Inazawa-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 135,000 (134,751 in 2020). To read this city’s population, one must take the merger into account. In 2005 Inazawa City formed a new merger with two neighboring towns to become the present Inazawa City. The population of the former Inazawa City alone, in 2000, was 100,270, and after the merger it was 136,965 in 2005. From there, through 136,442 in 2010 and 136,867 in 2015 to 134,751 in 2020, it has been roughly kept since the merger. The step in the population between 2000 and 2005 in this article mirrors the expansion of the city area by that merger.

Looking inside the figures, the form of a mid-sized city in the Nobi Plain appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 13.6% in 2000 to 27.7% in 2020, but amid the many provincial cities nearing four in ten, it does not reach three in ten, keeping a comparative youth. The household-with-children share is high at 23.8% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.84 in fiscal 2023, a comparatively high level for a mid-sized city, whose own tax revenue can cover a little over eight-tenths of expenditure. The figure of a town of an old provincial seat and a village of nursery trees, roughly keeping its population on the post-merger city area while keeping a comparative youth, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the provincial temple and the seedlings.

This town’s skeleton is set by the old history of a provincial seat and a provincial temple placed in the Nara period, by a fire festival continuing for over a thousand years, and by the technique of seedlings said to have come from Tang China. The central layer is the provincial seat and the provincial temple. In the Nara period, the office governing the province of Owari was placed in this area, and at an emperor’s edict to raise a temple in every province, a provincial temple was built. The ruins of that temple still remain in this town as a historic site of the nation, telling that this land was, from of old, one of the centers of the province of Owari.

Upon this land of an old provincial seat, several histories were layered. One is the fire festival. At this town’s shrine, every year, a fire festival in which naked men clash in the cold of winter is still held. This rite, said to derive from a prayer to drive off pestilence, is held to have piled up over a thousand years of time, and is known as an extraordinary festival. Another is the seedling technique. A monk of this town’s temple is said to have brought back the technique of raising seedlings from Tang China in the Kamakura period and conveyed it to the nearby farmers. That technique was succeeded, and this town became one of the nation’s leading districts of plants and nursery trees. In a district added to the city area by merger, it is known also as a district of ginkgo nuts. The road to becoming a city, too, mirrors this town. This land walked as a city centered on the land of the Owari provincial seat, and in 2005 formed a new merger with two neighboring towns to widen the city area. An old provincial seat and provincial temple, a fire festival of over a thousand years, the seedling technique that came from Tang China, and a village of nursery trees — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the provincial seat and the seedlings that the middle of the Nobi Plain held.

What characterizes Inazawa is that, while holding the history of an old provincial seat and the technique of seedlings, it roughly keeps the population of the post-merger city area and keeps a comparative youth. From 136,965 in 2005, after the merger, to 134,751 in 2020, it has held roughly level over fifteen years. At the position of the middle of the Nobi Plain, near Nagoya’s urban sphere, it can be read that farming as a district of plants and nursery trees and a life of commuting to the neighborhood both hold, and that young households have stayed to a degree, supporting the population in not crumbling greatly. That the share aged 65 and over, at 27.7% in 2020, does not reach three in ten, and that the household-with-children share is on the high side at 23.8%, are the expression of that.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.84 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover a little over eight-tenths of expenditure, comparatively high for a mid-sized city. It can be read that farming as a district of plants and nursery trees, the income of residents commuting to the Nagoya sphere, and the local industries support the tax source comparatively high. The town of an old provincial seat and a village of nursery trees now roughly keeps its population on the post-merger city area while keeping a comparative youth. The population is roughly level after the merger, the aging does not reach three in ten, and the fiscal stamina is on the comparatively high side. These three tax sources — the farming of plants and nursery trees, households commuting to the Nagoya sphere, and the local industries — overlap to support finances on the high side for a mid-sized city.

Inazawa holds several functions of its own. One is its history as the land of an old provincial seat, where in the Nara period the office governing the province of Owari and a provincial temple were placed, leaving the temple ruins as a historic site of the nation. Another is its character of having succeeded to a naked fire festival said to continue for over a thousand years, and to a technique of raising seedlings said to have come from Tang China, becoming one of the nation’s leading districts of plants and nursery trees. And the landform of the middle of the Nobi Plain gave this land an old provincial seat, and a rich soil that raises seedlings.

Inazawa is a town where the land of an old provincial seat became a village of nursery trees by the seedling technique that came from Tang China. From the Nara-period provincial seat and provincial temple, to a fire festival of over a thousand years, the seedling technique that came from Tang China, and a village of nursery trees — the geography of "opening in the middle of the Nobi Plain" called an old provincial seat, gave the soil that raises seedlings, and set the town’s skeleton. In the land of an old center where the Nara-period provincial seat and provincial temple were placed, the seedling technique that came from Tang China took root. The fire of a fire festival of over a thousand years and the soil that raises seedlings make up the history of the same town, in the middle of the Nobi Plain.

Lay out Inazawa’s numbers and the indicators of a mid-sized city in the Nobi Plain that keeps a comparative youth line up: a population roughly level after the merger, an aging rate of 27.7%, a household-with-children share of 23.8%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.84. But what I (Atlas), with an eye used to ledgers, want to note first is that this city’s step in the population is owed to the merger of 2005. The population of the former Inazawa City alone, in 2000, was 100,270, and the figure of 136,965 in 2005 is the result of a new merger with two neighboring towns. In reading the figures of the population over time, to overlook this step between 2000 and 2005 is to misread the town’s shape. That is precisely why one must read it after noting the value of the former city alone.

Lay out Inazawa’s numbers and the indicators of a mid-sized city in the Nobi Plain line up: a population roughly level after the merger, an aging that does not reach three in ten, a household-with-children share of 23.8%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.84. To my (Atlas) accountant’s eye, the finances on the high side for a mid-sized city can be read as supported by the overlap of three tax sources — the farming of plants and nursery trees, the income of households commuting to the Nagoya sphere, and the local industries.

What remains, on top of that, is the question of how to carry two histories of differing character to the next generation. The ruins of the Nara-period provincial temple, and the fire festival in which naked men clash in the cold of winter over a thousand years, show that this land was, from of old, one of the centers of Owari’s faith and government. On the other hand, the technique of raising seedlings said to have come from Tang China in the Kamakura period raised this town into one of the nation’s leading districts of plants and nursery trees. The land that was an old provincial center is, at the same time, a village of the handcraft of raising seedlings — how the city area widened by merger will keep holding, going forward, the wealth that does not appear directly in numbers: the faith of the provincial temple, the fire festival in the cold of winter, and the seedling technique that came from Tang China. What remains after reading Inazawa to the end is that single question, without an answer.