Kushima-shi

In the 2020 Population Census the population was 16,822, shrunk to about seventeen thousand. Because this city did not pass through the Heisei mergers and walked independently, there is no merger-derived step in its recent population. From the 23,647 of 2000, to the 22,118 of 2005, the 20,453 of 2010, the 18,779 of 2015, and the 16,822 of 2020, nearly seven thousand were lost over twenty years.

Looking inside, the figure of a city of the prefecture’s southernmost cape raising its age greatly appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 29.8% in 2000 to 38.3% in 2015 and 42.8% in 2020, passing well beyond four in ten. The household-with-children share is 16.3% in 2020, and the crude birth rate is 5.3 per thousand in 2020. 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. The figure shows in the numbers: the land of the prefecture’s southernmost cape, losing population while remaining independent without a merger. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the position of the prefecture’s southernmost cape, the wild horses grazed for three hundred years, and the independent course.

What supports Kushima’s skeleton is the position of the prefecture’s southernmost cape, horses grazed for three hundred years, a hilly landform, and the independent course. The oldest layer is the prefecture’s southernmost cape. This land lies at the southernmost point of Miyazaki Prefecture, facing the Hyuga Sea to the east and Shibushi Bay to the south, holding at its southern end a cape thrusting out into the sea. It is far from the prefecture’s center, and the city area has little flatland and many hills. The position of the prefecture’s southernmost cape was this town’s foundation.

On this cape, a herd of horses of over three hundred years remained. In the Genroku era of the Edo period, the domain set a pasture on this cape, and ever since has released the horses in a near-natural form with almost no human hand added. The herd of horses, having repeated generations with their breeding left to nature, is chosen as a National Natural Monument, as one of the few native horses remaining in Japan. The cape’s grassland and the herd of horses have set the scenery of this land. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. In the middle of the Showa era this town became a city by becoming one with the surrounding towns and villages, but it did not join the mergers of the Heisei era, and walked independently. The prefecture’s southernmost cape, the horses grazed for three hundred years, the land of many hills, and the independent course — this town’s form stands upon the past of grazing and independence that the cape thrusting out at the prefecture’s southernmost point inscribed.

What characterizes Kushima is that, while it holds the past of wild horses grazed for three hundred years, it is losing population, independently, without a merger. From the 23,647 of 2000 to the 16,822 of 2020, nearly seven thousand were lost over twenty years. Even in this land far from the prefecture’s center, with little flatland, one can read that much of the younger generation moved toward the larger cities, and the town’s age as a whole rose greatly. That the share aged 65 and over passed well beyond four in ten at 42.8% 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 16.3% in 2020, and the crude birth rate is 5.3 per thousand 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. The land of the prefecture’s southernmost cape is now walking, without a merger and independently, while losing population. A fall of nearly seven thousand over twenty years, an aging passing well beyond four in ten, finances thin on tax revenue alone — these are separate numbers, yet upon the same position of a cape farthest from the prefecture’s center, they are entangled into one through the outflow of the younger generation. It is not a town that can be measured by pulling out a single number.

The distinctive roles Kushima has held on this cape can be counted several over. One is that it holds the past of the prefecture’s southernmost cape, lying at the southernmost point of Miyazaki Prefecture, facing the Hyuga Sea to the east and Shibushi Bay to the south. Another is that it holds the character of horses grazed for three hundred years — released in a near-natural form with almost no human hand added for over three hundred years, since the domain set a pasture in the Edo period. And it holds the face of a land of many hills, far from the prefecture’s center, with little flatland and many hills. The position of the prefecture’s southernmost point has held within it both the cape thrusting out into the sea and the grazing horses of that cape.

Kushima is a town where a cape thrusting out at the prefecture’s southernmost point held horses grazed for three hundred years. From the position of the prefecture’s southernmost cape, to the horses grazed for three hundred years, the land of many hills, and the independent course — the geography of "the southernmost cape of Miyazaki Prefecture" left the grazing horses with no human hand added, held the hilly life of little flatland, and set the town’s shape. At the southernmost point of Miyazaki Prefecture, on this cape thrusting out flanked by the Hyuga Sea to the east and Shibushi Bay to the south, the grazing horses with no human hand added and the independent course overlap.