Kirishima-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 123,000 (123,135 in 2020). What I want to note first here is that this city’s population statistics begin in 2010. Kirishima City was born in 2005 when one city and six towns were established anew by merger, and figures as a single city before that do not exist. That the starting point is a post-merger year is because the city itself came into being through that merger.

On that basis, looking at the post-merger inside, it has stayed at a gentle decrease of only some four thousand over ten years, from 127,487 in 2010 to 123,135 in 2020. While many cities of Kyushu lose population greatly, this mildness of decrease stands out. The under-15 population fell by some eighteen hundred, from 19,305 in 2010 to 17,537 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 22.3% in 2010 to 27.5% in 2020. The household-with-children share is 20.8% (2020), the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.54 in fiscal 2023. The figure shows in the numbers: a hub city born of merger, holding down its population decrease to a gentle pace while gathering years. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of merger and industry.

Kirishima City was born in 2005 when one city and six towns — Kokubu City and the towns of Mizobe, Yokogawa, Makizono, Kirishima, Hayato and Fukuyama of Aira County — were established anew by merger. The city’s name was taken not from Kokubu, the most populous of the merged municipalities, but from "Mount Kirishima," the famed peak that rises over this area. That, in bringing several towns together on equal footing, the name not of a particular former city but of a mountain symbolizing the whole region was chosen, tells the story of this city’s making.

The Kokubu–Hayato area that became the center of this city area had advanced its industrial concentration even before the merger. With the junction of nearby Kagoshima Airport and the Kyushu Expressway at its back, this region received the designation of the Kokubu-Hayato Technopolis, and factories of electronic parts and precision machinery located here. The convenience of air and land bred an industrial hub in the south of Kyushu.

On the other hand, this city area also holds mountains of myth and faith. Mount Kirishima, counted among Japan’s hundred famous mountains, Kirishima Shrine at its foot, and hot-spring areas such as the Kirishima hot-spring district and Hinatayama hot spring spread across the city’s north. A modern industrial hub and a mountain of myth with its hot springs dwell together in one city area. One city and six towns merged on equal footing, industry gathered with the airport and expressway at its back, and to the north of it a famed peak of myth rises — the present Kirishima’s form stands upon this past of merger and industry.

What characterizes Kirishima is that, while many cities of Kyushu lose population greatly, it holds its decrease to a gentle pace. In the ten years after the merger the total population stayed at a decrease of only some four thousand, and the decrease of the under-15 population, at some eighteen hundred, is mild compared with the shrinking neighboring cities. One can read that the industrial concentration, with the junction of the airport and the expressway at its back, has kept the working places of the younger generation to a certain degree in this land and held back the outflow of population.

Yet even within that mildness, aging is advancing. The share aged 65 and over rose by more than five points over ten years. While the strength as an industrial hub upholds the total population, the nationwide currents of a thinning birth and aging surely reach this city too. The city, holding mountains of myth and hot springs in its north and an industrial concentration at its center, is now holding down its decrease with the strength of that industry, while inside it gathers years steadily. A gently decreasing total population, a thinning of children, advancing aging — these three move in parallel within the same hub city, and the power of industry to hold people and the nationwide current of birth decline appear in the numbers, contending with one another.

In Kirishima, several faces of differing character overlap. One is its very making — one city and six towns merged on equal footing, and the name of a mountain symbolizing the region was chosen for the city. That a mountain’s name, rather than a particular former city’s name, was given expresses the character of a city in which several towns became one. Another is the industrial concentration with the junction of Kagoshima Airport and the Kyushu Expressway at its back, the hub character where factories of electronic parts and precision machinery locate. And it also holds the layers of myth, faith and tourism in Mount Kirishima, one of Japan’s hundred famous mountains, Kirishima Shrine, and the hot-spring district.

Upon the landform of the inner end of Kinko Bay, first the junction of air and land called in industry, and to its north a famed peak of myth rises. The merger of one city and six towns bound them into one city area, and gave it the name of a mountain rather than that of a particular former city — in this order the outline of Kirishima, where a mountain of myth and a modern industry dwell together, is drawn. It is a town where the geography of "industry gathering with the junction of air and land at its back, and a famed peak of myth rising to its north" called in at once an industrial hub and a mountain’s name.