Ome-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 134,000 (133,535 in 2020). From 141,394 in 2000, it fell by roughly eight thousand over twenty years, and a gentle decline continues.

What I want to note here is that aging advances markedly even within Tama. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.5% in 2000 to 31.8% in 2020, more than doubling over twenty years and exceeding three in ten. Those under 15 fell from 21,371 to 13,763, more than seven thousand over twenty years. The household-with-children share is 17.9% (2020), a level befitting a regional city where aging has advanced. The elementary schools have hardly changed at 17 for more than twenty years, and the Childcare Waitlist stays at a few in recent years. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.78 in fiscal 2023. On the edge of Tama, away from the twenty-three wards, the figure of a regional city quietly reducing its population and advancing aging shows in the numbers. That Ome alone, even within the same Tama, ages this fast comes into view by tracing the rise and fall of the highway post town and the textiles that boiled in the “gachan boom.”

Ome’s skeleton is set upon a highway that ran along the boundary of mountains and a river, and the textiles that took root there. The center of this town developed as a post town of the Ome Kaido — Ome-juku — linking Edo and the Koshu direction. To this land at the boundary of the Kanto Mountains and the Musashino plateau, the traffic of the highway carried people and goods, and a post town grew. It is a typical case of a town set upon the flow of a highway, as economic geography would say.

That post town grew into a town of textiles. Ome was a producing region of textiles from of old, producing textiles called Ome-jima and Ome-men, and before the war it sent out bedding materials in large quantities. After the war that textile business showed vigor, and from the unceasing sound of the looms weaving, it showed a bustle enough to be called the “gachan boom.” The highway post town gained the thickness of an economy through textiles, a local industry.

And the town became a city after the war. In April 1951, Ome town and two villages merged and enacted city status, and in 1955 it annexed four surrounding villages, and the present form of the municipal area was set. Because of the landform held by mountains and a river, it is located on the western edge of Tama, away from the twenty-three wards. From a highway post town, to a town of textiles, and to a regional city in western Tama — this town’s form stands upon the history of the Ome Kaido and textiles.

What characterizes Ome-shi is that aging advances markedly even within Tama, and the number of children fell by more than seven thousand over twenty years. It appears in the figures of living infrastructure as a steady shrinkage. The elementary schools within the city have hardly moved at 17 for more than twenty years, but the number of children greatly decreased over these twenty years. Even if the number in the school network is held, the number of children per school is surely thinning.

The Childcare Waitlist stays at a few in recent years. But rather than the result of demand being met, this has the strong aspect of capacity gaining room as the absolute number of children greatly decreased. Located on the edge of the commuting zone to the twenty-three wards, and because of the landform held by mountains and a river, the population that grew after the war is now poor in inflow, and the generations already living age just as they are. The town that boiled in the vigor of textiles changed the weight of its industry and reached the reality of a regional city on the edge of Tama, with an aging rate exceeding three in ten. Children greatly decrease, aging exceeds three in ten, and population gently declines. Behind a figure that does not move, like the number of schools, only the number of children keeps quietly thinning.

Ome, as a town opened at the boundary of mountains and a river, holds several functions of its own. One is the urban area beginning with the post town of the Ome Kaido, whose location at the boundary of the Kanto Mountains and the Musashino plateau supports its character as a center of western Tama, away from the twenty-three wards. Another is the local textile industry of Ome-jima and Ome-men, conveying to this day the memory of the vigor called the “gachan boom.” And the mountains and river — Mount Mitake and the Tama River — shape the town’s scenery.

Ome is a regional city of western Tama where a highway post town flourished as a town of textiles. From a highway post town, to a town of textiles, and to a regional city on the edge of Tama — the condition of “a highway running through the boundary of mountains and a river” called in a post town and grew the textile industry. With Mount Mitake at its back, the Tama River flows along the town’s skirt, and the Ome Kaido runs between them. That landform held by mountains and a river, after the vigor of textiles passed, gives the town, together with the distance from the twenty-three wards, the expression of a regional city that quietly ages.