Kameoka-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 86,000 (86,174 in 2020). This city’s population, not through a step caused by a large merger, has gently shed over nine thousand over twenty years, from 94,555 in 2000, through 93,996 in 2005, 92,399 in 2010, 89,479 in 2015, to 86,174 in 2020. It is a curve that gently shrinks while located next to Kyoto.

Looking inside, the figure of a city near Kyoto appears. The share aged 65 and over is 30.1% in 2020, passing three in ten, and the household-with-children share is on the higher side, at 21.7%. The Childcare Waitlist arose slightly of late, at ten in 2024 and twelve in 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.58 in fiscal 2023, a middle level for a regional city, able to cover about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of Mitsuhide’s castle town, gently shedding population while next to Kyoto, with a childcare waitlist arising slightly, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of Kameyama Castle and being near Kyoto.

Kameoka’s skeleton is set by the geography of the Kameoka basin, opening to the west of the Kyoto basin across a mountain, and by the memory of a single castle built there. In the age of the warring states, Akechi Mitsuhide, who served Oda Nobunaga, built this castle around 1577 on a hill facing the Hozugawa River, as a base for conquering the province of Tanba. It is Tanba-Kameyama Castle. The landform of a basin near Kyoto yet across a mountain held strategic meaning, both as a base for governing Tanba and as a position from which to watch Kyoto.

And this castle became the starting point of an upheaval that shook the realm. In 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide set out from this Kameyama Castle, advanced his army, and struck down Oda Nobunaga at Honno-ji — the Incident at Honno-ji. Kameyama Castle was inscribed in history as the land of that departure. Later, through the Toyotomi era and the Edo era, this castle was made up as a large castle, and a castle town flourished. The departure as an old castle town lies in this town’s old layer.

And since the modern era, the Hozugawa River that flowed past the castle town has gained another face. The Hozugawa boat ride, descending the gorge of the Hozu ravine by boat from Kameoka to Arashiyama in Kyoto, came to be carried out with Kameoka as its starting point, and now, together with the Sagano scenic tram running alongside, gathers many people. Mitsuhide built a castle, set out for the Incident at Honno-ji, and the river became the starting point of a boat ride — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a castle town and a river that the geography of a basin near Kyoto held.

What characterizes Kameoka is that, while located next to the great city of Kyoto, it gently sheds population. Over nine thousand fell over twenty years, and the share aged 65 and over passed three in ten. While near enough to commute to Kyoto over a single mountain, within the closed landform of the Kameoka basin there is a flow of the younger generation moving to the city centers of Kyoto and Osaka, and one can read that the decline of population and the deepening of aging advance. The siting of being next to Kyoto does not necessarily lead straight to an increase in population.

Even so, the household-with-children share is on the higher side, at 21.7%, and the Childcare Waitlist arose slightly, at ten in 2024 and twelve in 2025. That a waitlist arises in a town where the population gently declines can owe to several factors, such as a concentration of childcare demand in a particular district or age — this small movement of numbers is better read after confirming the circumstances behind it. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.58 is a middle level able to cover about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. One can read that the taxes of commuters to Kyoto and the local industry keep the tax source in the middle. Gently shedding population next to Kyoto while the household-with-children share is on the higher side and the fiscal strength keeps to the middle — the figure of a basin castle town quietly shrinking while adjoining a great city appears in these numbers.

Kameoka holds several functions of its own. One is the history of being the castle town of Tanba-Kameyama Castle, which Akechi Mitsuhide built as a base for conquering Tanba and which became the land of departure for the Incident at Honno-ji, holding a birth connected to an upheaval that shook the realm. Another is the boat ride of the Hozugawa River that flowed past the castle town, keeping the face of being the starting point of a river ride descending the gorge. And the geography of a basin near Kyoto yet across a mountain gives this town the peculiar structure of forming its own basin while being next to Kyoto.

Kameoka is a basin castle town near Kyoto yet across a mountain. From the castle town of Mitsuhide’s Tanba-Kameyama Castle, to the land of departure for the Incident at Honno-ji, to the starting point of the Hozugawa boat ride — the geography "the Kameoka basin opening to the west of the Kyoto basin across a mountain" called the castle town, the upheaval and the boat ride, and set the town’s skeleton. While next to the great city of Kyoto, this basin sheds people. The closed landform across a single mountain turns it to the side that sends the younger generation off to the city centers of Kyoto and Osaka. Being next to a great city does not always increase people — Kameoka quietly shows that instance.