Kunisaki-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 26,000 (26,232 in 2020). Because this city was established in 2006 by binding four towns newly into one, its population statistics for the city area cover the period from 2010, after the merger, on — the period the Census reflects. From the 32,002 of that 2010, it has decreased greatly, to 28,647 in 2015 and 26,232 in 2020.

Looking inside, the figure of a city of a peninsula of the Land of the Buddha appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 40.3% in 2015 to 43.1% in 2020, passing well beyond four in ten. The household-with-children share, at 13.5% in 2020, is low, and the crude birth rate, at 4.2 per thousand in 2020, is also low. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.29 in fiscal 2023 — a level able to cover only a little under 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 peninsula of the Land of the Buddha, advancing its aging while losing population greatly after the merger. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the peninsula, the temples, the airport and the merger.

What supports Kunisaki’s past is the landform of a peninsula thrusting into the sea, temples scattered valley by valley, a syncretic Buddhist-Shinto culture, a port of the sky, and the merger of four towns. The oldest layer is the peninsula and the temples. This land opens onto the eastern half of a peninsula thrusting into the sea, where valleys extending radially descend to the sea. More than 1,300 years ago, it is said, one monk opened many temples across the peninsula, and temples were scattered valley by valley. The peninsula thrusting into the sea, and the temples of each valley, were the old foundation of this town.

At the temples of this peninsula a syncretic Buddhist-Shinto culture grew. Mountain worship and the teaching of the Buddha melted together, leaving stone Buddhas and stone pagodas in the valleys. At the old New Year a rite grew in which demons — said to be ancestors transformed — go around the settlements bearing torches, and it is still handed down at some of the temples as a Nationally Designated Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. On the seaside of the peninsula, in modern times, a large airport that serves as the prefecture’s gateway of the sky was placed. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In 2006 the four towns of the peninsula’s eastern half were bound newly into one, and the present city was established. The peninsula thrusting into the sea, the temples of each valley and the syncretism, the demon rite and the port of the sky, and the merger of four towns — this town’s form stands upon the past of temples and airport that the peninsula thrusting into the sea inscribed.

What characterizes Kunisaki is that, while it holds the past of a peninsula of the Land of the Buddha, it is losing population greatly after the merger. From the 32,002 of 2010, seen in the city area after the merger, to the 26,232 of 2020, nearly six thousand were lost over ten years. The fall is large. Even in this land where temples of more than 1,300 years are scattered valley by valley and the demon rite is handed down, because, in this peninsular land far from the large cities and divided valley by valley into settlements, some of the younger generation moved out of the town in search of work and study, one can read that the town’s age as a whole rose greatly. That the share aged 65 and over passed well beyond four in ten at 43.1% 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, at 13.5% in 2020, is low, and the crude birth rate, at 4.2 per thousand in 2020, is low as well. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.29 is a level able to cover only a little under three-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax seen in common across peninsular lands. Though on the seaside it holds an airport that serves as the prefecture’s gateway of the sky, the fall of population and the aging have advanced deeply. The peninsula of the Land of the Buddha is now losing population greatly and advancing its aging beyond four in ten after the merger. The radial valleys once bred, valley by valley, independent temples and faith. The same radial valleys are now a scattering hard to hold the younger generation in, expressed in the lowness of a household-with-children share of 13.5% and a crude birth rate of 4.2.

The functions Kunisaki holds are not one. It opens onto the eastern half of a peninsula thrusting into the sea, where valleys extending radially descend to the sea. Temples said to have been opened more than 1,300 years ago are scattered valley by valley, and it keeps a syncretic Buddhist-Shinto culture, in which mountain worship and the teaching of the Buddha melted together, and a rite in which demons go around bearing torches. And on the seaside of the peninsula is an airport that serves as the prefecture’s gateway of the sky.

From the peninsula thrusting into the sea, to the temples of each valley and the syncretism, the demon rite and the port of the sky, and the merger of four towns — the geography of "a peninsula thrusting into the sea, where radial valleys descend to the sea" bred the temples scattered valley by valley and held the port of the sky on the seaside. The temples of each valley and the port of the sky fold together in the same single place — the northeast of Oita Prefecture — to set the present form of Kunisaki.