with the single municipalities before it. Seen after the merger, from the 98,435 of 2010 it slipped slightly to 96,475 in 2015 and returned to 98,877 in 2020. It is nearly flat over ten years — rather, slightly increased — a rare thing among regional cities, many of which lose population.

Looking inside, the decline of children is shallow too. Those under fifteen fell only by some five hundred over ten years, from 14,165 in 2010 to 13,669 in 2020. The aging rate rose from 21.9% in 2010 to 29.9% in 2020. The household-with-children share is a high 23.8%, the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.56 in fiscal 2023. This peninsular town adjoining the prefectural capital has kept its total population after the merger nearly flat and held the layer of children to a shallow decline. This tenacity, amid the many regional cities that lose population, comes from two things — its standing as a key place of ancient history where the Ito state flourished in the Yayoi period, and its nearness as the neighbor of Fukuoka City.

Itoshima’s skeleton is set by the history of a peninsular land where people have gathered since antiquity. In the Yayoi period, the Ito state, whose name survives in the Chinese chronicle the "Account of the Wa" in the Wei Chronicle, is held to have flourished in this district. As a key place that crossed with the continent by way of the sea, this peninsula occupied a corner of the ancient world of Wa. The nearness of being the neighbor of the prefectural capital is the extension of its having been, since antiquity, a land through which people and goods passed.

What preserves that ancient thickness as material proof is the Hirabaru Site. From this site within the city, a naikoka-mon mirror — one of the largest bronze mirrors in Japan — was excavated and designated a National Treasure. That so great a mirror came from a Yayoi tomb tells that this land was, in antiquity, no mere frontier but a place where wealth and authority gathered. In the place-name "Itoshima" too remains the ancient echo that runs through to the Ito state.

And the present city was born in 2010 (Heisei 22) from the merger of Maebaru City and Nijo and Shima Towns. This peninsula adjoining Fukuoka City now bears the role, as the edge of the prefectural capital’s metropolitan sphere, of receiving the population of the outskirts. Beginning as a key place of antiquity where the Ito state flourished, leaving the memory of wealth at the Hirabaru Site, becoming a city by merger, and now receiving people next to the prefectural capital — this town’s form stands upon the history of an ancient key place and the outskirts of Fukuoka.

What characterizes Itoshima is that its total population after the merger has stayed nearly flat, and what is more, the decline of children is shallow. That the total population rather slightly increased over ten years, and that those under fifteen fell only by some five hundred, can be read as an expression of how the location — a peninsula adjoining Fukuoka City — has drawn young households from the prefectural capital’s metropolitan sphere. While children fall greatly in many regional cities, this town has held the layer of children to a shallow decline. The high household-with-children share of 23.8% bears this out as well.

In living infrastructure too, this outskirts-character works. That it lies within commuting distance of the prefectural capital, Fukuoka City, has given this town its character as a place to live. On the other hand, the aging rate rose eight points over ten years; in parallel with the inflow of young households, the aging of the long-resident generation is also proceeding. The Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. The key place of antiquity where the Ito state flourished now, next to the prefectural capital, holds both the keeping of its total and the thickness of the layer of children, while bearing the aging of the long-resident generation. The flat total, the shallow decline of children, and the advancing aging are separate reflections of the same single location — a peninsula adjoining Fukuoka City — drawing in young households while also bearing the aging of the generation that settled early.

Itoshima has several faces peculiar to a peninsula open to the sea. The history of a key place of ancient history, where the Ito state flourished in the Yayoi period and a National-Treasure bronze mirror was left at the Hirabaru Site, holding the memory of a land that crossed with the continent by way of the sea. The geography of a peninsula adjoining Fukuoka City, the face of a land that now receives the population of the outskirts as the edge of the prefectural capital’s metropolitan sphere. And the face of a place of farming, fishery and tourism, given by the landform of a peninsula ringed by sea and mountains.

Itoshima is a town where a key place of antiquity lies next to the prefectural capital. Standing on the shore of the peninsula, one feels it in the body. On the same coastline where, long ago, people and goods came up from this sea from the continent, and a National-Treasure bronze mirror was laid in the tomb of the king of the Ito state, the cars of young households who moved from Fukuoka City and of those who visit on weekends for the sea now line up. The role, since antiquity, of gathering people by way of the sea goes on still, in a changed form.