70 Years of Kaita Town, Mayor of Etajima City in Recovery, Fuchu Town Delays “Transition to City” – Is it the System or the People that Determines How Small Municipalities Continue?

A photo of a child riding a police motorcycle was posted on Kaita Town’s social media. It was a commemorative event for the 70th anniversary of the town’s establishment. Approximately 150 booths lined the area, attracting many families.

In the same Hiroshima Prefecture, the mayor of Etajima City has entered recovery, and the vice mayor is acting as the deputy to manage the city’s affairs. In Fuchu Town, the implementation of a resident survey regarding the transition to city status has been postponed.

These three municipalities are at three different stages. However, when viewed from a distance, they all stand on the same question — “Who will continue this municipality, and through what mechanisms?”

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70 Years of Kaita Town — What Was Confirmed Through Celebration?

Kaita Town has a population of approximately 31,000 (as of 2024). Located adjacent to Hiroshima City, it is a transportation hub at the junction of the JR Sanyo and Kure lines. Manufacturing businesses are concentrated here, resulting in a daytime population that exceeds the nighttime population — in other words, it is a town with many people coming to work.

The 70th anniversary event was held in May 2025. It featured a market, food booths, stage events, and a police motorcycle riding experience. The town hall positioned this as “an opportunity to reflect on 70 years of history while finding hope for the future.”

It is noteworthy that this event was not just a celebration but also a venue for reaffirming the town’s identity. Kaita Town was one of the municipalities that chose not to merge with Hiroshima City during the “Heisei Great Merger” period. With a population of 30,000, it meets the criteria for transitioning to a “city” nationwide, yet Kaita Town has deliberately chosen to remain a “town.”

The 70 years represent the accumulation of that choice. Behind the act of celebration lies a subtle but certain question: “Can we continue as a town?” The waves of declining birth rates and an aging population are not exceptions for Kaita Town. The manufacturing sector, a pillar of the local economy, cannot be deemed secure amid global structural changes. How to design a mechanism for “continuation” in the next decade is crucial. The 70th anniversary could serve as a starting point for that.

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Etajima City — What Drives a Municipality When the Leader is Absent?

Etajima City has a population of about 20,000. It is a municipality located on an island in the Seto Inland Sea, known for housing a training institution of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. In recent years, it has focused on promoting tourism centered around migration and cycling.

In this Etajima City, the mayor has entered recovery. Currently, the vice mayor is acting as the deputy to manage the city’s affairs.

What we need to ask here is not whether “it is okay without the mayor.” Rather, it is the opposite — how well is the mechanism functioning in the absence of the mayor? That is a key indicator of the municipality’s “resilience.”

According to local government law, the vice mayor can act on behalf of the mayor. Budget execution and responses to the city council can proceed without interruption in theory. However, the system and reality are two different matters. Policies that have relied on the mayor’s leadership — such as branding for promoting migration and developing tourism resources — may lose momentum due to the absence of a leader.

In municipalities of around 20,000 people, the presence of the mayor is significant. Given the closer distance to residents, there may have been a functioning circuit where “if I speak directly to the mayor, something can be done.” When that circuit is temporarily closed, what will function in its place? The judgment of the vice mayor, the on-site capabilities of the staff, or perhaps the residents’ own sense of autonomy?

It is natural to wish for the mayor’s swift recovery. However, at the same time, this period serves as a time for Etajima City to test the strength of its “non-dependence on individuals” mechanism. Personal leadership and a decision-making system designed as a framework are both necessary; without them, small municipalities cannot continue.

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Fuchu Town — Stalled Just Before the Choice to “Become a City”

Fuchu Town is uniquely located, surrounded entirely by Hiroshima City. Its population is approximately 51,000. As one of the largest towns in Japan, it meets the population requirement of 50,000 for transitioning to city status, and discussions about “independent city status” have been simmering for some time.

In 2025, the town planned to conduct a resident survey regarding the transition to city status. However, this has been postponed. The mayor expressed, “I cannot understand why the prefecture has brought up the issue of increased burden fees at this time.”

This statement is rooted in a review of burden fees related to fire services in Hiroshima Prefecture. If Fuchu Town were to transition to a city, it would need to handle some of the administrative tasks currently managed through the prefecture, potentially increasing its financial burden. The town is in the process of preparing materials to explain to residents, “This is how things will change if we become a city,” when an external factor of increased costs has intruded.

What is visible here is a structure where the decision-making that shapes the form of the municipality is shaken in places beyond the residents’ reach. Transitioning to city status offers benefits such as enhanced resident services and strengthened financial foundations, but it also poses risks of increased costs due to the loss of subsidies from the prefecture and the framework of wide-area administration. Accurately illustrating that break-even point is, in fact, extremely challenging.

The mayor’s words reflect frustration over the fact that the initiative for system design lies outside the municipality. However, at the same time, for residents, the only fact that remains is that “the survey has been postponed.” Time passes without the arrival of decision-making materials. The question of whether to become a city is directly related to the very shape of life for the residents of Fuchu Town. How aware are stakeholders of the weight of postponing the opportunity to confront that question due to external factors?

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Common Structure Among the Three Municipalities — What Supports “Continuance”?

Kaita Town has continued to choose to “remain a town” for 70 years. Etajima City is being tested on the strength of its mechanisms for “continuance” in the absence of its leader. Fuchu Town is exploring a path to “continuance” through a change in form from “town to city,” but it is currently stalled at the entrance.

What is common among the three is that the “way of continuing the municipality” is a problem that spans both systems and people.

A system alone is not sufficient. Without the personal capabilities of the leader and the residents’ sense of ownership, the mechanisms become hollow. Conversely, if one relies solely on individuals, the municipality will falter when that person is gone. How thick of an “intermediate layer” — the judgment of staff, the self-sufficiency of community organizations, and the experience of consensus-building among residents — can be established between the system and the people? That will determine the sustainability of small municipalities.

Hiroshima Prefecture has 23 cities and towns, of which 9 are towns. All are facing pressures from population decline and aging. About 20 years have passed since the “Heisei Great Merger,” and both municipalities that did not merge and those that were formed through mergers are being asked, in their own ways, “How will we continue from here?”

At the 70th anniversary event of Kaita Town, the child riding the police motorcycle is likely a part of the town’s future population. The days when the vice mayor serves as a proxy in Etajima City may one day be looked back upon as a time when “the mechanism functioned.” Will the resident survey in Fuchu Town disappear while postponed, or will it be reset?

Ultimately, what determines how small municipalities continue is not just the system or the mayor, but the alignment of the residents’ desire to “continue” and the mechanisms that support it. That alignment is currently being tested in each of the three towns from different angles.