Otsu-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 345,000 (345,070 in 2020). From 340,973 in 2015 it rose by some four thousand over five years. Amid the many cities whose populations fall nationwide, it is a prefectural capital that has kept an increasing trend.

That said, the number of children faces the opposite way from the total. Those under 15 fell by some two thousand, from 47,815 (2015) to 45,482 (2020). In the same period the share aged 65 and over rose from 24.4% to 26.2%. On the other hand, the household-with-children share is at a high level of 22.3% (2020). The Official Land Price for residential land is around 52,000 yen per m² (52,100 yen/m², 2026). The Fiscal Capacity Index is 0.77 (2023), which does not reach 1.0, a structure that supplements part of standard expenditure with the local allocation tax. The Childcare Waitlist fell from 184 (2024) to 132 (2025), but still exceeds one hundred. Here it is in contrast with Shizuoka City and Hamamatsu City, which have come down to a zero waitlist. These are figures for the city as a whole, but Otsu is a terrain where the blocks string in a long thin band along the southern shore of Lake Biwa, and the character differs from the temple gate to the Kyoto-side residential land. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the ancient capital, the prefectural capital and the residential land of the Kyoto sphere.

Otsu’s skeleton is a land where the history of an ancient capital and the geography of neighboring Kyoto overlap. The first foundation is its history as an ancient capital. Ever since Emperor Tenji set the Omi-Otsu Palace (the Otsu capital) here, it has held a history exceeding thirteen hundred years. Because there was little war damage or great earthquake, old temples such as Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, Mii-dera (Onjo-ji) and Ishiyama-dera still exist in great number even now, and the number of nationally designated cultural properties is held to be third in the nation, after Kyoto City and Nara City, among municipalities. It is, in historical geography, a typical case of the center of faith and of governance being carved into the urban blocks as path dependence.

The second foundation is the blocks of differing character stringing along the southern shore of Lake Biwa. Otsu was a post town of the Tokaido; Zeze was a castle town; Sakamoto was the temple gate of Enryaku-ji; Katata was a hub of lake transport; at Seta the Omi provincial seat was set. Within one city, settlements of differing origin string in a band, tracing Lake Biwa.

The third condition, and the one that strongly governs the present numbers, is the geography of neighboring Kyoto. Bordering Kyoto City and, by the nearness of a short time on the JR, Otsu came to hold together the character of a residential land of the Kyoto sphere. The city’s daytime-to-nighttime population ratio is about ninety, the lowest level among prefectural capitals, showing that many commute or attend school outside the city by day and return by night. That it has long been nicknamed "the Otsu ward of Kyoto" is also because of this geography. A thirteen-hundred-year-old ancient capital becoming a prefectural capital, and at the same time being a residential land of the neighboring prefecture’s urban sphere — Otsu’s shape stands upon the overlap of history and geography.

What characterizes Otsu is that, while the total population rises by four thousand, the number of children falls by two thousand. It is a combination different from the "both the total and children decline" of Shizuoka City and Hamamatsu City — those under 15 thin while the total rises. One can read that the substance of the increase is supported not only by child-rearing households but by the inflow of a broad range of households working in the Kyoto sphere.

The Childcare Waitlist fell from 184 (2024) to 132 (2025), but still exceeds one hundred. That the household-with-children share is at a high level of 22.3% and this number of the waitlist cannot be read apart. In a town where child-rearing households live with a certain thickness as a residential land near Kyoto, even if the absolute number of children declines gently, a state can remain in which demand for childcare exceeds supply. It is the reverse, in the background population dynamics, of Shizuoka City and Hamamatsu City, which brought the waitlist down to zero with the lowness of their child-rearing-household share and population decline as background. Even the same number "waitlist," in a town where children decline while child-rearing households keep flowing in thick, does not necessarily converge to zero. That Otsu’s waitlist remains above one hundred is, besides one side of insufficient childcare supply, also the reverse side of child-rearing households still flowing in thick as a residential land of the Kyoto sphere. Take out this figure of one hundred thirty-two alone, without the background population dynamics, and you mistake the town’s figure.

Otsu holds several functions of its own. One is the cluster of old temples, Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, Mii-dera and Ishiyama-dera foremost, where, conveying a thirteen-hundred-year history of faith to the present, a cultural core held to be third in the nation by the number of nationally designated cultural properties resides. Another is its face as a prefectural capital, the administrative center of Shiga Prefecture. Furthermore, the post town of the Tokaido, the castle town of Zeze, the temple gate of Sakamoto, the lake-transport hub of Katata — blocks of differing origin string in a band along the southern shore of Lake Biwa.

Otsu, even while being a prefectural capital, holds together the face of a residential land of the Kyoto sphere by a geography of adjoining Kyoto City and a short time on the JR. From an ancient capital to a prefectural capital, and further to a residential land of the neighboring prefecture’s urban sphere — the geography "clinging to the southern end of Lake Biwa, neighboring Kyoto" has layered a different character, age by age, onto one city. The old temples, the prefectural office, the post town and the residential land of the Kyoto sphere are all, in origin, lined up on the same long thin land of the southern shore of Lake Biwa. The old temples, the prefectural office, the post town and the residential land of the Kyoto sphere are lined up on the same long thin land of the southern shore of Lake Biwa. The advantage of neighboring Kyoto and a short time on the JR has drawn, in turn, the function of a prefectural capital onto the old temples of the ancient capital, and further the commuter residential land of the neighboring prefecture.