This city’s name comes from the river that flows through it. On the mountain slopes that look down on that river, terraced fields that mirror the moon run in tiers, sung of since old times as a land of the harvest moon. On another slope spread apricot orchards said to number a hundred thousand trees. By the riverside, a post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji prospered, and from the Meiji era a streetscape of warehouses dealing in raw silk and silk remained. The moon-viewing terraced fields, the apricot village and the highway post. Several old lands of differing character were bound into one city by the Heisei-era merger. This city of moon-viewing has reduced its population below sixty thousand. Chikuma’s numbers are the record of a city marked by a history in which the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town became one.
A city in northern Nagano Prefecture, south of the Zenkoji plain, opening onto the middle reaches of the Chikuma River. This city has walked by binding into one, through the Heisei-era merger, several old lands of differing character — the terraced fields of the harvest moon that mirror the moon, an apricot village said to number a hundred thousand trees, and a post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji. The population eased below sixty thousand: from 64,022 in 2005, through 62,068 in 2010 and 60,298 in 2015, to 58,852 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign “village of moon-viewing,” but the causal thread — how a history in which the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town became one is translated into the present population and finances.
01 · Looking at the present Chikuma by its numbers
In the most recent Population Census the population is about 59,000 (58,852 in 2020). From 64,022 in 2005 just after the merger, through 62,068 in 2010 and 60,298 in 2015, it reached 58,852 in 2020 — falling below sixty thousand by some five thousand over fifteen years.
Look into the makeup and the figure of a city of the Zenkoji plain that bound together the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.9% in 2005 to 33.4% in 2020 — up about ten points over fifteen years, past three in ten. Households with children were 22.4% in 2020. The childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.50 in FY2023 — a middling level for an inland city, where its own tax revenue covers about half of expenditure. The numbers show a city that bound together the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricot village and the highway post, reducing its population below sixty thousand while raising the town’s age. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back to the history of the terraced fields, the post town and the merger.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey (MIC, Fiscal Capacity Index) / Status Report on Childcare Facilities (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · The terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricot village, the post town of the Zenkoji highway, and the Heisei-era merger — the history behind the numbers
This city’s skeleton is set by the terraced fields of the harvest moon that mirror the moon, by the apricot village, by the post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji, and by the Heisei-era merger that bound those three together. One old layer is the terraced fields. On the mountain slopes that look down on the Chikuma River, terraced fields that mirror the moon on the surface of each paddy run in tiers, and they have been sung of since old times as a land of the harvest moon. That landscape of terraced fields later became a National Place of Scenic Beauty, known as a land of the culture of moon-loving. The moon-viewing terraced fields were one of this land’s old foundations.
Another old land is the riverside post town. As a post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji, one of the foremost in the Zenkoji plain prospered here, and on entering the Meiji era a streetscape of warehouses dealing in raw silk and silk remained. On yet another slope spread apricot orchards said to number a hundred thousand trees. Those apricots are said to have begun when a princess who married into this land in the Edo era brought apricot seeds with her, longing for her homeland. The moon-viewing terraced fields, the apricot village, the highway post — several old lands of differing character each layered their own history, and then, in the Heisei era, two towns and one city merged to become a single city. The terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricot village, the post town of the Zenkoji highway, and the Heisei-era merger — this city’s shape stands upon a history in which old lands of differing character were bound into a single city.
Source: Chikuma City / Obasute and the Capital of the Moon, Inariyama-juku, the apricot village (Obasute — “the moon in each paddy” — is a National Place of Scenic Beauty; the Obasute terraced fields are designated an Important Cultural Landscape, were chosen among Japan’s top 100 terraced fields, and the area was certified a Japan Heritage as the “Capital of the Moon, Chikuma”; Inariyama-juku on the Hokkoku-nishi Kaido (Zenkoji Kaido) was the largest post town in the Zenkoji plain and after the Meiji era prospered as a merchant town of raw silk and silk textiles, becoming an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings; the apricot village of Mori and Kurashina is said to have begun when the daughter of the lord of Uwajima domain, married into the Matsushiro domain in the Genroku era, brought apricot seeds to remember her homeland — overview) / Chikuma City / birth and the origin of “Koshoku” (on 2003-9-1 the merger of Koshoku City, Togura Town of Hanishina District and Kamiyamada Town of Sarashina District created Chikuma City; the predecessor Koshoku City was formed in 1959 by merging Inariyama Town and Yawata Village of Sarashina District with Haniu Town and Yashiro Town of Hanishina District, and was named “Koshoku” from the first characters of “Sarashina” and “Hanishina”; the city name Chikuma comes from the Chikuma River that flows through the city — overview)
03 · In a city that bound together the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town, reducing the population below sixty thousand
What characterizes Chikuma is that, while carrying a history of the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town, it has reduced its population below sixty thousand gently. From 64,022 in 2005 just after the merger to 58,852 in 2020, some five thousand were lost over fifteen years. It can be read that its position south of the Zenkoji plain, the thickness of an urban area beginning with the highway post, and holding lands that draw people such as the harvest moon and the apricots, have held back a sharp outflow of population. But some of the younger generation moved toward larger cities, and the town as a whole has grown older. That the share aged 65 and over reached 33.4% in 2020, past three in ten, is one sign of this.
On the other hand, the childcare waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and households with children were 22.4% in 2020, holding a level that is not low for an inland city. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.50 is a middling level that just covers half of expenditure with its own tax revenue — leaning on the local allocation tax, yet not extremely thin. The city that bound together the terraced fields of the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town now reduces its population below sixty thousand while raising the town’s age. The population is in gentle decline below sixty thousand, aging is past three in ten, and fiscal stamina is middling. Terraced fields that mirror the moon, a hundred thousand apricot trees, and the warehouses of a post town that dealt in raw silk — because it bound together many lands that draw people rather than leaning on a single core, it has held that decline shallow even below sixty thousand.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey (MIC, Fiscal Capacity Index) / Status Report on Childcare Facilities (Children and Families Agency)
04 · How old lands of differing character came to be bound into a single city
The history Chikuma holds is not one thing. There is the history in which terraced fields that mirror the moon run in tiers on slopes that look down on the Chikuma River, sung of as a land of the harvest moon and later made a National Place of Scenic Beauty. There is the character of prospering as a post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji and, in the Meiji era, leaving a streetscape of warehouses dealing in raw silk and silk. And there is, on another slope, an apricot village said to number a hundred thousand trees, and those three were bound into one city by the Heisei-era merger. The terrain of the middle reaches of the Chikuma River south of the Zenkoji plain raised the moon-viewing terraced fields, the apricot slope and the highway post separately, though close to one another.
Chikuma is a city where old lands of differing character were bound into a single city. From the terraced fields of the harvest moon, to the apricot village, to the post town of the Zenkoji highway, to the Heisei-era merger — the geography of the middle reaches of the Chikuma River south of the Zenkoji plain gathered the slope that mirrors the moon, the apricot slope and the riverside post town into one basin. The terraced fields that mirror the moon still draw people as a National Place of Scenic Beauty, the apricot village as a famed spot for blossoms, and the warehouse streetscape of the post town as a preservation district. The three old lands that were bound together all remained, none of them gone.
Source: Chikuma City / Obasute and the Capital of the Moon, Inariyama-juku, the apricot village (Obasute — “the moon in each paddy” — is a National Place of Scenic Beauty; the Obasute terraced fields are designated an Important Cultural Landscape, were chosen among Japan’s top 100 terraced fields, and the area was certified a Japan Heritage as the “Capital of the Moon, Chikuma”; Inariyama-juku on the Hokkoku-nishi Kaido (Zenkoji Kaido) was the largest post town in the Zenkoji plain and after the Meiji era prospered as a merchant town of raw silk and silk textiles, becoming an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings; the apricot village of Mori and Kurashina is said to have begun when the daughter of the lord of Uwajima domain, married into the Matsushiro domain in the Genroku era, brought apricot seeds to remember her homeland — overview) / Chikuma City / birth and the origin of “Koshoku” (on 2003-9-1 the merger of Koshoku City, Togura Town of Hanishina District and Kamiyamada Town of Sarashina District created Chikuma City; the predecessor Koshoku City was formed in 1959 by merging Inariyama Town and Yawata Village of Sarashina District with Haniu Town and Yashiro Town of Hanishina District, and was named “Koshoku” from the first characters of “Sarashina” and “Hanishina”; the city name Chikuma comes from the Chikuma River that flows through the city — overview) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
05 · Atlas note — the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town, three scenes that make up for the thinning of any one
Lay out Chikuma’s numbers and the indicators of a city of the Zenkoji plain that bound together the harvest moon, the apricots and the post town all line up at levels gentle for an inland city: a population below sixty thousand, an aging rate of 33.4%, a 22.4% share of households with children, and fiscal capacity 0.50. But what I (Atlas) want to read as a certified public accountant is the history that this city “stands not on a single core, but by binding together several old lands of differing character.” The terraced fields of the harvest moon that mirror the moon, the apricot village of a hundred thousand trees, and the post town on the highway leading to Zenkoji — each of these has given this land, in its own different form, a reason for people to come and to stay. Rather than betting on a single industry or a single resource, holding several lands that draw people, it can be read, has worked to prevent a sharp outflow of population.
Another point to consider is that each of those old lands that were bound together still remains as a scene or culture that draws people. The terraced fields of the harvest moon became a National Place of Scenic Beauty, the apricot village gathers people as a famed spot for blossoms, and the warehouse streetscape of the highway post is known as a preserved district. Behind the figure of a Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.50, just covering half, it can be read that there lie the tourism and farming livelihoods that those several cores support. The water-mirror of terraced fields that hold the moon, the slope where a hundred thousand apricot trees bloom at once, the line of warehouses of a post town that headed for Zenkoji — three old lands of differing character are bound into a single city. When any one thins, the remaining two draw people. Behind fiscal capacity 0.50 lie those three scenes.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Chikuma City / Obasute and the Capital of the Moon, Inariyama-juku, the apricot village (Obasute — “the moon in each paddy” — is a National Place of Scenic Beauty; the Obasute terraced fields are designated an Important Cultural Landscape, were chosen among Japan’s top 100 terraced fields, and the area was certified a Japan Heritage as the “Capital of the Moon, Chikuma”; Inariyama-juku on the Hokkoku-nishi Kaido (Zenkoji Kaido) was the largest post town in the Zenkoji plain and after the Meiji era prospered as a merchant town of raw silk and silk textiles, becoming an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings; the apricot village of Mori and Kurashina is said to have begun when the daughter of the lord of Uwajima domain, married into the Matsushiro domain in the Genroku era, brought apricot seeds to remember her homeland — overview) / Chikuma City / birth and the origin of “Koshoku” (on 2003-9-1 the merger of Koshoku City, Togura Town of Hanishina District and Kamiyamada Town of Sarashina District created Chikuma City; the predecessor Koshoku City was formed in 1959 by merging Inariyama Town and Yawata Village of Sarashina District with Haniu Town and Yashiro Town of Hanishina District, and was named “Koshoku” from the first characters of “Sarashina” and “Hanishina”; the city name Chikuma comes from the Chikuma River that flows through the city — 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: wave27w_