Matsukawa-machi

In the latest Population Census the population is about twelve thousand five hundred (12,530 in 2020). From 14,070 in 2000, through 14,117 in 2005, 13,676 in 2010 and 13,167 in 2015, to 12,530 in 2020, it fell by about fifteen hundred over twenty years.

Looking inside the figures, the figure of a terrace town of fruit that became one across a county line appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.5% in 2000 to 34.5% in 2020 — about eleven points over twenty years. The household-with-children share is high at 23.8% in 2020. And the employment rate is 66.3% in 2020 — among the highest of the eight municipalities lined up in this article. This can be read as an expression of how the fruit grown on the terrace formed by the Tenryu River and a river flowing from the Central Alps thickly supports places to work. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.38 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue covers nearly four-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a fruit town that became one across a county line, losing population yet keeping a high employment rate, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the merger and the river’s name.

This town’s skeleton is set by the two villages joined across a county line, the river’s name chosen as neither village’s name, and the fruit on the terrace. The opening layer is the merger. In the mid-Showa era, in this place of the Ina Valley, two villages decided to become one. But these two villages belonged to different counties. The county is an old division of land, and usually a merger takes place within that division. These two villages joined hands across the line of that county division. Two villages joined across the county line — that is this town’s starting point.

When those two villages came to decide the new town’s name, a difficulty arose. Taking the name of either village would make the other look swallowed. For two villages that had joined hands across a county line as equals, that sits poorly. So this town chose, as its name, neither village’s name but the name of a single river flowing down from the Central Alps to water the lands of both villages. Under the name of a river belonging to neither land, watering both, the two villages became one as equals. Later another village joined, and the town’s shape was completed. On the terrace formed by that river and the Tenryu River, pears, apples and other fruit were grown, and it became a land of fruit so noted as to be called the "kingdom of fruit." The merger across counties, the choice of a river’s name, and the terrace fruit — this town’s shape stands upon a history of two villages joined across the county line becoming one under a river’s name.

What characterizes Matsukawa-machi is that, while holding the history of having become one across a county line under a river’s name, it has lost about fifteen hundred of its population over twenty years and yet keeps a high employment rate. From 14,070 in 2000 to 12,530 in 2020, the fall is about ten percent. By its position as a terrace town of the Ina Valley, the younger generation flows out to the places to work and to learn of the larger cities, and a population fall has continued, as it can be read. That the share aged 65 and over rose to 34.5% in 2020 is an expression of that flow.

But on the other hand, the employment rate is 66.3% in 2020 — among the highest of the eight municipalities of this article. In my view, behind it lies the fact that the fruit grown on the terrace formed by the Tenryu River and a river flowing from the Central Alps has gone on making, thickly within the town, places to work by which one can make a living without commuting to another city. Pears, apples and other fruit demand many human hands, and that labor has thickly kept the places to work within the town. That the household-with-children share is high at 23.8% in 2020 is not unrelated to this. The Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.38 is a level whose own tax revenue covers nearly four-tenths of expenditure. The population fell about ten percent, the aging reached the mid-thirty-percent range, yet the employment rate remains among the highest. That what falls and what is kept divide this way is because, while sending the younger generation out to the cities, the terrace fruit has gone on keeping labor-demanding places to work within the town.

Matsukawa holds several histories of its own. One is the starting point of two villages, belonging to different counties, joining hands across the line of the old county division. Another is the character of choosing as the town’s name neither village’s name but the name of a river from the Central Alps that waters both lands. And on the terrace formed by that river and the Tenryu River, pears, apples and other fruit were grown, and it became a land of fruit. Under the name of a river leaning to neither land, the two villages became one as equals.

Matsukawa is a town joined by a river’s name, the name of neither land. From the merger across counties, through the choice of a river’s name, the terrace fruit, and the population fall and high employment rate — the geography of "the terrace in the center of the Ina Valley formed by a river flowing down from the Central Alps" gave this town the choice of a river’s name binding, as equals, two villages joined across the county line. On the autumn terrace, even now, by the band of elevation, pears and apples await human hands at staggered times. Think that this labor has thickened the town’s places to work, and the river’s name chosen by discarding the two villages’ names was no mere compromise, but pointed to the very water that has watered the town’s life.