Okayama
Kibi Kingdom 20,000+ years old, Edo rice storehouses, now JFE Steel and Japan's jeans capital (Kojima). 2026: industrial-cultural mix sustaining population.
Okayama exists where ancient kingdom meets industrial district. The Kibi Plain, settled over 20,000 years ago, hosted one of Japan's earliest kingdoms—remnants visible in burial mounds predating the Yamato state. During Tokugawa rule, Kurashiki served as rice distribution center, its white-walled storehouses still lining canals. In the Meiji era, those storehouses stored textiles instead of rice.
Today, the industrial logic has shifted again. Mizushima Industrial District in Kurashiki hosts JFE Steel and Mitsubishi Motors—you can tour the entire car manufacturing process. But Kurashiki's most distinctive industry is smaller: the Kojima district was Japan's first denim producer, and it remains "the jeans capital of Japan." Small workshops using traditional machines and dyeing techniques attract designers from global fashion houses.
The combination creates economic resilience. Population: 1.8 million. Kurashiki alone: 475,000. The manufacturing base spans petroleum, chemicals, steel, and automobiles, while craft production (jeans, Bizen pottery) and cultural tourism (Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter) diversify income. By 2026, Okayama tests whether mid-sized Japanese cities can sustain population through industrial-cultural mix—neither purely factory nor purely heritage, but both.