Miyazaki-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 401,000 (401,339 in 2020). From the 401,138 of 2015, it scarcely moved over five years and kept flat. Amid many regional prefectural capitals losing population, being nearly stationary is a conspicuous way of moving.

But even with the total flat, the inside is not stationary. Those under fifteen fell by some two thousand five hundred, from 56,273 (2015) to 53,799 (2020). In the same period the share aged 65 and over rose from 25.0% to 27.6%. Behind a total that does not move, an exchange is proceeding in which children fall and the elderly increase — that is, inflow and outflow are nearly in balance while only the generational composition shifts toward the elderly side. The household-with-children share is 19.9% (2020). The land price of residential land is around 56,000 yen per m² — the lowest among the three cities treated here. The Fiscal Capacity Index is 0.69, a structure in which the part below 1.0 is made up by the local allocation tax. This is a level broadly seen in regional capitals without the heavy and large coastal industry of a place like Oita, and is the appearance of a difference in industrial composition, not a matter of good or bad. The Childcare Waitlist is 0 (2025). Why these numbers take this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the land of myth, the prefectural capital and tourism.

Miyazaki’s skeleton is made of the foundation of a prefectural capital opening onto a plain and the memory of tourism overlaid on it later. This land has been known from old as the stage of the Hyuga myths, and to Miyazaki Jingu is tied the tradition that Emperor Jimmu set out eastward from Hyuga. As historical geography would say, it is a land with the place of myth and faith as its backdrop. In 1873 Mimitsu Prefecture and the eastern half of Miyakonojo Prefecture merged, and Miyazaki Prefecture was placed over nearly the territory of the old Hyuga Province, Miyazaki becoming its capital. The present skeleton of a plain-side prefectural capital was fixed here.

What made this town’s name known across the country was post-war tourism. In 1960, taking as an opening the choice of Miyazaki as the honeymoon destination for a marriage from the imperial family into the Shimazu family, Miyazaki drew nationwide attention through the 1960s and 1970s as "the mecca of the honeymoon." The warm climate and the phoenix-palm avenues became a byword for "the southern country," and the phoenix palm was designated the prefectural tree in 1966. As tourism economics would say, it was a period in which tourism-development, taking the image itself as a resource, advanced all at once.

Even after the boom settled, development centered on tourism continued. Under the 1987 Resort Law, the Seagaia complex on the Miyazaki Nichinan coast received the first designation, and opened in 1993 (its operating company filed for application of the Corporate Reorganization Law in 2001). Beginning as a land of myth, becoming a prefectural capital, and being known across the country as a tourist site of the southern-country image — the present of Miyazaki is made of these three layers piled on the plain.

What characterizes Miyazaki is that, while the total population scarcely moves over five years, the number of children alone falls by some two thousand five hundred. The total flat while children fall is a way of moving different both from a town like Tachikawa, where children are kept flat amid an increasing population, and from a town like Nagasaki, where the total and the children both fall together. Inflow and outflow are nearly in balance and the scale is kept, but within it the exchange of generations proceeds, and the share of the elderly alone rises — this is the change happening inside numbers that look stationary.

The Childcare Waitlist is 0. The household-with-children share is 19.9%, and the zero waitlist can be read as a balance in which supply has caught up with demand amid children falling. Though not as sudden as in Nagasaki, in Miyazaki too the absolute number of children is on the falling side, and the zero is amid that. The total does not move, so it looks stable. But within it children fall, and the elderly pass a quarter. Both the flat total and the zero waitlist, unless read as a set with that exchange, will be taken at face value and their meaning mistaken.

The functions Miyazaki holds are not one. The backdrop of the stage of the Hyuga myths, and Miyazaki Jingu, tied to the tradition of Emperor Jimmu’s eastward expedition, leave the old layer of faith of this land. It holds the administrative central function of the capital of the prefecture placed over the territory of the old Hyuga Province. And the image of "the southern country, Miyazaki," inscribed across the country in the Showa honeymoon boom — the phoenix-palm avenues, the scenery of the Nichinan coast, the Seagaia of the first Resort Law designation, and other tourism resources still shape this town’s character.

The origin as a land of myth, the function as a prefectural capital, and the image of a southern-country tourist site are all, in origin, set upon the same location: a plain of warm climate. This capital, without heavy and large industry, has made administration, tourism, and the geography of the plain itself its resources. The three layers of myth, administration and tourism fold together upon the same single foundation — the plain — to set the present form of Miyazaki.