Nonoichi-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about fifty-seven thousand (57,238 in 2020). What stands out first in this city’s numbers is that the population is growing. While many regional cities lose population, Nonoichi-shi rose by more than two thousand — nearly four percent — over five years, from 55,099 in 2015 to 57,238 in 2020. Because it took on city status only recently, in 2011, its continuous statistics as a city run from 2015, yet even within that short series it is clearly swelling.

Looking inside the figures, that it is a young town appears in the numbers. The share aged 65 and over, at 19.6% in 2020, is below two in ten — a rarity nationwide. The share aged under 15 is also high, and the household-with-children share, at 22.1%, is high. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.78 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers about eight-tenths of expenditure, high for a regional city. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years. The numbers show a small city next to the prefectural capital adding population and keeping its youth and the stamina of its finances. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of being near Kanazawa and a university town.

Nonoichi’s skeleton is set by the geography of a narrow plain neighboring the prefectural capital. The municipal area borders Kanazawa City to the north and east and Hakusan City to the west and south, and, alone among the cities of Ishikawa Prefecture, it faces no sea. Its area, at about 13.6 square kilometers, is the smallest in the prefecture, and in that narrow area about fifty-seven thousand people live densely. It is, in economic geography, a typical suburban city where housing agglomerates on the rim of a large city.

Upon that suburban character, one more nature is laid: its face as a university town. Within the city stand Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Ishikawa Prefectural University and the Open University of Japan, and students and the younger generation gather in the town. The nearness of being next to the prefectural capital and a siting where universities cluster have been a double magnetism drawing in a young population.

The city’s course is recent. In 1955 the old Nonoichi town and Tomioku village merged to form Nonoichi town, and in 2011 the town took on city status to become the eleventh city in Ishikawa Prefecture. Until it took on city status it was said to be the town with the third-largest population among all towns and villages in the country. Beginning as the smallest municipal area facing no sea, holding universities beside Kanazawa, and becoming a city by adding population — this town’s shape stands upon the history of being near Kanazawa and a university town.

What characterizes Nonoichi-shi is the combination, rare for a regional city, of a growing population and a young town. It rose by more than two thousand over five years; the share aged 65 and over is 19.6%, below two in ten; the household-with-children share, at 22.1%, is high. That young households commuting to the prefectural capital, and the students and the young who gather at the universities, live densely on a narrow plain neighboring Kanazawa City can be read as supporting this youth and growth. While aging advances and population falls in many regional cities, this town shows the reverse movement.

That youth appears in the fiscal figures too. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.78 is a level whose own tax revenue covers about eight-tenths of expenditure, high for a regional city. That a working generation lives densely, and that firms continue to enter or relocate, can be read as giving thickness to the tax source. Because people live densely in a narrow municipal area, there is also a side on which infrastructure such as roads and schools can be made to reach efficiently. The Childcare Waitlist too has stayed at zero in recent years. Households commuting to the prefectural capital, and the young gathering at the three universities — these two magnetisms together make a growing population, an aging below two in ten, and the stamina of finances that covers eight-tenths hold at once, amid many regional cities that decline. In the smallest municipal area, of 13.6 square kilometers, this much youth is packed densely.

Nonoichi, set between Kanazawa City and Hakusan City, holds about fifty-seven thousand people living densely in the smallest municipal area in the prefecture, facing no sea. Upon an origin where housing gathers on the rim of the prefectural capital are laid three universities — Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Ishikawa Prefectural University and the Open University of Japan — which have drawn in students and the younger generation. And the course itself, by which it became a city from a town in 2011, gives this land the new face of a town that adds population.

In the narrowest municipal area, facing no sea, households commuting to the prefectural capital and the young gathering at the universities live densely. Where these two magnetisms overlap, a young town that goes on extending its population stands. In an age when declining regional cities have become ordinary, it climbed from a town to a city and still goes on swelling — what makes such a small, young town hold together is the siting itself, on the rim of the large city of Kanazawa, which nothing else has.