Aso-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 25,000 (24,930 in 2020). Because this city was established in 2005 by binding two towns of the fire mountain’s depression and one village outside it anew into one, its population statistics as a city cover the period from 2005, after the merger, on. From the 29,636 of 2005, to the 28,444 of 2010, the 27,018 of 2015, and the 24,930 of 2020, it has decreased.

Looking inside, the figure of a village of the first-rank shrine opening on the floor of the fire mountain’s depression appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 35.7% in 2015 to 40.3% in 2020, passing four in ten. The household-with-children share is 17.1% in 2020, and the crude birth rate is 5.5 per thousand in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.34 in fiscal 2023 — a level able to cover only a little over three-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 village of the first-rank shrine, opening in the fire mountain’s depression, 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 fire mountain, the shrine and the merger.

What supports Aso’s past is the landform of a vast depression made when a fire mountain collapsed, the outer rim and the craters, the shrine that became the origin of the place name, and the three mergers. The oldest layer is the fire mountain and the depression. In this land, a great eruption of the distant past made a wide depression ringed by an outer rim of mountains, and on its floor fields and a village spread. At the center of the depression rise mountains holding craters that still raise smoke, and on their slopes grasslands spread, becoming a land for the grazing of cattle and horses. The fire mountain, and the depression its collapse made, are the foundation of this town.

On the floor of this depression there was an old shrine. A shrine, enshrined by a family that governed this land of old, is said to be the origin of the place name, and sits at the center of the village as the highest-ranking shrine of Higo Province. Before the gate of the shrine, a highway ran, and people and goods passed to and fro. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In 2005 the two towns of the fire mountain’s depression and the one village outside it were bound anew into one, and the present city was established. The fire mountain’s depression, the outer rim and the craters, the first-rank shrine, and the three mergers — the land that piled these four layers is the present Aso.

What characterizes Aso is that, while it holds the past of a village of the first-rank shrine opening in the fire mountain’s depression, it is losing population after the merger. From the 29,636 of 2005, when the city was established, to the 24,930 of 2020, some four thousand were lost over fifteen years. Even in this land that grazed cattle and horses on the grasslands of the fire mountain’s bounty, where a village flourished before the shrine’s gate, in a mountain land mainly of farming and grazing 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 four in ten at 40.3% 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 17.1% in 2020, and the crude birth rate is 5.5 per thousand in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.34 is a level able to cover only a little over three-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen in common across mountain lands mainly of farming and grazing. The population keeps falling, the aging passes four in ten, and the body of the finances is not thick on tax revenue alone. What overlap of numbers the village opening to the fire mountain’s bounty has now settled into — that comes into view only when population, age and finances are laid out on a single sheet.

The functions Aso holds are not one. There is the past of the fire mountain’s depression, where a great eruption of the distant past made a wide depression ringed by an outer rim of mountains and fields and a village spread on its floor. There is also the character of a land of craters and grazing, with mountains holding craters that raise smoke at the center of the depression, on whose slope grasslands cattle and horses have been grazed. And it holds the face of a village of the first-rank shrine, making the shrine that a family governing this land of old enshrined the origin of the place name, and placing it, as the highest-ranking shrine of Higo Province, at the center of the village. The landform of a depression made by the fire mountain’s collapse brought fields, grazing and the shrine alike to this land.

Aso is a town where a depression made by the fire mountain’s collapse held a village of the first-rank shrine. From the fire mountain’s depression, to the outer rim and the craters, the first-rank shrine, and the three mergers, what set the skeleton was the geography of "a vast depression made when a fire mountain collapsed." Stand on the floor ringed by the outer rim, and fields spread, and a crater raising smoke rises in the distance. The fire that threatened lives has, in the same place, raised fields and grasslands — that nearness is the touch of this village.