Gotenba-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 87,000 (86,614 in 2020). This city’s population, rather than a step caused by a large merger, once swelled from 82,533 in 2000 to 89,030 in 2010, and from that turning point came back gently toward 2020. It is the curve of a city at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji that began to shrink slightly after crossing over a peak.

Looking inside the figures, the decline of children and the aging are advancing. Those under 15 fell by about two thousand in twenty years, from 13,388 in 2000 to 11,327 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.0% in 2000 to 25.6% in 2020, but amid the many cities across the country that pass three in ten, this is still a low level. The household-with-children share is high at 23.9%, and the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years. And the Fiscal Capacity Index was 1.02 in fiscal 2023 — a high level, rare among provincial cities, where its own tax revenue exceeds expenditure. The figure of a highland city at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji that keeps its fiscal stamina even while crossing over a peak appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the origin of the goten and the history of the eastern foot of Mount Fuji.

Gotemba’s skeleton is set by its landform and geography, the eastern foot of Mount Fuji. The very name of the city tells its history. That Tokugawa Ieyasu, in his last years, ordered the construction here of a goten that was to be his place of retirement is said to be the origin of the place name. In 1616, the building of this land’s goten and the new town around it was ordered. The place where Ieyasu’s goten stood — that is the root of the name "Gotemba."

That highland gained two characters in the modern age. One is a villa district. The highland with its fine view of Mount Fuji developed, from the Taisho into the Showa era, as a villa district for people of the political and business worlds and for foreigners. The villa of Prince Chichibu was also placed in this land. The cool highland climate gave this city its character as a place for escaping the heat and for recuperation. The other is a node of traffic. In 1889 the former Tokaido Main Line opened, Gotemba Station was set, and it became the gateway to the Mount Fuji climbing route.

And at the foot of Mount Fuji there is one more broad land use. Adjacent to the East Fuji Training Ground, the garrisons of the Ground Self-Defense Force — Komakado, Itazuma, Takigahara and others — are located. The broad foot of Mount Fuji has served as the site for such facilities. Further, in 2000, a large commercial facility opened on the site of a former amusement park, becoming a hub for sightseeing and shopping with a view of Mount Fuji. Beginning at the land of Ieyasu’s goten, becoming a villa district, becoming the gateway of the railway, holding a training ground and garrisons, and giving rise to a commercial facility — this city’s shape stands upon the history of the eastern foot of Mount Fuji.

What characterizes Gotemba is that, while its population has crossed a peak and shrinks gently, it keeps its fiscal stamina high. Those under 15 fell by two thousand in twenty years, but the aging rate, at 25.6%, is still low by national standards, and the household-with-children share of 23.9% is high too. It can be read that the location of the eastern foot of Mount Fuji has, on the back of demand from manufacturing, sightseeing and the villa district, held on to young households and industry to a degree.

The numbers of living infrastructure show this city’s stability clearly. The primary schools stayed long at eleven, unchanged from 2000 to 2023. That the school network has not moved even as children gently decline is an expression of the urban area staying compact and the number of children keeping to a level that supports it. The Childcare Waitlist, too, has stayed at zero in recent years. The city that began at the land of Ieyasu’s goten and holds a villa district and a garrison now holds, at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji, both a gentle shrinkage and a high fiscal stamina at once. The total population has crossed a peak, children decline gently, and the aging is still low. That manufacturing, sightseeing and the sites of facilities lined up across the broad eastern foot of Mount Fuji supports this youth and stamina at once.

Gotemba holds several functions of its own. One is the history of a place name deriving from Tokugawa Ieyasu’s goten, where the name itself tells the city’s origin. Another is its character as a highland with a fine view of Mount Fuji, holding at once the faces of a villa district, a summer retreat, and a hub for sightseeing and shopping. And the broad foot of Mount Fuji has taken in the land use of a training ground and a Ground Self-Defense Force garrison. Functions of different character — Ieyasu’s goten, the villa district, the garrison, the commercial facility — line up at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji.

Gotemba is a city where many layers of function line up at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji. From the land of Ieyasu’s goten, to a villa district and the gateway of the railway, to a foot holding a training ground and a garrison, and to a sightseeing hub that gave rise to a commercial facility — the landform of "the broad highland at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji" called the goten, the villa district and the sites of facilities, and set the city’s skeleton. The broad highland at the eastern foot of Mount Fuji set down the land of the goten, called the villa district, took in the training ground and the sites of facilities, and in time carried a large commercial facility. There are not many cities where this many functions of differing character line up upon a single foot of a mountain.