Tachikawa-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 184,000 (183,581 in 2020). Over the twenty years from 164,709 in 2000, it gained nearly twenty thousand. It is a city that has kept an upward trend even within the Tama region.

What I want to note here is that the number of children is held nearly flat. Those under 15 hardly changed over twenty years, from 21,854 (2000) to 21,828 (2020). In the same span the share aged 65 and over rose from 14.3% to 24.8%, and two flows — aging advancing on one hand, and the absolute number of children being maintained — run at once. The land price of residential areas is about 284,000 yen per m². The Fiscal Capacity Index is 1.16, exceeding 1.0 — a level that, without relying on the local allocation tax, covers standard expenditure with its own tax revenue alone, rare even among the cities of Tama. The Childcare Waitlist moved flat at a low level, from 9 (previous) to 8 (latest). Why, rarely among the cities of Tama, a single city can cover expenditure on its own without relying on the allocation tax does not have its answer without going back to the course by which an airfield that settled at the center of the town was returned by way of a U.S. military base.

Tachikawa’s skeleton is the very history of a single airfield changing owners era by era. In 1922, an army airfield was established in what was then Tachikawa village, and a flying corps moved in. Thereafter this town was known as a town of aircraft, and related aviation industry gathered. What economic geography would call “an industrial concentration centered on a military facility” was this town’s first foundation.

After the war, Tachikawa Airfield became the U.S. military’s Tachikawa Base. A vast airfield kept settled at the center of the town, and the urban area unfolded around it. And in 1977, the Tachikawa Base was fully returned. At the center of the town, consolidated empty land on the scale of several hundred hectares was born all at once — this would decide this town’s fate a second time.

The returned site was remade in a planned way, dividing its uses. The area where the runway had been was developed as the Tachikawa Wide-Area Disaster Prevention Base, where facilities of the Self-Defense Forces, police, and fire services gather, and all facilities were completed in 1995. In a block close to the station, the commercial and business facility of Faret Tachikawa was born, and the new city hall too moved there. And a vast green space was opened as the Showa Memorial National Government Park. Further, in 1998 the Tama Toshi Monorail opened, and Tachikawa became the junction of a north-south railway axis. In the city-building vision of 2001, it was positioned as one of the core cities of the Tama region. A series of histories — airfield, base, returned site — has been recombined into the present functions of a core of disaster prevention, business, parks, and transport.

What characterizes Tachikawa-shi is that, while the total population rose by twenty thousand, the number of children is held nearly flat. It appears in the figures of living infrastructure as a quiet stability, different both from the consolidation common to regional cities in population decline and from the expansion as in Urayasu. The elementary schools within the city fell by just one over twenty years, from 21 (2000) to 20 (2020), being largely maintained. In a town where the absolute number of children does not move greatly, the school network too does not move greatly.

The Childcare Waitlist moved flat at a low level, from 9 to 8. It is not the lowness of “the result of the absolute number of children thinning,” as in regional cities in population decline, but can be read as the lowness as the result of keeping supply and demand roughly balanced while the number of children is held. The number of children does not move, the share of the elderly alone rose ten points over twenty years, and yet the total population keeps rising — that these three align in a core city of Tama is rare. Chase only the headline that the total population rose by twenty thousand, and two inner realities — the aging that advanced ten points behind it, and the number of children that held its ground flat — fall out of view.

Tachikawa-shi holds several functions of its own. One is the Tachikawa Wide-Area Disaster Prevention Base, developed on the returned site of the base, where facilities of the Self-Defense Forces, police, and fire services gather as a hub bearing disaster response for the metropolitan area. Another is the concentration of commerce and business centered on Faret Tachikawa in front of the station, supporting its face as a core city of the Tama region. Further, the Showa Memorial National Government Park, opened on the same returned site, provides a vast green space, and the Tama Toshi Monorail runs through the town as the junction of a north-south railway axis.

Tachikawa was positioned as one of the core cities of Tama in the city-building vision of 2001. From a town of aircraft to a U.S. military base, and further to a core of disaster prevention, business, parks, and transport — the condition of “there is consolidated land at the center of the town” has carried over different functions era by era. The airfield, the base, and the various facilities of the returned site are, at root, set upon the same vast flat land. The Taisho-era airfield became a U.S. military base after the war, and when it was returned, empty land of several hundred hectares was born all at once. That same land has taken on wholly different roles era by era.