Otawara-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about seventy-two thousand (72,087 in 2020). This city’s population carries a step from the incorporation merger. In 2005 Otawara-shi incorporated Yuzukami village and Kurobane town to reach its present municipal area. The old Otawara-shi was 56,557 in 2000; with the two municipalities added, it became 79,023 in 2005, and from there, through 77,729 in 2010 and 75,457 in 2015 to 72,087 in 2020, it has fallen gently since the incorporation.

Looking inside the figures, a form typical of a regional city of the northern Kanto appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.9% (2000) to 28.8% (2020), but has not reached three in ten. Compared with regional cities of the same scale, the degree of aging is somewhat held down. The household-with-children share is 19.9% (2020), and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.63 in fiscal 2023 — a level covering about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, middling for a regional city. The land of Nasu no Yoichi, while losing population after the incorporation, keeps its aging somewhat held down and its finances middling — that is what appears in the figures. Why it took this form cannot be seen without going back over the history of the castle town and the university.

This town’s skeleton is set by the plateau called the Nasu-no-hara plain and by the highway running through it toward the northern provinces. The old layer is legend and the castle town. This land is held to be where Nasu no Yoichi, the master archer said in the battles of the Genpei War to have struck a fan-shaped target, was born and raised. In the medieval era, the Otawara clan, a powerful retainer of the Nasu clan, built Otawara Castle in 1543 and laid the foundation of the central town. In the Edo era the Otawara clan governed the Otawara Domain of a little over eleven thousand koku, and this land flourished as its castle town and as a post town of the highway running toward the northern provinces. The neighboring land of Kurobane, too, was the castle town of the Kurobane Domain governed by the Ozeki clan. The castle town and the highway set this town’s old skeleton.

And in the modern era, this town took a new pillar into itself. A large university, holding broad grounds with facilities for study and research, placed a campus in this land. A young generation studying medicine and welfare came to gather in this town from many places. Holding the old rank of a castle town, in the modern era it took a university into itself. The plateau called the Nasu-no-hara plain and the highway running through it toward the northern provinces set the castle and the post station, and later drew even the university, which calls in a young generation, to this land.

What characterizes Otawara-shi is that, while bearing the history of a castle town, it slowly loses population after the incorporation, yet keeps the degree of aging comparatively held down. From 79,023 in 2005, with the two municipalities added, to 72,087 in 2020, it lost about seven thousand over fifteen years. As a regional city of the northern Kanto, amid the flow of a young generation moving to cities such as Tokyo, the population can be read as having declined gently. Yet the aging rate, at 28.8% in 2020, has not reached three in ten.

Upon this held-down aging figure, the presence of the university can be read as casting its shadow. As a young generation studying medicine and welfare gathers from many places, youth is added to the town’s age composition. While regional cities of the same scale bear aging past three in ten, that Otawara stays just short of three in ten can be read as the expression of a device called a university drawing in a young population. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.63 is middling for a regional city, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The land of Nasu no Yoichi now, while losing population gently after the incorporation, holds down aging against the backdrop of the university and keeps its finances middling. A gently declining population, somewhat held-down aging, middling finances — that, as the population declines gently, the aging stays just short of three in ten can be read as because the university, gathering a young generation studying medicine and welfare from many places, keeps adding youth to the town’s age composition.

In Otawara several faces the plateau and the highway brought overlap. One is the legend that Nasu no Yoichi was born and raised here, and the history of the castle town of Otawara Castle built in 1543, holding the old layer of a post station of the Oshu Kaido. Another is the memory of the castle town of the Kurobane Domain, governed by the Ozeki clan of the neighboring Kurobane, keeping the character of holding two domains’ castle towns within its municipal area. And the siting of a university with broad grounds gives this town a distinctive device that calls in a young generation from many places.

From the land of the Nasu no Yoichi legend, to the castle town of the Otawara Domain, and on to a town holding a university. The highway running through the Nasu-no-hara plain toward the northern provinces set the castle and the post station, and in the modern era called in the university. Across this plateau where samurai of an eleven-thousand-koku domain and travelers of the highway once came and went, a young generation studying medicine and welfare now gathers from many places. The roster of people the highway carried has changed from samurai to students, and that holds aging back just short of three in ten.