Uki-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 57,000 (57,032 in 2020). Because this city was established in 2005 by binding five towns anew into one, its population statistics as a city cover the period from 2005, after the establishment, on. From the 63,089 of 2005, through the 61,878 of 2010 and the 59,756 of 2015, to the 57,032 of 2020, some six thousand have been lost over fifteen years.

Looking inside, the figure of a city caught between two seas raising its age appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 31.4% in 2015 to 34.9% in 2020, passing three in ten by a wide margin. The household-with-children share is 21.2% (2020), and the crude birth rate is 6.2 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.40 in fiscal 2023 — a level able to cover only four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The figure shows in the numbers: a land that holds a Meiji harbor work as a World Heritage, advancing its aging while losing population after the merger. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the Meiji harbor work, Shiranui, and the merger of five towns.

What supports Uki’s past is the landform caught between two seas, the harbor work of the Meiji age, the mirage of Shiranui, and the merger of five towns. The oldest layer is the land caught between two seas. This land opens in the central part of Kumamoto Prefecture, caught between the Ariake Sea to the north and the Yatsushiro Sea to the south. The position caught between two seas is this town’s foundation.

On the coast of this land a great harbor was built in the Meiji age. The stone-piled quay assembled by Western technique is counted as one of the three great harbor works of modern Japan, still remains in nearly its very form, and was later added to the World Heritage. In the sea spreading off the south of this land, it is said, in old times an unexplainable mirage like fire was seen, and an old legend remains, which became the name of one town. The path to becoming a city also reflects this town. In 2005, the five towns caught between two seas were bound anew into one, and the present city was established. The land caught between two seas, the Meiji harbor work, the mirage of Shiranui, and the merger of five towns — the land that piled these four layers is the present Uki.

What characterizes Uki is that, while it holds the past of a Meiji harbor work and Shiranui, it is losing population after the merger. From the 63,089 of 2005, when the city was established, to the 57,032 of 2020, some six thousand were lost over fifteen years. Even in this land that holds a Meiji harbor work added to the World Heritage, one can read that some of the younger generation moved toward the larger cities, and the town’s age as a whole rose. That the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten by a wide margin at 34.9% in 2020 is an expression of that.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, the household-with-children share is 21.2% (2020), and the crude birth rate is 6.2 per thousand in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.40 is a level able to cover only four-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen in common across lands caught between two seas. The population fell by some six thousand over fifteen years, the aging passed three in ten by a wide margin, and the body of the finances is thin on tax revenue alone. What overlap of numbers the land holding a Meiji harbor work has now settled into — that comes into view only when population, age and finances are laid out on a single sheet.

The functions Uki holds are not one. There is the past of a land caught between two seas, the Ariake Sea to the north and the Yatsushiro Sea to the south. There is also the character of a Meiji harbor work, leaving the stone-piled quay assembled by Western technique as one of the three great harbor works of modern Japan, and later adding it to the World Heritage. And it holds the face of the land of Shiranui, making the unexplainable mirage seen in the southern sea the name of a town. The position caught between two seas brought both the Meiji harbor work and the mirage of Shiranui to this land.

Uki is a town where a land caught between two seas held a Meiji harbor work and Shiranui. From the land caught between two seas, to the Meiji harbor work, the mirage of Shiranui, and the merger of five towns, what set the skeleton was the geography of "a land caught between the Ariake Sea and the Yatsushiro Sea." While many modern harbors changed their form through repair, the stone-piled quay here remained in its Meiji form. That it was left untouched turned, later, into the value of a World Heritage.