On Japan’s Coming of Age Day, New Adults in Disaster-Hit Areas Renew Vow to Revitalize Hometowns

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:06 JST, January 12, 2026

Ceremonies celebrating the start of adulthood for the newest crop of 20-year-olds were held across the country on Sunday, the day before Coming-of-Age Day.

In areas affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in January 2024 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, young people dressed in vibrant furisode kimono and suits renewed their vows to help revitalize their hometowns.

Most of this year’s participants were born in 2005 and turned 20 last year. According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the Japanese population born in 2005 was approximately 1.06 million as of Jan. 1, 2024, comprising about 550,000 males and 520,000 females. While the population of 20-year-olds had been hovering between 1.2 million and 1.3 million for a while after 2010, it appears to have been declining in recent years.

Ayame Noka, 19, who works at Sogen Sake Brewery, a long-established company which was damaged in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, attended a ceremony in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sunday. She will turn 20 later this month.

“I want to drink Sogen sake with a fresh feeling in a revitalized Suzu,” she said, envisioning her future.

Noka was born and educated through high school in Suzu. The earthquake struck when she was a third-year high school student, and the ensuing tsunami flooded the first floor of her home. Sogen Sake Brewery, also located in the city, was affected as well, including suffering damage to its storage tanks.

Yet to Noka, Suzu remains “a place rich in nature where I can be myself,” she said. She maintained an unwavering desire to work in her beloved hometown, and she ultimately joined the company after graduating.

Her duties at Sogen have included customer service, sales and clerical work, all of which she had little experience with before working there.

“Unlike at school, I had to think and act for myself,” which caused her to feel troubled at first, she recalled, but with support from those around her, her fear gradually went away.

She lost three cousins and an aunt, their mother, in the earthquake. Even two years after the disaster, she still finds herself wanting to see them sometimes.

She wore a black furisode kimono adorned with floral patterns to the Sunday ceremony, where she served as emcee and reunited with friends she had become separated from after the earthquake.

“I want to express gratitude to my family, friends and those who helped me at the evacuation center,” she said.