Tokoname-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 59,000 (58,710 in 2020). Its course is a single road of increase. From 50,183 in 2000, through 51,265 in 2005, 54,858 in 2010 and 56,547 in 2015, to 58,710 in 2020, it increased steadily every five years. While many cities lose population, it gained over eight thousand in twenty years.

Looking inside the figures, the form of a town that keeps increasing appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 20.0% in 2000 to 25.1% in 2020, but the rise stayed at about five points in twenty years, strikingly held down amid the many cities nationwide that pass three in ten. The household-with-children share is high at 22.7% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.93 in fiscal 2023, an extremely high level whose own tax revenue can cover over nine-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a village of pottery that keeps increasing its population, with its aging held down and its fiscal stamina strikingly high, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of Tokoname ware and the airport.

Tokoname’s skeleton is set by the land of the Chita Peninsula, which holds fine clay, and by the airport that opened offshore in recent years. The old layer is the pottery. In this land pottery has been made since the Heian period, and Tokoname ware grew up, characterized by the technique of firing at high temperature without glaze. Even among the six old producing districts, the kiln of Tokoname is held to be the oldest and the largest. Behind that is the fine clay deposited by a lake that once lay in this land. The gift of the soil raised this land as a village of pottery. From teapots, to clay pipes and jars, and to the beckoning cat, Tokoname has kept making a wide range of pottery.

And in 2005 this town gained a new face. In time for a world exposition held the same year, an international airport opened on a man-made island built upon the sea of Ise Bay, offshore of Tokoname City. The village of pottery the soil brought took into its offshore the function of a gateway from the sky. An old kiln and a new airport — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a village of pottery the gift of the soil raised, and an airport that opened offshore.

What characterizes Tokoname is that, while holding the history of a kiln held to be the oldest, it keeps increasing its population, around the opening of the airport offshore. From 50,183 in 2000 to 58,710 in 2020, it gained over eight thousand in twenty years. While many cities lose population, that Tokoname keeps increasing can be read as the expression that the airport opened in 2005, the improvement of transport access it brought, and the residential land developed on the ground joining the airport island and the mainland have drawn people in. That the share aged 65 and over, at 25.1% in 2020, has risen only about five points in twenty years is also the expression that young households keep flowing in.

This inflow appears in the finances too. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.93 is an extremely high level whose own tax revenue can cover over nine-tenths of expenditure. It can be read that the great facility of the airport, the workplaces related to it, and the local industries beginning with pottery give thickness to the tax source. The household-with-children share is high at 22.7%, and the Childcare Waitlist, too, was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The village of pottery now holds an airport, keeps increasing its population, has its aging held down, and has its fiscal stamina strikingly high. The population keeps increasing, the aging is on the held-down side, and the fiscal stamina is extremely high. These are not separate tailwinds, but the expression of a single structure: that the airport that opened offshore and its related workplaces thicken the tax source apart from the number of residents.

Tokoname holds several functions of its own. One is the history of Tokoname ware, held to be the oldest and the largest of the six old producing districts, with an old layer of the gift of the soil reaching back to the Heian period. Another is its character as a producing district that has kept making a wide range of pottery, from teapots to the beckoning cat, leaving a varied craftsmanship including clay pipes and jars. And the international airport that opened in 2005 on a man-made island offshore gives this town the distinctive structure of a gateway from the sky.

Tokoname is a town where a kiln held to be the oldest and an airport that opened offshore overlap. From the village of pottery the gift of the soil raised, to a wide-ranging producing district that makes even the beckoning cat, and to a town holding an airport offshore — the geography of "the soil of the Chita Peninsula holding fine clay, and an airport that can be built offshore in Ise Bay" called the village of pottery and the airport, and set the town’s skeleton. From a kiln held to be the oldest, to a wide-ranging village of pottery that makes even the beckoning cat, and to an airport town on reclaimed land offshore. At the tip of a peninsula that has fired pottery for a thousand years by the gift of the soil, passenger planes now take off from offshore on Ise Bay.

Lay out Tokoname’s numbers and the indicators of a town that keeps growing on the Chita Peninsula line up: an ever-increasing population, an aging rate of 25.1%, a household-with-children share of 22.7%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.93. But when I (Atlas) read this town with the accountant’s eye, what I want to read is the structure that supports the extremely high number of a fiscal capacity of 0.93. This mirrors that the great facility of the airport, and the workplaces related to it, greatly support the tax source apart from the number of residents. The number of residents and the tax source that supports the town do not necessarily trace the same curve. In Tokoname’s case, the airport that opened offshore gives that tax source its thickness.

Lay out Tokoname’s numbers and indicators rare for a town holding an old industry line up: an ever-increasing population, a held-down aging, a household-with-children share of 22.7%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.93. What stands out to my (Atlas) accountant’s eye is that, while holding an extremely old industry — a village of pottery reaching back to the Heian period — it has not lost population. While many of the other producing districts of the six ancient kilns face population decline and aging, that Tokoname keeps its rising trend and reaches a height of a fiscal capacity of 0.93 can be read because the airport that opened offshore on Ise Bay in 2005, and the workplaces tied to it, add a thick tax source apart from the number of residents.

In other words, this town, by lining up in the same city area the "oldest" industry the soil brought and the "newest" facility set by reclaiming the sea, escapes the shrinkage into which an old village of pottery is apt to fall. That said, the thickness that leans on the airport is also swayed by the rise and fall of traffic in the sky. Passenger planes take off at the tip of a peninsula that has fired pottery for a thousand years — how far this coexistence of the old and the new can keep calling people and a tax source holds Tokoname’s course in its hand.