In Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo, Sōsuke lives in the seaside town of Tomonoura.
Tomonoura is a real port town in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Its traditional harbor, narrow streets, hills, and views across the Seto Inland Sea helped inspire the film’s coastal setting. Sōsuke’s home sits high above the water, while his mother works at a nearby senior-care center.
Hayao Miyazaki spent time in Tomonoura before making Ponyo, and the town’s atmosphere influenced the film’s depiction of a small community shaped by the sea. The movie itself remains a fantasy, so its magical events and exact geography are not a documentary representation of the town.
Tomonoura is sometimes confused with a larger Japanese city because the film’s location is not always emphasized in English-language discussions. The specific answer is Tomonoura, not Fukuyama: Fukuyama is the municipality in which the port town is located.