Chitose-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 98,000 (97,950 in 2020). From 88,897 in 2000 it grew by more than nine thousand over twenty years — one of the few cities in Hokkaido, where many regional cities lose population, that holds a consistent upward trend.

What I want to mark here is that, while the total population keeps increasing, the number of children is gently falling. Those under 15 fell from 14,990 in 2000 to 13,012 in 2020 — some two thousand fewer over twenty years. Even so, the share aged 65 and over stayed at 23.2% in 2020 (from 11.7% in 2000), still a low level compared with cities nationwide. Households with children make up 21.0% (2020). The number of elementary schools has long held around seventeen. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.72 in fiscal 2023. Increasing the total population while keeping aging relatively low — a shape running the opposite way to many regional cities appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without tracing the history of the airport and the base.

Chitose’s skeleton is set by a single airfield and the aerial functions that grew from it. In 1926, the villagers of the then Chitose Village leveled the land with their own hands and built a landing field. This is the forerunner of today’s Chitose Base. That a single regional village built an airfield at its own expense was this town’s starting point.

That airfield came, after the war, to hold two great functions. One is defense. In 1951 civil aviation resumed, and in time, in 1954 a Ground Self-Defense Force garrison and in 1957 an Air Self-Defense Force base were placed there. The broad, flat land became the vessel that received the Self-Defense Forces, and Chitose became a town walking together with its base. In 1958 it moved from town to city status.

The other is its function as Hokkaido’s gateway to the sky. In 1988, adjacent to the Self-Defense Forces base, New Chitose Airport opened and came to carry the center of Hokkaido’s aviation. Flows of people and goods linking inside and outside the island gathered in this town, and employment and industry tied to the airport took root here. Beginning with the airfield the villagers built, holding a Self-Defense Forces base, and becoming Hokkaido’s gateway to the sky — the landing field that a single village leveled at its own expense drew in two great functions, defense and aviation, and firmed up the town’s skeleton. Chitose’s present rests on the two trunks that branched from that airfield.

What characterizes Chitose-shi is that, over twenty years, the total population has kept increasing and the aging rate has stayed at a level still low compared with cities nationwide. The airport, the Self-Defense Forces base, and the employment tied to them have kept drawing the younger generation and held youth in the town. While many regional cities head toward population loss and aging, this is one of the few shapes that keeps an upward trend and relative youth. The number of children is gently falling, but its decline stays gentler than in regional cities that lose population greatly.

The figures for living infrastructure mirror this stability too. The number of elementary schools has long held around seventeen, and even as the number of children gently falls, it has not reached consolidation or closure. The Childcare Waitlist has held at zero in recent years. The town that began with the airfield the villagers built, holding a Self-Defense Forces base and the airport, is still gathering people while keeping its youth. The total population is on an upward trend, children are gently falling, aging is relatively low. This movement — an increasing total coexisting with falling children — comes out right only when the working-age generation that the airport and base draw is taken into account. Pull out a single indicator and the town’s direction is misread.

What supports Chitose is three functions. One is its character as Hokkaido’s gateway to the sky, holding New Chitose Airport, where flows of people and goods linking inside and outside the island gather in this town. Another is the bases of the Ground and Air Self-Defense Forces — a postwar land use and defense function, which the broad, flat land has received. And the location at the southern edge of the Ishikari Plain serves as the vessel for both the airport and the base.

In other words, Chitose is a northern city whose shape was decided by an airport and a base. From the airfield the villagers built at their own expense, to the Self-Defense Forces base, to Hokkaido’s gateway to the sky — all of it follows from a single event, “a village building an airfield with its own hands.” The broad, flat southern edge of the Ishikari Plain first received that airfield, then drew in the base, and then the airport, in order. From a hand-built runway to Hokkaido’s gateway to the sky, Chitose’s course extends unbroken from that one day when the villagers leveled the earth with their own hands.