Kagoshima city administers the volcano that sits in its bay, and the two branch-office districts on the Sakurajima side of the water held 2,967 people between them on 1 January 2026, out of a city total of 578,709. The city prints those two districts separately, at 2,308 and 659, so the 2,967 is our addition, and the share is 0.51 per cent of the population, by our division. In administrative terms the volcano side of the bay is where almost nobody lives.
The figures come from the city’s monthly estimated population tables, which are calculated from the confirmed values of the 2020 census and published as a spreadsheet and two PDFs each month. The edition carrying the 1 September 2026 figures was published on 15 September 2026.
The population fell by 2,694 in the first eight months of 2026
The estimated population was 578,709 on 1 January 2026 and 576,015 on 1 September. The city prints the change from January as minus 2,694, and subtracting the two totals gives the same figure. It also prints the change in households over the same period as plus 1,143, so households rose while people fell.
The household column moves in a different rhythm from the population column, and the page prints its month-on-month changes too: minus 177, minus 146, plus 467, plus 1,207, plus 6, minus 25, minus 27 and minus 162. April and May carry gains of 467 and 1,207 against a net eight-month gain of 1,143, and five of the eight are negative. Those eight add to the printed plus 1,143, which is our addition. The page also breaks the cumulative population fall down by sex, at minus 1,374 men and minus 1,320 women, and those two add to the printed minus 2,694.
Of the eight month-on-month changes the table records for 2026, seven are negative and one is positive: May gained 395. The largest single fall is April, at 1,284. Adding the eight changes gives minus 2,694, which matches the cumulative figure the city prints, and is the arithmetic check we ran rather than a sum the page performs.
| Date, 2026 | Households | Total population | Change from previous month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January | 286,834 | 578,709 | Not stated |
| 1 February | 286,657 | 578,361 | -348 |
| 1 March | 286,511 | 578,067 | -294 |
| 1 April | 286,978 | 576,783 | -1,284 |
| 1 May | 288,185 | 577,178 | +395 |
| 1 June | 288,191 | 576,866 | -312 |
| 1 July | 288,166 | 576,599 | -267 |
| 1 August | 288,139 | 576,335 | -264 |
| 1 September | 287,977 | 576,015 | -320 |
On 1 September the split was 268,336 men and 307,679 women, which adds to the printed total of 576,015. The difference between the two is 39,343, by our subtraction.
The same document carries a longer run of 1 January figures. It opens at 598,090 in 2018 and closes at 578,709 in 2026, a fall of 19,381 over eight years, while households over the same span rise from 273,712 to 286,834, a gain of 13,122. Both of those are our subtractions.
The 362 town blocks are divided across ten administrative areas
The city’s table of administrative units lists ten areas, counting the main office area and the two Sakurajima-side districts separately, and gives a block count for each. The ten counts are 177, 85, 39, 12, 11, 9, 8, 8, 7 and 6, and the document prints 362 as the total. Adding the ten gives 362, so the printed total reconciles.
The two Sakurajima-side districts between them account for 18 of those 362 blocks and 1,568 of the city’s 286,834 households, both of which are our additions of the two district rows. The main office area alone holds 177 blocks and 282,179 of the 578,709 residents, which is 48.8 per cent of the city on our division. The practical point for a visitor is that the city’s statistics treat the volcano side as two separate administrative districts, not one, and that is why population figures for Sakurajima differ depending on which of the two a source has used.
The same document shows how quickly that pair of figures moves. By 1 September 2026 the town-block tables give the Sakurajima district 1,183 households and 2,233 residents and the eastern Sakurajima district 343 households and 631 residents, so the two together hold 2,864 people, again our addition, against the 2,967 of eight months earlier, a fall of 103 by our subtraction. Any figure quoted for the population of the volcano side needs the date attached to it.
Kagoshima sits in one of the seven prefectures that make up Kyushu under the standard division, a count the weather agency handles differently and which we have set out separately in our piece on the two counts of Kyushu’s prefectures.
Ash bags come from four kinds of counter, each on its own hours
The municipality distributes bags for residents to collect volcanic ash that has settled on their own land. The city’s page on the scheme, updated on 13 February 2026, lists four kinds of collection point and prints different hours for each.
| Where the bags are held | When they can be collected |
|---|---|
| City hall annex, fourth floor (Environmental Health Section), and the city hall general information counter | Weekdays only, 8:45 to 16:30; the Environmental Health Section closes between 12:00 and 13:00 |
| Branch office counters | Weekdays only, 8:45 to 16:30, closed between 12:00 and 13:00 |
| Community welfare halls | 9:00 to 21:00; closed the second Monday of each month and 29 December to 3 January |
| Citizens’ service station, west exit of Kagoshima-Chuo Station, first floor | 10:00 to 18:30; closed every Wednesday and 29 December to 3 January |
Two further details on that page are the ones that actually govern how the scheme works. Bags are handed out to businesses and companies only at the city hall and the branch offices, because the welfare halls and the service station hold few in stock. And collected ash goes to a designated ash collection point for the plot; where no such point has been set up, the page says to contact the road maintenance section or one of the named construction offices first. The number given for enquiries about collection points is 099-216-1410.
The page also handles the case where no bag is to hand: two shopping bags doubled up so they do not tear are acceptable, and the mouth should be tied. The instruction is that specific because the ash arrives whether or not anyone has a bag to hand.
Naples has been a sister city since 3 May 1960
Kagoshima is often set beside Naples in English-language writing about it. One dated fact sits underneath that comparison, and it is on the city’s own pages. The city’s page on its city-to-city ties, updated on 18 March 2026, records a sister-city pact with Naples signed on 3 May 1960, which makes 66 years by our subtraction.
The same page lists five foreign relationships in total and one domestic. Sister-city pacts run to Naples in Italy on 3 May 1960, Perth in Australia on 23 April 1974 and Miami in the United States on 1 November 1990. A friendship-city relationship with Changsha in China dates from 30 October 1982, and a partnership agreement with Strasbourg in France from 25 November 2019. Domestically the city holds a brother-city pact with Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, signed on 7 November 1969.
That index page gives each tie a date and a category, and opens by saying the city holds them to contribute to friendship and to world peace and prosperity through exchange in such fields as education, culture and the economy. The city page it links to on Naples goes further: it says the landscapes of the two cities are very similar, that Kagoshima has long been called the Naples of the East for that reason, and that correspondence between residents of the two cities from about 1955 led to the pact. The index also carries one anniversary item, a video released on 9 December 2020 for the sixtieth anniversary of the Naples pact.
June drops 570.0 millimetres of a 2,434.7 millimetre year
The Japan Meteorological Agency’s climate normals for the Kagoshima station run from 1991 to 2020 with 30 years of data in every column, which means the figures can be compared with one another without a footing caveat.
Annual precipitation is 2,434.7 millimetres. June alone accounts for 570.0 of that, which is 23.4 per cent of the year in one month, by our division. July follows at 365.1 millimetres. The driest month is January at 78.3. For a city with that annual total, the distribution matters more than the total: a June visit and a January visit are not the same proposition.
The temperature columns are the second half of the picture. The annual mean is 18.8 degrees, with a mean daily maximum of 23.1 and a mean daily minimum of 15.2. August is the warmest month at a mean of 28.8 degrees, a mean daily maximum of 32.7 and a mean daily minimum of 26.0. January is the coldest at 8.7, 13.1 and 4.9. Annual sunshine is 1,942.1 hours, and mean station pressure 1,011.2 hectopascals against a mean sea-level figure of 1,015.0.
Thunder is recorded on 27.4 days a year and snow lies to 3 centimetres
Two columns of the same table are the ones that get left out of summaries of the far southwest. Thunder is recorded on 27.4 days a year, concentrated in July at 5.4 days, August at 5.0 and June at 3.9. Fog is recorded on 0.8 days.
Snow is not absent. The normal for annual snowfall depth is 2 centimetres, the greatest daily total is 2 centimetres and the deepest snow cover normal is 3 centimetres. The monthly entries in that same column are 2 centimetres in January, 0 in February, 0 in March and 1 in December, with a dash from April to November, so the annual 3 is above every month in the column and is not a sum of them. Snow is observed on 10.0 days a year, spread over 4.3 days in January, 3.4 in February, 0.5 in March and 1.7 in December; those four add to 9.9 rather than 10.0, which is what rounding to one decimal place in each cell leaves behind, and that addition is ours. So a city with an annual mean of 18.8 degrees and 2,434.7 millimetres of rain still records snow on ten days in an average year, by its own weather station’s thirty-year normals.
Mean wind speed is 3.3 metres per second, and the prevailing direction is north-northwest in eight months of the year, south-southeast in three and north-northeast in one, which is our count of the twelve monthly entries.
Sources Checked
Kagoshima City — estimated population as of 1 September 2026, published 15 September 2026, and the accompanying PDF of the estimated population tables
Confirmed that the figures are calculated from the confirmed values of the census of 1 October 2020; the 1 January 2026 total of 578,709 in 286,834 households and the 1 September 2026 total of 576,015 in 287,977 households, with 268,336 men and 307,679 women on 1 September; the monthly series for 2026 of 578,709, 578,361, 578,067, 576,783, 577,178, 576,866, 576,599, 576,335 and 576,015 with month-on-month changes of minus 348, minus 294, minus 1,284, plus 395, minus 312, minus 267, minus 264 and minus 320; the month-on-month household changes of minus 177, minus 146, plus 467, plus 1,207, plus 6, minus 25, minus 27 and minus 162; the cumulative change from January of minus 2,694 people, minus 1,374 men, minus 1,320 women and plus 1,143 households; the 1 January series running from 598,090 in 2018 with 273,712 households to 578,709 in 2026 with 286,834 households; the district totals on 1 January 2026 including 282,179 residents in 154,764 households for the main office area, 2,308 residents in 1,209 households for the Sakurajima district and 659 residents in 359 households for the eastern Sakurajima district; the 1 September 2026 town-block totals of 2,233 residents in 1,183 households for the Sakurajima district and 631 residents in 343 households for the eastern Sakurajima district; and the town-block counts of 177 for the main office area, 85, 39, 12, 8, 11 for Sakurajima, 7 for eastern Sakurajima, 6, 9 and 8 against a printed total of 362.
https://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/shimin/shiminbunka/shimin/suikeijinko/suikeijinkou-r080901.html
Kagoshima City — provision of ash collection bags, updated 13 February 2026
Confirmed that the city stocks bags for residents to collect ash that has settled on their land; the four kinds of collection point and their hours, namely the city hall annex fourth floor Environmental Health Section and the city hall general information counter on weekdays from 8:45 to 16:30 with the section closed from 12:00 to 13:00, the branch office counters on weekdays from 8:45 to 16:30 closed from 12:00 to 13:00, the community welfare halls from 9:00 to 21:00 closed on the second Monday of each month and from 29 December to 3 January, and the citizens’ service station on the first floor at the west exit of Kagoshima-Chuo Station from 10:00 to 18:30 closed every Wednesday and from 29 December to 3 January; that distribution to businesses and companies is made only at the city hall and the branch offices because the welfare halls and the service station hold few bags; that removed ash must be put out at a designated ash collection point for the plot and that where none has been set up the road maintenance section or a named construction office should be contacted first, on 099-216-1410; and that where no bag is available two shopping bags may be doubled up so as not to tear, with the mouth tied.
https://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/kankyo/kankyo/eisei/kurashi/sekatsukankyo/kazanbai/kokuhaibukuro.html
Kagoshima City — sister, friendship, brother and agreement cities, updated 18 March 2026
Confirmed the sister-city pacts with Naples in Italy on 3 May 1960, Perth in Australia on 23 April 1974 and Miami in the United States on 1 November 1990; the friendship-city relationship with Changsha in China from 30 October 1982; the partnership agreement with Strasbourg in France from 25 November 2019; the domestic brother-city pact with Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture from 7 November 1969; the single anniversary item, a video released on 9 December 2020 for the sixtieth anniversary of the Naples pact; that the page states the ties are held to contribute to friendship and to world peace and prosperity through exchange in such fields as education, culture and the economy; and that the city page it links to on Naples gives the nickname Naples of the East, the resemblance between the two landscapes and correspondence between residents from about 1955 as the pact’s origin.
https://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/soumu/shichoshitu/kokusai/shise/kokusaikoryu/kyodai/index.html
https://www.city.kagoshima.lg.jp/soumu/shichoshitu/kokusai/shise/kokusaikoryu/kyodai/naples.html
Japan Meteorological Agency — climate normals for the Kagoshima station
Confirmed that every column covers 1991 to 2020 with 30 years of data; annual precipitation of 2,434.7 millimetres with June at 570.0, July at 365.1 and January at 78.3; an annual mean temperature of 18.8 degrees with mean daily maximum 23.1 and mean daily minimum 15.2; August means of 28.8, 32.7 and 26.0 degrees and January means of 8.7, 13.1 and 4.9; annual sunshine of 1,942.1 hours; mean station pressure of 1,011.2 and mean sea-level pressure of 1,015.0 hectopascals; 27.4 thunder days a year with July at 5.4, August at 5.0 and June at 3.9, and 0.8 fog days; annual snowfall depth of 2 centimetres, greatest daily total of 2 centimetres and deepest snow cover of 3 centimetres, with monthly deepest cover of 2 centimetres in January, 0 in February, 0 in March and 1 in December and a dash from April to November; 10.0 snow days a year with January at 4.3, February at 3.4, March at 0.5 and December at 1.7; and a mean wind speed of 3.3 metres per second with monthly prevailing directions of north-northwest in January, February, March, April, May, October, November and December, south-southeast in June, July and August, and north-northeast in September.
https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/nml_sfc_ym.php?prec_no=88&block_no=47827
Last updated: October 2026
