Kasugai-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 309,000 (308,681 in 2020). Over the five years from 306,508 in 2015, it rose by over two thousand. At a scale over three hundred thousand, the rising trend has entered a gentle stage.

What we should note here is that, even as the total increases, the number of children falls. Those under 15 fell by about two thousand three hundred, from 43,271 (2015) to 40,928 (2020). In the same five years the share aged 65 and over rose from 24.5% to 25.8%. Behind a total population that gently increases, the inside shifts its center of gravity toward the elderly side — a current common to a town whose housing estates, built on the hills all at once, age together. The Official Land Price for residential land is around 118,000 yen per m², a level fitting a bedroom town of the Nagoya sphere. The Fiscal Capacity Index is 0.93 — just short of 1.0, but a level that covers most standard expenditure with its own tax revenue. The Childcare Waitlist is zero (2025). The household-with-children share, at 22.5% (2020), is the highest of the three cities this time. Why these numbers take this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of munitions, industry and housing estates.

Kasugai’s skeleton is the very history of an inland flatland near Nagoya swapping a different role onto itself in each age. In 1943, the four towns and villages of Kachigawa, Toriimatsu, Shinoki and Kozoji merged to give birth to Kasugai City. At its founding it bore the character of a munitions-industry city under wartime. The location — near the center of Nagoya, with broad flatland spreading — was first chosen as a receptacle for industry.

After the war, the town switched direction from munitions. Alongside the promotion of agriculture, it advanced factory invitation, and in 1950 invited the Kasugai Plant of Oji Paper, setting out as an inland industrial city. This is the typical case, in economic geography, of industry agglomerating on the flatland of a great city’s outskirts. And in the high-growth era, what decided the town’s fate a third time was housing. On the eastern hills the Kozoji New Town was built, and a large residential area for households commuting to Nagoya was born all at once. The industrial city came to hold the face of a bedroom town of Nagoya as well. On the other hand, in the hill country, an agricultural aspect also remained — the production of cactus seedlings, the largest in scale in the country, continued. Born as a town of munitions, inviting factories, building housing estates on the hills — the flatland and hills near Nagoya took on, in turn, the three roles of munitions, industry and housing.

What characterizes Kasugai is that, while the total population rises by two thousand, the number of children falls by two thousand three hundred. As in Sagamihara, it is a current common to a town on the outskirts of a great city that has entered a mature phase. Like the Kozoji New Town, an estate built on the hills all at once ages together as the households that moved in grow old in step. Decades after the estate’s opening, the same generation enters old age in a bunch, and households in the child-rearing stage become relatively thin. That the absolute number of children falls even as the total gently increases is because the wave of this estate’s generation lies behind it.

The Childcare Waitlist has become zero (2025). With a household-with-children share of 22.5%, the highest of the three cities, it is a town that keeps a certain thickness of households in the child-rearing stage. On top of that, as the absolute number of children gently falls and childcare demand settles, supply becomes easier to keep pace with. The zero waitlist mirrors, at once, both that child-rearing households are still thick and that the number of children is gently thinning. Children fall, the share of the elderly rises, yet child-rearing households are still thick — in a town with housing estates where these several currents proceed at once, the waitlist too settles around zero. This number, too, will be misread in its meaning unless read together with its background.

Kasugai holds several functions of its own. One is the inland industrial land centered on the factories invited after the war, where industry gathers on the flatland near Nagoya. Another is the Kozoji New Town built on the eastern hills, which has supported the town’s population as a large residential area for households commuting to Nagoya. Further, in the hill country, an agricultural aspect also remains — the production of cactus seedlings, the largest in scale in the country.

Kasugai holds industry, housing and agriculture together in one city area, next to the great city of Nagoya. From a town of munitions to an industrial city, and further to a bedroom town — the condition of "the flatland and hills near Nagoya" has swapped a different function onto itself in each age. The factories and the estates were both, in origin, set upon this land near the great city with consolidated tracts. The factories and the estates have ridden upon this land near the great city with consolidated tracts. The flatland and hills that began as a town of munitions became, after the war, an industrial city, and in time changed partners into a bedroom town for people commuting to Nagoya.