Ibusuki-shi

In the 2020 Population Census the population stays at 39,011 — about thirty-nine thousand. This city’s population has a step due to a new merger. Ibusuki City, in 2006, merged anew with Yamagawa and Kaimon Towns to reach its present city area. The former Ibusuki City’s 30,640 of 2000 and 29,649 of 2005 before the merger rose, in 2010 when the two towns were added, to 44,396 — an increase of some fifteen thousand. From there it has decreased gently after the merger, to 41,831 in 2015 and 39,011 in 2020.

Looking inside, the figure of a sightseeing land at the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula deepening its aging appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 25.5% in 2000 to 39.5% in 2020, drawing near four in ten. The household-with-children share is low, at 16.3% in 2020, and 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 about a third of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large dependence on the allocation tax. The figure shows in the numbers: the town of the sand-steam bath, losing population and deepening its aging after the merger, with finances upheld by the allocation tax. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of geothermal heat and the hot springs.

Ibusuki’s frame is set by the geography of the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula, which holds geothermal heat. The old layer is the hot spring. On the shore of this land, high-temperature hot water welling from underground warms the sand, and bathing called the "sand-steam," in which one buries the body in that sand, has long been practiced. This bathing, in which one lies in sand warmed by geothermal heat, has few other examples, and it made this land known as a hot-spring district. Geothermal heat, a blessing of the land, set the oldest foundation of this town.

And behind this town rises a mountain of a beautiful conical form. This Mount Kaimon, also called Satsuma Fuji, is counted among the famed mountains of Japan and has become the symbol of this land’s scenery. Nearby, the largest lake in Kyushu, born by the working of a volcano some 6,400 years ago, holds its waters. From the lake one can command Satsuma Fuji, and together with the hot springs it raised this land as a sightseeing land. Hot water in which geothermal heat warms the sand, and scenery commanding a Satsuma Fuji — this town’s form stands upon the past held by the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula, a geography of geothermal heat and volcanoes.

What characterizes Ibusuki is that, while it holds the past of the sand-steam bath and a Satsuma Fuji, it is losing population and deepening its aging after widening its city area through a new merger. From the 44,396 of 2010, when the two towns were added, to the 39,011 of 2020, some five thousand were lost over ten years. In this land at the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula, distant from Kagoshima City, one can read that the current of the younger generation moving to the city continues. As a regional city based on sightseeing, the population has decreased gently. That the share aged 65 and over draws near four in ten at 39.5% in 2020 is also an expression of that population composition.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero. Against the fallen population, one can read that the receiving capacity for childcare is kept. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.34 is a level able to cover only about a third of expenditure with its own tax revenue, with a large dependence on the allocation tax. As a regional city at the southern end of a peninsula, based on sightseeing and farming, it mirrors that its own tax source has its limit. The town of the sand-steam bath is now, after a new merger, losing population and deepening its aging, while keeping a zero waitlist and with finances upheld by the allocation tax. A falling population, an aging nearing four in ten, weakish finances — these, while separate numbers, upon the same site of the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula, with sightseeing and farming as its footing, are bound to one another through the outflow of the younger generation. With a single number alone, the figure of the town at the southern end of a peninsula cannot be drawn.

The roles Ibusuki has held at this southern end of the peninsula can be counted in several. One is the past of the sand-steam — hot water welling from underground warms the sand, and one bathes by burying the body in that sand — holding the old layer of a bathing with few other examples. Another is the scenery of Mount Kaimon, also called Satsuma Fuji and counted among the famed mountains of Japan, keeping the symbol of this land. And the largest lake in Kyushu, born by the working of a volcano, gives this town the structure proper to it of a sightseeing land commanding a Satsuma Fuji.

Ibusuki is a hot-spring district where geothermal heat warms the sand and one commands a Satsuma Fuji. From the shore where geothermal heat warms the sand, to the scenery commanding a Satsuma Fuji, and to a sightseeing land holding a great lake — the geography of "the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula holding geothermal heat and volcanoes" drew the hot water of the sand-steam and the scenery of a Satsuma Fuji, and set the form of the town. In this belt at the southern end of the Satsuma Peninsula, holding geothermal heat and volcanoes, the hot water that warms the sand, the scenery commanding a Satsuma Fuji, and the largest lake in Kyushu that the volcano bore overlap into one.