Nishitokyo-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 207,000 (207,388 in 2020). The city’s own data is recorded from 2005, after the merger, rising from 189,735 to 207,388 in 2020 — about eighteen thousand over fifteen years.

What I want to note here is that the number of children has not decreased. Those under 15 held a slight increase, from 24,019 in 2005 to 24,707 in 2020. Among the many cities where children greatly decrease over a twenty-year unit, this is rare. The share aged 65 and over rose from 18.7% to 23.4%, but the rise is gentle. The household-with-children share is 19.2% (2020), and the elementary schools have hardly moved from eighteen to nineteen over a long span. The Childcare Waitlist stays at a few. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.88 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a residential city near the twenty-three wards, increasing its population gently while holding its number of children, shows in the numbers. Beyond the question of why its own data only goes back to 2005 lies the history of a merger by which Tanashi and Hoya became one over a century.

Nishitokyo-shi’s skeleton is set where a merger that flowed on for a century at last bore fruit. The very conception of merging Tanashi and Hoya goes back to the Meiji era. When the Kobu Railway (the present JR Chuo Line) opened in 1889, Tanashi, left off the railway, sank economically and sought a merger with its neighbors. But when Tanashi proposed a merger to Hoya, the adjustment within Hoya did not come together, and it did not bear fruit. In the 1930s, a conception of a five-town-and-village merger cored on Musashino town arose under the lead of the Home Ministry, but Tanashi and Hoya, disliking absorption into a “Greater Musashino,” sought a merger of the two towns and villages alone, and again, with intentions crossing, it foundered. The merger of the two cities repeated negotiation and rupture over a century.

That conception at last bore fruit on January 21, 2001. Tanashi City and Hoya City merged anew, and Nishitokyo City was born. It was the first new merger after entering the twenty-first century, the fruition of a conception a hundred years in the making. The new city’s name was decided as “Nishitokyo City,” from over three thousand candidates, by a survey of residents’ wishes.

What supports the character of the town that became one is closeness to the twenty-three wards and railway. Nishitokyo City lies at the eastern edge of Tama, bordering the twenty-three wards, and the lines of the Seibu Railway pass through the city. Closeness, able to commute to the city center, keeps drawing in people, including households raising children. From a century-long merger conception, to the first new merger of the twenty-first century, and further to a residential city near the twenty-three wards — this town’s form stands upon the history of two cities becoming one over a hundred years.

What characterizes Nishitokyo-shi is that, while increasing its population over the fifteen years since the merger, the number of children has hardly decreased. That those under 15 held a slight increase from 2005 to 2020 is a clear difference among the many cities where children greatly thin over a twenty-year unit. It appears as stability in the figures of living infrastructure too. The elementary schools within the city have stayed unmoved from eighteen to nineteen over a long span, and the number of facilities for children has hardly swayed.

The Childcare Waitlist stays at a few. That a location bordering the twenty-three wards keeps drawing in people, including households raising children, can be read as the background to holding the number of children. While having a closeness able to commute to the city center, this town, stronger in its character as a residential area than the twenty-three wards themselves, draws in households raising children. Aging proceeds gently, but the number of children does not crumble, and the school network is held. Only with the stability that children do not decrease do the figures of this town’s living infrastructure tie together into meaning.

Nishitokyo, as a town opening at the eastern edge of Tama bordering the twenty-three wards, holds functions of its own. One is its position as the eastern edge of Tama bordering the twenty-three wards, where closeness, able to commute to the city center, supports its character as a residential city. Another is the cores of the two former cities, Tanashi and Hoya; even after becoming one city, the nuclei of each urban area coexist within the city area.

Nishitokyo is a town born when a merger conception that flowed on for a century, from the Meiji era, at last bore fruit in the first year of the twenty-first century. Beginning with Tanashi’s search for a merger after it sank, left off the railway, and through many ruptures, in 2001 two cities became one. The condition of “two neighboring cities at the eastern edge of Tama bordering the twenty-three wards” finally brought the century-long merger to completion and fixed its character as a residential city near the city center. Two cities that, after a century of repeated negotiation and rupture, at last became one. That long prehistory is kept even now, within the city area, by the two cores of Tanashi and Hoya, as two faces.