Miyota-machi

In the latest Population Census the population is about sixteen thousand (15,555 in 2020). From 13,412 in 2000, through 14,124 in 2005, 14,738 in 2010 and 15,184 in 2015, to 15,555 in 2020, it rose by more than two thousand over twenty years. That this town has consistently raised its population, within a Nagano Prefecture where many municipalities lose theirs, draws the eye.

Looking inside the figures, the figure of a highland town holding farming, manufacturing and recreation together appears. The share aged 65 and over rose about ten points from 17.9% in 2000 to 27.8% in 2020, but it still does not reach three in ten, and among the Nagano municipalities lined up in this article it is on the younger side. The household-with-children share is high at 21.3% in 2020. The employment rate is 58.6% in 2020. 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, on the higher side among the municipalities lined up in this article. The figure of a highland town that began as a highway station and raised its population by a composite of industries, holding the town’s youth and the stamina of its finances, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the station and the composite of industries.

A starting point as a station of the Nakasendo. The merger of three villages after the war. And a composite of industries holding farming, manufacturing and recreation together. The shape of Miyota is built of these three. The opening layer is the station. In the Edo era, when the five highways were laid out, a station of the Nakasendo was set on this land at the southern foot of Mount Asama. Furnished with a honjin, a waki-honjin and a wholesalers’ office, this station is told to have been nicknamed the "Princess Station" because it was much used by women. A highway station: that is this town’s old foundation.

Upon it rides the post-war composite of industries. In the mid-Showa era, when three villages became one and a new town was born, this town advanced the development of villa land and the invitation of factories at the same time. The cool climate of the southern foot of Mount Asama raised fields of highland vegetables. The invited factories called the trades of precision to this land. And the cool highland received villas for summer escape and recreation. Farming, manufacturing and recreation — that it held these three trades of differing nature together, without leaning to any one, gave this town its depth. It is a posture of receiving the town’s fortunes on several pillars rather than betting them on a single industry. Upon the land of a highway station it laid the posture of a composite of industries — upon that history this town’s present stands.

What characterizes Miyota-machi is that, while holding the history of a highway station and a composite of industries, it has raised its population by more than two thousand over twenty years and held the town’s youth. From 13,412 in 2000 to 15,555 in 2020, the increase is about fifteen percent. By holding three pillars of differing nature — farming, manufacturing and recreation — this town has drawn in, each in turn, those who take up farming, those who commute to the factories, those involved in recreation, and those who build dwellings on the cool highland. That the breadth of places to work is wide can be read as having widened the choices by which young households make their living, and as having worked toward holding people here. That the share aged 65 and over, at 27.8% in 2020, still does not reach three in ten, and that the household-with-children share is high at 21.3%, are expressions of this.

On the other hand, the Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.60 is a level whose own tax revenue covers about six-tenths of expenditure, on the higher side among the municipalities lined up in this article. This can be read as an expression of how the trades of the invited factories and the depth of farming and recreation support the town’s tax source to some degree. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the employment rate is 58.6% in 2020. A population that keeps rising, an aging that does not reach three in ten, and a fiscal stamina of about six-tenths. These three are separate numbers, yet all stem from the single posture of "holding farming, manufacturing and recreation together, leaning to none." Pull out a single indicator and look at it alone, and the image does not come together.

Miyota holds several histories of its own. One is the starting point of having had the station of the Nakasendo nicknamed the "Princess Station," much used by women. Another is the character that, after the war, three villages became one and composited villas, factories, farming and precision without leaning to any one. And that composite kept the population rising, within a Nagano Prefecture that loses people. The landform of the cool highland on the southern foot of Mount Asama made possible both the fields that raise vegetables and the villas of recreation, and the position along the highway received the invitation of factories.

Miyota is a town where, on the land of a highway station, farming, manufacturing and recreation lay over each other without leaning. From the "Princess Station" of the Nakasendo, through the merger of three villages and the composite of industries, to the rise of the population — the geography of "the cool highland on the southern foot of Mount Asama" gave this town both an old role, the highway station, and several pillars: farming, manufacturing and recreation. While highland towns each holding a single, prominent signboard line up around it, this town has made the very posture of leaning to none its backbone. The memory of the Princess Station and the population that keeps rising both ride upon that absence of leaning.