This town became a city straight from a village, without passing through town status. It is a path the only one of its kind in Nagano Prefecture, and one of only a handful nationwide. What made it possible was the power of silk reeling, grown by the shore of Lake Suwa to a scale that crowned the world. This town, called the silk capital, has gone on losing population gently after that silk reeling dimmed. Okaya-shi’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the sharp rise of silk reeling and its dimming.
A city in the central part of Nagano Prefecture, opening out on the western shore of Lake Suwa. The population has gone on falling gently, from 56,401 in 2000, through 52,841 in 2010, to 47,790 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “the silk town,” but the causal thread: how the history — the rise of silk reeling and its dimming — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Okaya-shi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about forty-eight thousand (47,790 in 2020). Its course is a gentle but consistent decline. From 56,401 in 2000, through 54,699 in 2005, 52,841 in 2010 and 50,128 in 2015 to 47,790 in 2020, it lost more than eight thousand over twenty years.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a former industrial city contracting appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 20.7% in 2000 to 34.6% in 2020, passing well beyond three in ten. The household-with-children share was 20.3% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.60 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers about six-tenths of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. The figure of the silk capital, after the dimming of silk reeling, losing population gently while deepening in age, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the rise of silk reeling and its dimming.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · City status in a single bound from a village, silk reeling on the Suwa shore, the silk capital — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set down by the rise of silk reeling, grown by the shore of Lake Suwa to a scale that crowned the world, and by its dimming. The central layer is the thread. At the start of the Meiji era, in a village of this land where sericulture flourished, one figure began to draw raw silk from cocoons in the garden of his own home, using a small number of hand-reeling tools. In time the silk reeling of this land grew rapidly under the siting by the lake shore, blessed with water and motive power, and an inexpensive, well-working reeling machine was born too, and this land became a great producing region of raw silk. At its most flourishing, the raw silk drawn in this land accounted for a large share of the country’s exported raw silk, and it was called the silk capital. The number of people working in the silk-reeling factories reached, at its peak, tens of thousands in this village alone, and it is handed down that at one time this village’s population surpassed the village that held the prefectural office.
And that power of silk reeling pushed the village up into a city in a single bound. At the start of the Showa era, the village of this land became a city straight from a village, without passing through town status. This is a path the only one of its kind in Nagano Prefecture, and one of only a handful nationwide, and what made it possible was the gathering of people and wealth that silk reeling had built. But that glory did not last long. A wave of the worldwide depression struck the silk town, factory bankruptcies and closures followed one after another, and the population fell greatly too. Becoming a city was also a decision made in the midst of hardship — to turn around a deadlocked village administration and stand again as a town of diversified manufacturing. The silk capital that became a city in a single bound from a village was beset by the dimming of silk reeling — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the rise of silk reeling and its dimming, which the geography of the Suwa lake shore took in.
Source: History of Okaya City (in 1936 Hirano village took city status without passing through town status — the only such case in Nagano Prefecture and a rarity nationwide; silk reeling — overview) / Okaya Silk, “The SILK OKAYA Story” (the hand-reeling begun by Katakura Ichisuke in 1873; the Suwa-style reeling machine; the silk capital Okaya — overview)
03 · In the silk capital, the population goes on falling gently
What characterizes Okaya-shi is that, while holding the history of the rise of silk reeling and its dimming, it has gone on falling gently, but consistently, in population. From 56,401 in 2000 to 47,790 in 2020, it lost more than eight thousand over twenty years. The silk reeling grown to a scale that crowned the world dimmed, and the town shifted toward manufacturing such as precision machinery, but it could not keep the population that silk reeling had once upheld. The silk town, which held tens of thousands of workers at its peak, can be read as having contracted over a long span of time together with the dimming of that industry. That the share aged 65 and over was 34.6% in 2020, passing well beyond three in ten, is one expression of that population composition.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.60 is a level whose own tax revenue covers about six-tenths of expenditure, in the middle range for a small or mid-sized city. The manufacturing such as precision machinery that the town shifted toward, and the income of the residents, can be read as upholding the tax source in the middle range. The population went on falling by more than eight thousand over twenty years, and aging passed well beyond three in ten. Even so, the waitlist holds at zero, and the fiscal strength stays in the middle range. The silk capital, which once held tens of thousands of workers and accounted for a large share of the country’s exported raw silk, is in a gentle contraction, upheld by the precision-machinery manufacturing it shifted toward after the dimming of that industry. On what footing a town that has lost its peak scale now stands — there lies the present figure of an industrial city of the Suwa shore.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The power of silk reeling pushed the village up into a city in a single bound
Okaya was a silk town grown by the shore of Lake Suwa to a scale that crowned the world. At the start of the Meiji era, in this village where sericulture flourished, one person began to draw raw silk from cocoons in his garden. Under the siting by the lake shore, blessed with water and motive power, silk reeling grew rapidly, and at its most flourishing the raw silk drawn in this land accounted for a large share of the country’s exported raw silk, and it was called the silk capital. The people working in the factories are said to have reached tens of thousands in this village alone at the peak.
And at the start of the Showa era, this village became a city straight from a village, without passing through town status. It is a path the only one of its kind in Nagano Prefecture, and one of only a handful nationwide, and what made it possible was the gathering of people and wealth that silk reeling had built. But a wave of the worldwide depression struck the silk town, and factory bankruptcies and closures followed one after another. The summit of glory and the beginning of the dimming overlapped within the single event of taking city status. The power of silk reeling that pushed the village up into a city in a single bound also, by that same dimming, inscribed the first step of the town’s long contraction.
Source: History of Okaya City (in 1936 Hirano village took city status without passing through town status — the only such case in Nagano Prefecture and a rarity nationwide; silk reeling — overview) / Okaya Silk, “The SILK OKAYA Story” (the hand-reeling begun by Katakura Ichisuke in 1873; the Suwa-style reeling machine; the silk capital Okaya — overview)
05 · Atlas note — the dimming of silk reeling turned into a loss of eight thousand over twenty years
Lay out Okaya’s numbers and the indicators of a former industrial city contracting come together — a population going on falling gently, an aging rate of 34.6%, a household-with-children share of 20.3%, fiscal capacity of 0.60. What I (Atlas) want to read here is the link between this consistent population decline and the dimming of silk reeling. When silk reeling — which once held tens of thousands of workers and had the power to push a village up into a city in a single bound — dimmed, the town could not at once regain workplaces enough to keep a population of that scale. Where a single industry has greatly upheld a town’s population, the dimming of that industry appears in the town, over a long span of time, as a decline of population — Okaya’s gentle but consistent population decline mirrors that thread.
One more thing to consider is that this town holds the rare path of having “become a city in a single bound from a village.” Where many towns become cities over a long span of time, passing from village through town, this village became a city in a single bound by the power of silk reeling. That was a symbol of the prosperity industry brought, and at the same time the very decision to become a city was made in the midst of the hardship of silk reeling’s dimming. The summit of glory and the beginning of the dimming overlap in the single event of taking city status. How a town, holding the memory of the silk capital and losing population gently, finds its next footing is also a question common to former industrial cities. The town that the power of silk reeling pushed up into a city in a single bound has gone on losing more than eight thousand over twenty years after that industry dimmed. Where a single industry upheld a town whole, its dimming appears, over a long span of time, as a decline of population — Okaya’s consistent contraction mirrors that thread just as it is. If so, the question lies beyond here. Where, on the footing of the precision-machinery manufacturing it shifted toward, will the silk capital that held tens of thousands of workers at its peak strike the bottom of this contraction? Or will it not? What this town, begun from one person’s attempt to draw thread from a cocoon, will next make its footing — that answer has not yet appeared in the numbers. To speak ahead of what has not appeared is something I (Atlas) cannot do.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / History of Okaya City (in 1936 Hirano village took city status without passing through town status — the only such case in Nagano Prefecture and a rarity nationwide; silk reeling — overview) / Okaya Silk, “The SILK OKAYA Story” (the hand-reeling begun by Katakura Ichisuke in 1873; the Suwa-style reeling machine; the silk capital Okaya — overview)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave15_5