Iruma-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 146,000 (145,651 in 2020). After rising gently from 147,909 in 2000 to 149,872 in 2010, it has turned to decline.

What I want to note here is that the decrease of children and the aging are advancing together. Those under 15 fell by about six thousand over twenty years, from 22,840 in 2000 to 16,610 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 11.9% to 29.5%, nearing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.2% (2020). The elementary schools have stood unchanged at sixteen for more than twenty years, and the Childcare Waitlist has remained in the low tens in recent years, not reaching zero. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.87 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a Musashino suburban residential city — turned from flat to decline, with aging advancing — appears in the numbers. Why it took this form cannot be read without going back over the history of a tea country and an airfield.

Iruma’s skeleton is set upon the tea fields spread across the Musashino plateau and the memory of the airfield placed there. First, tea. This area is known as a main production center of Sayama tea, and tea fields occupy about a tenth of the municipal area. The well-draining soil and climate of the plateau suit growing tea, and the landscape of tea fields spread across it still symbolizes this town’s local industry.

Another layer is the memory of the airfield. In 1938, the former Army’s aviation officers’ school was opened in this land. The broad Musashino plateau was chosen as the site for an airfield and military facilities. After the war’s end, the occupying American forces used this area, naming it Johnson Base, and it was fully returned in 1978. A plateau opened as a military airfield became, for a time after the war, an American base, and was in time returned — this town is, at once, a tea country and a land holding the memory of an airfield.

And the town became a city after the war. In November 1966, the former Musashi town was renamed Iruma town and enacted city status. This city name was decided by public call. Among more than two thousand entries, “Iruma” came third, but it is said this name was finally adopted. An airfield was placed in a tea country, an American base was returned, and the town became a city bearing a name that came third in a public call — this town’s form stands upon the history of Sayama tea and an airfield.

What characterizes Iruma-shi is that, as the population turns from flat to a gentle decline, the number of children fell by about six thousand over twenty years and the aging nears three in ten. It appears in the figures of living infrastructure as a steady shrinkage. The elementary schools in the city have not moved from sixteen for more than twenty years, but the number of children fell by about six thousand over twenty years. Even though the count of the school network is held, the number of children per school is surely thinning.

The Childcare Waitlist has remained in the low tens in recent years, not reaching zero. This can be read not as the result of children having thinned out, but as a figure on the side where supply does not quite keep up with the demand of households with children. After growing in population as a Musashino suburban residential area in the postwar era, it has now entered a mature phase in which inflow has settled and the generation already living there ages in place. Children thin, aging nears three in ten, and the population turns from flat to decline. Look at figures that do not move, like the school count, and figures that move quietly, like the number of children, with the same eye, and one misreads the town’s present position.

Iruma, as a town opened on the Musashino plateau, holds several functions of its own. One is the tea fields covering about a tenth of the municipal area, where the local industry as a main production center of Sayama tea shapes the landscape of the Musashino plateau. Another is the memory of the airfield, which began as the former Army’s aviation officers’ school, was used after the war as the American Johnson Base and returned, conveying to this day the history by which the broad Musashino plateau was chosen as an airfield site.

Iruma is, at once, a tea country and a Musashino suburb holding the memory of an airfield. From a plateau of tea fields, to a military and American airfield, and on to a suburban residential area — the condition “there was a broad, well-draining plateau of Musashino” raised the growing of tea, became the site of an airfield, and was opened after the war as a suburban residential area. Tea, the airfield, and housing, traced back, all arrive at a single landform. A broad, flat, well-draining plateau was there first, and the eras found separate uses for it — Iruma’s history can be read that way.