Anjo-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 188,000 (187,990 in 2020). From 158,824 in 2000 it rose by nearly thirty thousand over twenty years, and it keeps its rising trend even now.

What first draws the eye here is the Fiscal Capacity Index. In fiscal 2023 it was 1.25, greatly exceeding one. This means it can cover expenditure with its own tax revenue alone, one of the few municipalities that need not rely on the local allocation tax. The household-with-children share is 25.9% (2020), a high level even within Aichi. Those under 15 have hardly crumbled over twenty years, from 27,678 in 2000 to 27,665 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over has risen, from 11.9% to 21.0%, but among cities nationwide it is at a gentle level. The primary schools rose slightly over twenty years, from nineteen to twenty-one, and the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years — the figure of a town that holds both fiscal strength and a wealth of children appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the canal and farming.

Anjo’s skeleton is set, first, by a single farming canal. The Heki-kai Highland was originally a land poor in water. There, from the late Edo into the Meiji era, the Meiji Canal was surveyed and excavated ahead of the rest of the country. As this modern farming canal ran water through the highland, the scant paddy fields spread out all at once, and the area was transformed into a granary. Not a land blessed by nature, but a highland turned into farmland by a canal — this is this town’s starting point.

The farming success this canal brought gave the town a name. From the end of the Taisho into the start of the Showa era, the area centered on Anjo was called "the Denmark of Japan." The way it ran a diversified agriculture — combining rice and wheat and taking in livestock by making use of the canal — was likened to Denmark, an advanced farming nation, and was known well enough to appear in textbooks. A canal gave rise to an advanced farming region — this history became the foundation of the later town.

What changed the town’s character again was the industrialization of the latter half of the twentieth century. In 1967 the works of Nippon Denso — now Denso — advanced into this land. From that turning point, the automobile industry centered on the Toyota group gathered on this highland. Anjo, which had been an advanced farming region, changed its form into an industrial city where automobile-parts plants agglomerate. A canal raised an advanced farming region, and the automobile industry was layered upon it — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the canal and farming, and automobiles.

What characterizes Anjo is that, in addition to a Fiscal Capacity Index greatly exceeding one and being independent, the number of children has hardly crumbled. Those under 15 have held in the 27,000s over twenty years, a strikingly stable shape amid the many cities where children thin greatly in twenty-year spans. The high level of a household-with-children share of 25.9%, high even within the prefecture, backs up this stability.

The numbers of living infrastructure mirror this stability too. The city’s primary schools rose slightly over twenty years, from nineteen to twenty-one, and in this town where the number of children does not crumble, the school network has, if anything, gained thickness. The Childcare Waitlist has stayed at zero in recent years. The level of a Fiscal Capacity Index of 1.25 means a state that covers expenditure with its own tax revenue and still has to spare, and it can be read that the tax revenue generated by the head offices and plants of the automobile industry supports this thickness. At the same time, the households of workers these firms gather are also the background to the number of children being kept. That said, one should keep in view that this is a town greatly dependent on the single industry of automobiles. The highland city that raised an advanced farming region by a canal and gathered the automobile industry holds both fiscal strength and a wealth of children. The fiscal capacity of 1.25, and the 27,000 children uncrumbled over twenty years, both, traced to their root, arrive at a single human act — the Meiji Canal that ran water through the Heki-kai Highland.

Anjo holds several functions of its own. One is the farming history born when the Meiji Canal ran through the highland, which conveys to this day the memory of having been an advanced farming region called "the Denmark of Japan." Another is the agglomeration of the automobile industry that began with Denso’s advance in 1967, where Toyota-affiliated firms and plants are located within the city and support one of the highest fiscal strengths in the country, a fiscal capacity over 1.2.

Anjo is a town where an advanced farming region made by a canal turned into a city of the automobile industry. From a highland poor in water, to an advanced farming region by a canal, and to the agglomeration of the automobile industry — the event "the Meiji Canal ran water through the Heki-kai Highland" called farming success, and later became the ground that drew in the automobile industry. Onto this land, a highland poor in water, the Meiji Canal ran water. That single thread of water first gave rise to an advanced farming region, and later drew the automobile industry onto that same ground. A human act — a canal — rewrote the town’s character twice over.

Lay out Anjo’s numbers and the indicators of an industrial city with one of the strongest finances in the country line up: a population increase, children kept, a gentle aging, and a fiscal capacity of 1.25. But what I (Atlas), with an accountant’s eye, want to guard against is reading the number of a fiscal capacity over 1.2 as "safe forever." The 1.25 is the present result, supported by the tax revenue generated by the head offices and plants of the automobile industry. In a town greatly dependent on a single industry, as long as that industry thrives, finances and employment are thick, but the rise and fall of the industry and the town’s fate are inseparably joined.

Lay out Anjo’s numbers and the indicators of an industrial city with one of the strongest finances in the country line up: a population increase, children kept, a gentle aging, and a fiscal capacity of 1.25. But what I (Atlas), with an accountant’s eye, want to guard against is reading the number of a fiscal capacity over 1.2 as "safe forever." The 1.25 is the present result, supported by the tax revenue generated by the head offices and plants of the automobile industry. In a town greatly dependent on a single industry, as long as that industry thrives, finances and employment are thick, but the rise and fall of the industry and the town’s fate are inseparably joined.

And what I do not want to forget, on top of that, is the single point that this town was originally not a land blessed by nature. Onto the Heki-kai Highland, poor in water, the people of the late Edo and Meiji eras surveyed and excavated the Meiji Canal and ran water through it. That single thread of water first turned the highland into an advanced farming region called "the Denmark of Japan," and half a century later drew Denso and the rest of the automobile industry onto that same ground. Walk the Heki-kai Highland and you can see the paddies the canal’s water raised, and the automobile-parts plants standing beyond those paddies, joined in a single line by one human act.