In this town there once stood an intendant’s office that governed the shogunal lands of the whole Ina Valley. It was the administrative center that bound together the shogunal family’s lands scattered here and there across the valley. When the Edo era ended, that intendant’s office became the office of a newly born prefecture and carried on, for a time, the power to govern the valley. But as the framework of prefectures was reorganized again and again, the prefectural office moved elsewhere, and this town let go of its seat as the center governing the valley. The town that had been the center returned to a farming town that looks out on two Alps. Now this town is losing population. Iijima’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the history of an intendant’s office that governed shogunal lands, became a prefectural office, and in time lost its power.
A town in the southern part of Nagano Prefecture, in the southern Ina Valley, on a terrace that looks out on both the Central Alps and the Southern Alps. This town has walked its history as an administrative center where, in the Edo era, an intendant’s office governing the shogunal lands of the Ina Valley was set, and where at the beginning of the Meiji era that intendant’s office became a prefectural office, and as a place that in time lost that power and returned to a farming town. The population has fallen by about nineteen hundred over twenty years, from 10,895 in 2000, through 10,570 in 2005, 9,902 in 2010 and 9,530 in 2015, to 9,004 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "the town of two Alps," but the causal thread: how the history — an intendant’s office that became a prefectural office and lost its power — is translated into today’s population.
01 · See the present Iijima-machi in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about nine thousand (9,004 in 2020). From 10,895 in 2000, through 10,570 in 2005, 9,902 in 2010 and 9,530 in 2015, to 9,004 in 2020, it fell by about nineteen hundred over twenty years, dropping below ten thousand.
Looking inside the figures, the figure of a farming town that let go of its seat as the center governing the valley appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 24.8% in 2000 to 37.0% in 2020 — about twelve points over twenty years, drawing near four in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.0% in 2020. The employment rate is on the higher side among the municipalities of this article at 61.9% in 2020. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.37 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers nearly four-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a town once the administrative center governing the valley, losing population and raising the town’s age after losing that power, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the intendant’s office and the prefectural office.
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 intendant’s office that governed shogunal lands, the Meiji prefectural office, the lost center — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by a starting point as an intendant’s office that governed the shogunal lands of the Ina Valley, the prefectural office at the beginning of the Meiji era, and the seat as a center that was in time lost. The opening layer is the intendant’s office. In the Edo era, in this Ina Valley, lands the shogunal family governed directly — shogunal lands — were scattered here and there across the valley. To bind together and govern those scattered shogunal lands, an intendant’s office was set in this town. A station of the highway, the road by which people and goods came and went across the valley, was also in this town. The administrative center governing the shogunal lands of the whole valley — that is this town’s old foundation.
That seat as a center was carried on, for a time, even after the Edo era ended. At the beginning of the Meiji era, when prefectures were set under the workings of a new age, this town’s intendant’s office became the office of that prefecture. The building that had been the intendant’s office became, just as it was, the new administrative center governing the valley. But that seat did not last long. The framework of prefectures in the Meiji age was reorganized again and again, and in time the prefectural office moved to a larger, different place. The seat as the center governing the valley drew away from this town. The town that had been the center returned to a farming town atop a terrace that looks out on two Alps. The intendant’s office that governed shogunal lands, the Meiji prefectural office, and the lost center — this town’s shape stands upon a history of having been the administrative center governing the valley and a history of letting go of that power and returning to a farming town.
Source: Iijima Town / the Iijima Jinya and the Ina Prefectural Office (in the Edo era the Iijima Jinya (intendant’s office) governing the shogunal domains of the Ina Valley was set here, and the Iijima-juku of the Sanshu Kaido (Ina Kaido) stood here; when the Edo era ended, the Meiji government created Ina Prefecture and placed its prefectural office in the Iijima Jinya, around 1868-1871 — overview) / Iijima Town / the town where two Alps are seen (looking up to Mount Minamikoma and Mount Kosumo of the Central Alps to the west, and viewing the Southern Alps centered on Mount Senjo to the east, it is the "town where two Alps are seen"; it is a terraced land where the clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps, such as the Yotagiri and Nakatagiri rivers, pour into the Tenryu River; Iijima Village was founded in 1889, took town status in 1954, and merged with Nanakubo Village in 1956 to become Iijima Town; agriculture (rice, fruit, apples, pears) is active — overview)
03 · In a terrace town that let go of its seat as the center, the population falls
What characterizes Iijima-machi is that, while holding the history of having once been the administrative center governing the valley, it has, after letting go of that seat, lost about nineteen hundred of its population over twenty years. From 10,895 in 2000 to 9,004 in 2020, the fall is about seventeen percent, dropping below ten thousand. The standing as an administrative center — the intendant’s office and the prefectural office — once gathered to this town the people and functions of governing the valley. But after that seat as a center was lost, it lacks an axis to gather people and functions, and within the character of a terrace farming town of the southern Ina Valley it finds it hard to hold the younger generation. That the share aged 65 and over drew near four in ten at 37.0% in 2020 is an expression of that flow.
On the other hand, the employment rate is on the higher side among the municipalities of this article at 61.9% in 2020. This can be read as an expression of how the farming carried out atop the terrace watered by the clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps — rice, and fruit such as apples and pears that make use of the temperature difference — supports places to work to some degree. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 20.0% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.37 is a level whose own tax revenue covers nearly four-tenths of expenditure. The population fall is about seventeen percent. The aging draws near four in ten. The employment rate is on the higher side. Seen one by one these are separate numbers, but set back within the single history that the center governing the valley returned to a farming town, the falling population and the held employment rate become the front and back of the same event — the loss of standing and the survival of trades.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · The center that governed the valley returned to a farming town that looks out on two Alps
Iijima holds several histories of its own. One is the starting point of having been an administrative center, where an intendant’s office was set that bound together and governed the shogunal lands scattered across the Ina Valley. Another is the character that, at the beginning of the Meiji era, that intendant’s office became a prefectural office, and as the framework of prefectures was reorganized it let go of that seat and returned to a farming town. And that town lies atop a terrace that looks out on two Alps — looking up to the Central Alps to the west, and viewing far the Southern Alps to the east. The clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps water the fields atop the terrace as they descend to the valley.
Iijima is a town where the center that governed the valley returned to a farming town that looks out on two Alps. From the intendant’s office that governed shogunal lands, through the Meiji prefectural office and the lost center, to the population fall — the geography of "a terrace in the southern Ina Valley flanked by the Central Alps and the Southern Alps" gave this town both an old role, the center binding together and governing the whole valley, and a present as a terrace farming town watered by clear streams. In the days it held the prefectural office, the petitions and ledgers and people of the whole valley gathered atop this terrace. What remains there now is only the fruit fields watered by the clear streams, and the hands that till them. In a hundred and fifty years, what gathers shifted from people to soil.
Source: Iijima Town / the Iijima Jinya and the Ina Prefectural Office (in the Edo era the Iijima Jinya (intendant’s office) governing the shogunal domains of the Ina Valley was set here, and the Iijima-juku of the Sanshu Kaido (Ina Kaido) stood here; when the Edo era ended, the Meiji government created Ina Prefecture and placed its prefectural office in the Iijima Jinya, around 1868-1871 — overview) / Iijima Town / the town where two Alps are seen (looking up to Mount Minamikoma and Mount Kosumo of the Central Alps to the west, and viewing the Southern Alps centered on Mount Senjo to the east, it is the "town where two Alps are seen"; it is a terraced land where the clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps, such as the Yotagiri and Nakatagiri rivers, pour into the Tenryu River; Iijima Village was founded in 1889, took town status in 1954, and merged with Nanakubo Village in 1956 to become Iijima Town; agriculture (rice, fruit, apples, pears) is active — overview) / Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC)
05 · Atlas note — the seat of administrative center was not entered on the town’s balance sheet
Lay out Iijima’s numbers and the indicators of a terrace farming town that let go of its seat as the center governing the valley line up: a population fall of about nineteen hundred over twenty years, an aging rate of 37.0%, a household-with-children share of 20.0%, an employment rate of 61.9%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.37. But what most catches me, with the eye used to ledgers, is the point that the "administrative center" this town once held remains almost nowhere in today’s numbers. The seat as the administrative center governing the valley — the intendant’s office and the prefectural office — must, at that time, have gathered people and functions to this town. But after that seat was lost, the memory of having been the center remained, in visible form, neither in the population nor in the finances. The standing as an administrative center shifts when the workings of government are reorganized. Standing itself does not readily become an asset that puts down roots in a town — this town’s history shows it quietly.
One more thing to weigh is what remained in this town after that seat as the center was lost. In my view, the answer lies behind the number of an employment rate of 61.9%, held despite a falling population. What remained was not the standing of an administrative center, but the farming labor of the terrace watered by the clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps. Standing shifts, but the land, the water, and the hands that till them remain within the town. The seat that once governed the valley drew away, but the trades that raise fruit and rice on the terrace that looks out on two Alps still hold the employment rate on the higher side. To an eye that has made accounting its trade, that contrast is plain. The intendant’s office and the prefectural office shift when the workings of government are reorganized, and standing itself is not entered on the town’s balance sheet. But the fruit of the terrace watered by clear streams, and the hands that raise it, remain behind the number of an employment rate of 61.9%. Standing cannot be booked; only the land, the water, and the tilling hands remained as assets. On this terrace where the prefecture’s ledgers and petitions once gathered, now stand only the fruit fields and the hands that till them.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Iijima Town / the Iijima Jinya and the Ina Prefectural Office (in the Edo era the Iijima Jinya (intendant’s office) governing the shogunal domains of the Ina Valley was set here, and the Iijima-juku of the Sanshu Kaido (Ina Kaido) stood here; when the Edo era ended, the Meiji government created Ina Prefecture and placed its prefectural office in the Iijima Jinya, around 1868-1871 — overview) / Iijima Town / the town where two Alps are seen (looking up to Mount Minamikoma and Mount Kosumo of the Central Alps to the west, and viewing the Southern Alps centered on Mount Senjo to the east, it is the "town where two Alps are seen"; it is a terraced land where the clear streams flowing out of the Central Alps, such as the Yotagiri and Nakatagiri rivers, pour into the Tenryu River; Iijima Village was founded in 1889, took town status in 1954, and merged with Nanakubo Village in 1956 to become Iijima Town; agriculture (rice, fruit, apples, pears) is active — 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: wave29w_