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Street scenes during the Taisho period (1912-1926)
It is said that Fukuyama originated in 1619, when Mizuno Katsunari who had become the feudal lord of 100,000 koku (a koku is approximately 180 liters of rice or in this case the "land necessary to produce that rice.") of the Bingo area named the territory "Fukuyama". Thereafter it developed as a castle town and the foundation of present-day Fukuyama was formed.
Under the municipal system in 1889, it became Fukuyama-cho (Fukuyama Town) and played a central role in regional administration. In 1891, the opening of the "Sanyo Main Railroad" helped the formation of the city base. In 1916, under enforcement of the municipal system, "Fukuyama City" was born with a population of 32,356 people.
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1961 Electrification of area between Okayama and Mihara on Sanyo Railroad
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Ten connecting villages were annexed in 1933, and two more in 1942, expanding the city. In 1945, 80 percent of the city was lost to the fires caused by an air raid. Since then the city has seen a striking recovery. Ten more towns and villages were added in 1956. The infrastructure for national highways progressed, such that Fukuyama rapidly grew as a strategic industrial, cultural, and transportation hub connecting both the San-in and Sanyo regions to the Shikoku area.
1961 Front of Fukuyama Station
From olden times Fukuyama was the regional base of textile production, but when Fukuyama was selected as the location of what was considered the world's largest single factory steel plant in 1961, the industrial outlook of the city changed greatly. When Fukuyama received designation as a "Special Industrial Development Region" in 1964, it began to convert to a heavy industrial city supporting the national economy.
Fukuyama continued annexing surrounding areas: Fukayasu-cho in 1962, Matsunaga City in 1966, Ashida-cho in 1974, Kamo-cho and Ekiya-cho in 1975. At present city area is 364.47 sq. km and the population exceeds 380,000, making it the fourth largest in the Chugoku Region.
Fukuyama Ekimae Odori Street today
As urbanization progressed during the 1980s, roads, parks, sanitation facilities and other elements of the infrastructure were improved. Cultural and art facilities were improved by the opening of the
"Fukuyama Museum of Art"
in 1988, the
"Fukuyama Arts and Culture Hall (Reed and Rose)"
in 1994, and the
"Midori-mati Park Indoor Sports Arena (Rose Arena)"
in 1995. Our high-speed transportation infrastructure is also developing, as is seen in the opening of the "San-yo Expressway" and "Hiroshima Airport" in 1993.
Fukuyama received designation as a "Local Key City Region" in 1993, and we are working toward forming a core city area that will serve as a hub regionally and nationally with Fukuyama City at its core. Together with moving ahead with various endeavors to develop the functions of a "City of 500,000," we are proceeding with preparing key facilities, such as construction of a civic center, to improve service to the community and vitalize the region.
To further enhance our leap to the 21st century along with this sort of growth, as the core city of the Bingo region and with the guiding principle of creating a city with a people-friendly environment, Fukuyama is positioning itself for the future as, the "Unique Rose City Fukuyama, the core city of exchanging activities of shining Seto Inland" and working to fulfill that role.
We are working towards being designated in April, 1998 as a part of the "Core City System". This program was created by the national government to give cities with comparatively larger scale and function more autonomy in administration to enable them carry out local government on the closest level possible to the citizens.
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