Across this town’s highland, people have passed for more than thirty thousand years. It was because obsidian, which becomes the blade of stone tools, was produced here at the largest scale in Honshu. From the Paleolithic age, when there were yet no writing and no state, people of distant lands gathered on this highland and circulated the precious stone throughout the country. It is one of the oldest mining and trading places in Japan. Ages later, in the Edo era, two stations of the Nakasendo were set on this same land, where people and goods passed to and fro. The stone road of thirty thousand years ago, and the Edo highway — two "roads" run through the same highland. Nagawa’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the history of a 30,000-year-old obsidian mine and the stations of the Nakasendo.
A town in the central-eastern part of Nagano Prefecture, opening onto the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland. This town has walked its history as a Paleolithic and Jomon mining place that produced obsidian at the largest scale in Honshu for more than thirty thousand years, and as a place where two stations of the Nakasendo were set in the Edo era. The population has fallen by more than seventeen hundred over the fifteen years since the merger, from 7,304 in 2005, through 6,780 in 2010 and 6,166 in 2015, to 5,600 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "home of obsidian," but the causal thread: how the history — a 30,000-year-old mine and the stations of the Nakasendo — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · See the present Nagawa-machi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about five thousand six hundred (5,600 in 2020). From 7,304 in 2005, the year two municipalities merged, through 6,780 in 2010 and 6,166 in 2015, to 5,600 in 2020, it fell by more than seventeen hundred over fifteen years.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a mountain town on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 31.9% in 2005 to 42.5% in 2020 — about eleven points over fifteen years, passing four in ten. The household-with-children share is 15.9% in 2020. The employment rate is 56.2% in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.22 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue can cover only a little over two-tenths of expenditure, with a large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The figure of a highland town holding a 30,000-year-old obsidian mine and the stations of the Nakasendo, losing population even after the merger while raising the town’s age, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of obsidian and the highway.
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 · The largest obsidian mine in Honshu, the two Nakasendo stations, the Heisei merger — the history behind the numbers
A starting point as a 30,000-year-old obsidian mine. The two stations of the Nakasendo in the Edo era. And the Heisei-era merger. The shape of Nagawa-machi is built of these three, laid one upon another across the ages. The opening layer is the stone. The southern edge of this town, the area on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland, was a place that produced obsidian — which becomes the blade of stone tools — at the largest scale in Honshu. In the Paleolithic age, when there were yet no writing and no state, from more than thirty thousand years ago, people of distant lands gathered on this highland to dig the precious stone, polish it, and circulate it throughout the country. The remains of the Jomon-era obsidian mine are now a national historic site. One of the oldest mining and trading places in Japan — that is this town’s deepest foundation.
Ages later, in the Edo era, this same land held another "road." It was the Nakasendo. This town became a shogunal domain, and the two stations of that Nakasendo were set here. On this land before the difficulty of a pass, the stations held people and goods and let them pass to and fro. The stone road of thirty thousand years ago, and the Edo highway — two "roads," utterly differing in nature and in age, have run through this same highland. And with the Heisei merger, two municipalities became one and the present town was born. Upon a highland through which two "roads," the stone road of thirty thousand years ago and the Edo highway, ran, a merger was laid — upon that history this town’s present stands.
Source: Nagawa Town / the largest obsidian source in Honshu (the area around the Wada Pass, Omegura and Hoshikuso Pass at the southern end of Nagawa Town, on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland, is the largest-scale obsidian source in Honshu; from the Paleolithic age more than 30,000 years ago, people from all over the country gathered here, and obsidian was distributed widely as a precious resource; the Hoshikuso Pass of Takayama, a Jomon-era obsidian mine, is designated a national historic site — overview) / Nagawa Town / the two Nakasendo stations and the Heisei merger (in the Edo era it was a shogunal domain, and the Nagakubo-juku and Wada-juku of the Nakasendo were set here; on 2005-10-01 Nagato Town and Wada Village merged to form Nagawa Town, named from the first characters of the two municipalities — overview)
03 · On a highland through which two "roads" ran, the population falls
What characterizes Nagawa-machi is that, while holding the history of a 30,000-year-old mine and the stations of the Nakasendo, it is losing population even after the merger. From 7,304 in 2005, the year two municipalities merged, to 5,600 in 2020, it fell by more than seventeen hundred, exceeding two-tenths, over fifteen years. This highland, through which the stone road ran from thirty thousand years ago and the highway in the Edo era, is now, by its character as a mountain town apart from the larger cities, one where the younger generation finds it easy to leave in search of places to learn and to work. The bustle of the "roads" that once circulated stone throughout the country and let the people and goods of the highway pass to and fro does not, at once, connect to the depth of places to work in today’s living. A population fall by the very character of a mountain town has continued even after the merger, as it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over passed four in ten at 42.5% in 2020 is an expression of this.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 15.9% in 2020. The employment rate is 56.2% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.22 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover only a little over two-tenths of expenditure, showing the large degree of reliance on the local allocation tax. The farming of the highland, and the trades that receive those who visit the obsidian ruins and the traces of the Nakasendo stations, support the town’s living to some degree, but as an own tax source they are thin. A population fall exceeding two-tenths, an aging passing four in ten, a fiscal stamina of a little over two-tenths. These are separate numbers, yet all stem from the same position: "a highland of a pass, apart from the cities." Read by pulling out a single number alone, and you mistake the image.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A town where the stone road of thirty thousand years ago and the Edo highway ran through the same highland
Nagawa holds several histories of its own. One is the starting point of having been a Paleolithic and Jomon mining and trading place — the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland produced obsidian at the largest scale in Honshu for more than thirty thousand years, and people of distant lands gathered to circulate the stone throughout the country. Another is the character that, ages later in the Edo era, this same land became a shogunal domain and the two stations of the Nakasendo were set here. The stone road and the highway — two "roads," utterly differing in nature and in age, have run through this same highland. The position of the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland, at the Wada Pass — a place that produces fine stone and through which a highway crossing the pass runs — gave this land both the 30,000-year-old mine and the Edo-era stations.
Nagawa is a town where the stone road of thirty thousand years ago and the Edo highway ran through the same highland. From the largest obsidian mine in Honshu, through the two Nakasendo stations and the Heisei merger, to the population fall — the geography of "a pass on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland" gave this highland both a mine producing the blades of stone tools and the stations of a highway crossing the pass. Two "roads," thirty thousand years apart, cross on the same highland of the pass. The Paleolithic people who dug obsidian and the Edo travelers who came and went on the highway, in the end, both trod this same land of the Wada Pass.
Source: Nagawa Town / the largest obsidian source in Honshu (the area around the Wada Pass, Omegura and Hoshikuso Pass at the southern end of Nagawa Town, on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland, is the largest-scale obsidian source in Honshu; from the Paleolithic age more than 30,000 years ago, people from all over the country gathered here, and obsidian was distributed widely as a precious resource; the Hoshikuso Pass of Takayama, a Jomon-era obsidian mine, is designated a national historic site — overview) / Nagawa Town / the two Nakasendo stations and the Heisei merger (in the Edo era it was a shogunal domain, and the Nagakubo-juku and Wada-juku of the Nakasendo were set here; on 2005-10-01 Nagato Town and Wada Village merged to form Nagawa Town, named from the first characters of the two municipalities — overview) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
05 · Atlas note — the 30,000-year stone road does not remain in the present of a fiscal capacity of 0.22
Lay out Nagawa’s numbers and the indicators of a mountain town on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland line up: a population fall of more than seventeen hundred over the fifteen years since the merger, an aging rate of 42.5%, a household-with-children share of 15.9%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.22. But when I (Atlas) gaze at the chronology with the accountant’s eye, what I first stop at is the very "order of magnitude in time" of this town’s history. Thirty thousand years. From the Paleolithic age, when there were yet no writing and no state, people passed over this highland in search of stone. While the histories of most of the other municipalities lined up in this article are stories of, at most, several hundred years — a castle town or a post town, a reclamation or a factory — this town’s mining history is two or three orders of magnitude apart. From not long after people first came to dwell on the Japanese archipelago, this land was a knot of the "road" that connected to the whole country.
One more thing to weigh is that the bustle of that thirty-thousand-year "road" appears almost nowhere in the numbers of today’s living. This highland, which once circulated obsidian throughout the country and let the people and goods of the highway pass to and fro in the Edo era, now holds the numbers of a mountain town — a fiscal capacity of 0.22, covering only a little over two-tenths on its own. To have been a knot of the "road" is a past prosperity, a thing apart from present stamina — this town’s numbers show it quietly. But at the same time, the fact that, on a land where people have passed for thirty thousand years, people still live and raise their children, holds a weight apart from the thinness of the numbers. Whether you read it past as the sign "home of obsidian," or see it as "a town where the stone road of thirty thousand years ago and the Edo highway ran through the same highland," changes with how the reader lives. Stand on the highland where the name Hoshikuso Pass remains, and the hands of those who dug stone thirty thousand years ago, the feet of the Edo travelers, and the labor of the people who live here now all fold over each other within the same single scene of the pass.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Nagawa Town / the largest obsidian source in Honshu (the area around the Wada Pass, Omegura and Hoshikuso Pass at the southern end of Nagawa Town, on the northern foot of the Kirigamine highland, is the largest-scale obsidian source in Honshu; from the Paleolithic age more than 30,000 years ago, people from all over the country gathered here, and obsidian was distributed widely as a precious resource; the Hoshikuso Pass of Takayama, a Jomon-era obsidian mine, is designated a national historic site — overview) / Nagawa Town / the two Nakasendo stations and the Heisei merger (in the Edo era it was a shogunal domain, and the Nagakubo-juku and Wada-juku of the Nakasendo were set here; on 2005-10-01 Nagato Town and Wada Village merged to form Nagawa Town, named from the first characters of the two municipalities — 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: wave28w_