Oshu-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 113,000 (112,937 in 2020). This city’s own data is recorded from 2010, after the merger, and fell from 124,746 to 112,937 in 2020 — about twelve thousand over ten years. This is because this city was born from a new merger in 2006, and the figures before that are recorded divided among the old municipalities such as Mizusawa City and Esashi City.

What I want to look at here is that the population decline and aging are advancing markedly. Those under 15 fell from 15,966 in 2010 to 12,501 in 2020 — nearly three thousand five hundred over ten years. The share aged 65 and over rose from 28.9% to 35.4%, passing one in three. The share of households with children was 21.0% (2020). Elementary schools fell greatly from 33 after the merger to 20 in 2023, with consolidation advancing. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.44 in fiscal 2023. Its own tax revenue falls short of even half of expenditure, and a structure leaning heavily on the local allocation tax is visible. Why these numbers came to this shape cannot be fully grasped without returning to the history by which a castle town that gave birth to great men, and a rural land of farming along the Kitakami River, were bundled into one in the Heisei mergers.

Oshu’s frame is set where a castle town that gave birth to great men, and a rural land of farming along the Kitakami River, were bundled into one in the Heisei mergers. The Mizusawa district, one of the centers of the city area, opened from of old as a castle town of this region, and from the end of the Edo period into the modern era sent forth, one after another, figures who left their names to the country. The scholar of Dutch learning Takano Choei, the statesman Goto Shinpei — also known for city planning — and the statesman Saito Makoto: these three are called the "Three Sages of Mizusawa," and their respective museums and birth houses remain as historic sites. One castle town gave birth to this many figures.

Another layer is farming. The fertile land spreading along the basin of the Kitakami River has long been known as a land of rice and stock-raising, and has produced agricultural goods such as Maesawa beef, Esashi apples, and Esashi Kinsatsu rice. The culture of the castle town and the richness of farming have shaped the character of this area.

And what decided the shape of the present city area is the merger of 2006. In February of that year, the two cities, two towns, and one village of Mizusawa City, Esashi City, Maesawa Town, Isawa Town, and Koromogawa Village newly merged, and Oshu City was born. Among these, Koromogawa Village, having remained a single village for 117 years since the town-and-village system of Meiji, vanished in this merger. A castle town that gave birth to great men, a land of cattle and apples, and a village that had continued alone for over a century were bundled into one city in the Heisei mergers — this town’s form stands atop the history of the culture of the castle town, the richness of farming, and the Heisei merger.

What sets Oshu apart is that, after becoming a wide city area through the merger, its population fell by more than ten thousand over ten years, the number of children thinned greatly, and aging passed one in three. It appears, in the numbers of daily-life infrastructure, as a great shrinkage. The elementary schools within the city fell by 13, from 33 after the merger to 20 in 2023. In step with the rapid decline of children, the consolidation of the school network has clearly advanced. This is a shape common to regional cities where children thin.

The Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. But this is not the result of having met demand; it is the result of the absolute number of children falling greatly and a margin opening in capacity. The figure of a zero waitlist must be read not only as "ease of child-rearing," but as a set with the background that the very number of children is thinning. The city that bundled a castle town which gave birth to great men and a rural land of farming faces, a little over ten years after the Heisei merger, the reality of a regional city’s shrinkage — population decline, aging, and school consolidation. The decline of children, the shrinkage of the school network, and the zero waitlist do not happen separately. They are no more than one movement — the very number of children thinning — peered at through different windows.

In Oshu several layers of differing origin overlap. One is the castle town of the Mizusawa district, which gave birth to the Three Sages of Mizusawa, conveying to today the culture of the castle town that sent forth Takano Choei, Goto Shinpei, and Saito Makoto. Another is the rural land of farming spreading along the basin of the Kitakami River, producing agricultural goods such as Maesawa beef, Esashi apples, and Esashi Kinsatsu rice. And the centers of the old two cities, two towns, and one village, bundled by the 2006 merger, coexist in each part of the wide city area.

Once, the Mizusawa castle town that gave birth to Takano Choei and Goto Shinpei, the rural land of farming along the Kitakami River that produces Maesawa beef and Esashi apples, and Koromogawa Village — which had continued alone for 117 years since the town-and-village system of Meiji — each walked their own history. Then, in 2006, by the new merger of two cities, two towns, and one village, they were bundled into one city. Where the basin of the Kitakami River nurtured the culture of the castle town and the richness of farming, and the Heisei merger gathered them into one city area, the present Oshu stands. The village that had been one for over a century since Meiji, too, vanished at this time.