Iiyama-shi

In the most recent Population Census the population is about 20,000 (19,539 in 2020). From 26,420 in 2000, through 24,960 in 2005, 23,545 in 2010 and 21,438 in 2015, it reached 19,539 in 2020 — nearly seven thousand fewer over twenty years, falling below twenty thousand. Even among the cities of northern Shinano, that slope is on the steep side.

Look into the makeup and the figure of a snow-country temple town that a railway bypassed appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 26.4% in 2000 to 38.1% in 2020 — up about twelve points over twenty years, nearing four in ten. Households with children were 19.5% in 2020. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.34 in FY2023 — its own tax revenue covers only a little over three-tenths of expenditure, a level with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The numbers show a snow-country city that grew as a temple town centered on a castle and was bypassed by a railway, reducing its population below twenty thousand. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the castle, the shipping and the railway.

This town’s skeleton is set by its starting point as a temple town centered on a Sengoku castle, by distribution through river shipping, and by the experience of being bypassed by a railway. The opening layer is the castle and the temple town. In the Sengoku age, as a front-line base for a warlord advancing on Kawanakajima, a castle was built on the left bank of the Chikuma River, and a castle town formed. Many temples gathered in the castle town, and along with a snow-country temper of solidarity, a culture of a temple town of clustered temples grew. The castle and the temple town were this town’s old foundation.

Upon that, the distribution of the Edo era was laid. The shipping of the Chikuma River and the highway leading to Echigo joined, and this town prospered as a hub where goods passed back and forth. The opening of new paddy fields and the building of irrigation also advanced, and the snow-country foundation of farming was firmed. But one day in the Meiji era, a railway was laid that did not pass through this town. As the artery of distribution shifted from river and highway to railway, the railway that bypassed the town stripped from it the role of a distribution hub. Thereafter the town walked on, relying on local industries such as the handicraft of making Buddhist altars and snow-country papermaking, and on the temple-town culture. A day would later come when a station of a new high-speed railway opened in this town, but that was far past the era when it had been a distribution hub. A Sengoku castle and temple town, river shipping, and a town the railway bypassed — this town’s shape stands on a history in which a temple town grown around a castle had its seat as a distribution hub stripped by the railway.

What characterizes Iiyama is that, while carrying a history of a castle and a temple town, it has reduced its population below twenty thousand over twenty years. From 26,420 in 2000 to 19,539 in 2020, more than seven thousand were lost over twenty years, a decline past twenty percent. A town that had been a distribution hub lost one reason for goods to gather and people to pass through, after the Meiji railway bypassed it. On top of that, the heavy-snow terrain on the prefectural border with Niigata makes it hard to make places for the young to stay, and it can be read that the outflow of people has continued. That the share aged 65 and over neared four in ten at 38.1% in 2020 is the consequence.

On the other hand, the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and households with children were 19.5% in 2020. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.34 is a level where its own tax revenue covers only a little over three-tenths of expenditure, showing the size of its reliance on the local allocation tax. The handicraft of Buddhist altars and paper, snow-country farming, and the flow of people brought by a recent new railway station support the tax base somewhat, but the loss of its distribution-hub status weighs heavily. The snow-country city the railway bypassed now reduces its population below twenty thousand while raising the town’s age. The population has fallen below twenty thousand, aging nears four in ten, and fiscal stamina is a little over three-tenths. The one day on which the line left a town that had been a distribution hub decided the thinning of the century that followed — Iiyama’s numbers, in the end, mirror the consequence of that bypass.

Iiyama’s history is not one thing. It has a starting point as a temple town of many clustered temples that grew around a castle built by a Sengoku warlord as a front-line base for advancing on Kawanakajima. It has the character of prospering in the Edo era as a distribution hub through river shipping and the highway to Echigo. And it carries the experience of losing its role as a distribution hub when a Meiji railway was laid that bypassed the town. The heavy-snow district on the border with Niigata raised the snow-country temper of solidarity and the temple-town culture, while making it hard to make places for the young to stay.

Iiyama is a town where a temple town grown around a castle had its distribution seat stripped by the railway. From a Sengoku castle and temple town, to river shipping, to the railway’s bypass, to the handicraft of Buddhist altars and paper — the heavy-snow district on the left bank of the Chikuma River bordering Niigata gave this town both the snow-country temple-town culture and the distribution of river and highway, and then made it yield that distribution seat to the railway. The temples gathered in the castle town, and the wholesalers that prospered on shipping, shifted their axis to the handicraft of Buddhist altars and paper after they were left off the line. One day in the Meiji era, the line did not pass through this town. That was the beginning of the long thinning that followed.