Bungotakada-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 22,000 (22,112 in 2020). Because in 2005 the city that was the commercial center was bound on equal terms with two surrounding towns and established, the step in the population for the city area appears between 2000 and 2005, when the merger is reflected in the Census. Seen as the commercial-center city alone, the population was 18,506 in 2000; for the city area after the merger it was 25,114 in 2005, 23,906 in 2010, 22,853 in 2015, and 22,112 in 2020 — keeping around a level above twenty thousand.

Looking inside, the figure of a city of the commercial center of a peninsula holding a mountain Buddhist culture appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 37.2% in 2015 to 38.7% in 2020, nearing four in ten. The household-with-children share is 16.8% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.31 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 of a peninsula city that revived a declined shopping street as a Showa town, keeping its population around a level above twenty thousand after the merger, shows in the numbers. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the peninsula, Buddhism and commerce.

This town’s skeleton is set by the climate of a peninsula holding a mountain Buddhist culture, the commercial center of the north of the prefecture from the Edo period to the mid-Showa era, the revival of a declined shopping street, and the merger of two towns. The starting layer is the Buddhism of the peninsula. On the peninsula where this land opens, a mountain Buddhist culture flourished of old, and it is counted as one of its centers. A wooden hall of the Heian period is designated a National Treasure as one of the buildings of the oldest age in Kyushu. The mountain Buddhist culture was the old foundation of this land.

In the west of this peninsula, a commercial center grew. In the early Edo period this land became an exclave of one domain and an administrative office was placed, and from the Edo period to the mid-Showa era it flourished as the commercial center of the north of the prefecture. But left behind by the tide of the age, the shopping street declined, the shops closed, and the street fell silent. In time this town chose the path of reviving that declined street, mid-Showa air and all, and called people back from 2001 as the "Showa Town." The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In 2005 the city of the commercial center was bound on equal terms with two surrounding towns and established. The peninsula of mountain Buddhist culture, the commercial center of the north of the prefecture, the revival of a declined shopping street, and the merger of two towns — this town’s form stands upon the past of Buddhism and commerce that the peninsula of mountain Buddhist culture held.

What characterizes Bungotakada is that, while it holds the past of the peninsula of mountain Buddhism and a commercial center, it revived a declined shopping street as a Showa town and keeps its population around a level above twenty thousand. The 18,506 of 2000, seen as the commercial-center city alone, became 25,114 in 2005 in the city area bound with two towns, and from there it has kept around a level above twenty thousand at the 22,112 of 2020. Even in this land that flourished as the commercial center of the north of the prefecture, the shopping street left behind by the tide of the age declined once, and some of the younger generation moved toward the larger cities, and the town’s age as a whole rose. Even so, one can read that the effort of reviving the declined shopping street as a Showa town and calling people back has somewhat eased the fall of population.

On the other hand, the share aged 65 and over neared four in ten at 38.7% in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 16.8% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.31 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. The commercial center of the peninsula of mountain Buddhism now, while reviving a declined shopping street as a Showa town, keeps its population around a level above twenty thousand and advances its aging to near four in ten. Amid many regional cities taking on the decline of their shopping streets as it is, this town turned the declined street into a resource. That is why the population holds out at nearly flat — here is the trace of a choice that turned decline into revival.

The functions Bungotakada holds are not one. A mountain Buddhist culture flourished of old, and a wooden hall of the oldest age in Kyushu, of the Heian period, remains as a National Treasure. From the Edo period to the mid-Showa era it flourished as the commercial center of the north of the prefecture, and revived a once-declined shopping street, mid-Showa air and all.

From the mountain Buddhist culture, to the commercial center of the north of the prefecture, the revival of a declined shopping street, and the merger of two towns — the geography of "a land facing the Suo Sea in the west of the Kunisaki Peninsula" raised the mountain Buddhist culture and stood up the commercial center. The peninsula of mountain Buddhism and the commercial center are folded together in the same single place of the northern part of Oita Prefecture, and set the present form of Bungotakada.