In this town, for only ten years, the capital of this country was placed. It was a brief capital before the move to the next millennial capital. The capital eventually moved on, the land became a village of bamboo, and the bamboo shoots dug from it, once the railway was laid, came to be known throughout the nation. This village of bamboo, set just midway between two great cities, welcomed factories and housing after the war and has increased its population consistently. The town that was the capital for only ten years — its numbers are the record of a town where a university and a science-research city overlapped upon the old history of a phantom capital and a village of bamboo, and drew in population.
A city opening on the Otokuni land in the southwestern part of Kyoto Prefecture, midway between two great cities. The population has increased gently but consistently, from 77,846 in 2000, through 79,844 in 2010, to 80,608 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a Kyoto–Osaka bedroom town," but the causal thread: how the history — a phantom capital and a village of bamboo — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Nagaokakyo in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about 81,000 (80,608 in 2020). Its course is a gentle but consistent increase. From 77,846 in 2000, through 78,335 in 2005, 79,844 in 2010, 80,090 in 2015, to 80,608 in 2020, it has increased.
Looking inside, the figure of a village-of-bamboo city opening midway between two great cities appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 13.8% in 2000 to 28.0% in 2020 — by about fourteen points over twenty years — nearing three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.4% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.76 in fiscal 2023, a level above the middle, able to cover a little over seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a village of bamboo where the capital was placed for only ten years, gaining factories and housing to increase its population consistently while advancing in aging, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the phantom capital and the village of bamboo.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency) / Real Estate Information Library (MLIT)
02 · A capital placed for only ten years, the bamboo shoots of the village of bamboo, midway between two great cities, factories and housing — the history behind the numbers
This town’s skeleton is set by the history of a capital placed for only ten years, by the later village of bamboo, and by its position midway between two great cities. The beginning layer is the capital. On this land, more than twelve hundred years ago, the capital of this country was placed. This capital, moved north from the flat capital, was built on a land where rivers joined in several streams, convenient for water, but in only ten years it was moved further, to the next millennial capital. The brief phantom capital was this town’s old center.
This land of the phantom capital eventually became a village of bamboo. When the railway was laid in the modern era, the bamboo shoots dug from it widened their market and, bearing this land’s name, came to be known throughout the nation. Upon the land of the village of bamboo, the position of being midway between two great cities began to tell after the war. On this land, set just midway between two great cities, housing development and factory siting came one after another from the late 1950s, and it changed rapidly into the form of a city. The road to becoming a city mirrors this town too. The town of the village of bamboo increased its population and became a city in the late 1960s. A capital placed for only ten years, the bamboo shoots of the village of bamboo, midway between two great cities, and factories and housing — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the phantom capital and the bamboo that a village of bamboo, the capital for only ten years, held.
Source: Nagaokakyo City / Nagaoka-kyo (the capital that Emperor Kanmu moved from Heijo-kyo, 784–794; about 4.3 km east-west and 5.3 km north-south, reaching into Muko City, Nagaokakyo City, Oyamazaki Town and part of Kyoto City — overview) / Nagaokakyo City / Otokuni bamboo shoots (a specialty of the bamboo country, known nationwide as "Otokuni bamboo shoots" after the railway widened its market in the modern era — overview) / Nagaokakyo City (city status from Nagaoka Town in 1972; an Otokuni city that urbanized rapidly from the late 1950s, midway between Kyoto and Osaka, as housing development and factory siting came one after another — overview)
03 · Midway between two great cities, increasing its population consistently while advancing in aging
What characterizes Nagaokakyo is that, holding the history of a phantom capital and a village of bamboo, it increases its population consistently while advancing in aging. From 77,846 in 2000 to 80,608 in 2020, it has increased gently but consistently over twenty years. Among the many regional cities that shed population, that this city has kept increasing can be read as because, set just midway between two great cities, it is easy to commute to either, and it welcomed factories and housing after the war.
On the other hand, the share aged 65 and over is 28.0% in 2020, nearing three in ten, having risen by about fourteen points over twenty years. This can be read as the expression of the households that moved in during the postwar period of urbanization aging together. The Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025, and the household-with-children share is 20.4% in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.76, able to cover a little over seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, lies above the middle. One can read that the income of the households commuting to the two great cities, and the livelihood of the factories sited there, support the tax source above the middle. That the population increases consistently while aging too nears three in ten are not two separate phenomena, but the front and back of one and the same flow: the households that crowded in after the war, while still pushing up the population, are now aging together all at once.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A village of bamboo, the capital for only ten years, became a city midway between two great cities
Nagaokakyo holds several functions of its own. One is the history of having been, more than twelve hundred years ago, the capital of this country for only ten years — a brief phantom capital before the move to the next millennial capital. Another is its character as a later village of bamboo, where, once the railway was laid, the bamboo shoots came to be known throughout the nation. And the position of being just midway between two great cities drew the postwar factories and housing to this land.
Nagaokakyo is a town where a village of bamboo, the capital for only ten years, became a city midway between two great cities. From a capital placed for only ten years, to the bamboo shoots of the village of bamboo, midway between two great cities, and factories and housing — the geography of "the Otokuni land just midway between two great cities" once called a phantom capital, and later drew in factories and housing. On this land, convenient for water where rivers joined in several streams, a capital was built, yet in ten years it was moved to the next millennial capital. The land that lost the rank of capital eventually became a village of bamboo, the railway sent its bamboo shoots out across the nation, and it is now a residential town midway between two great cities. On one piece of land, this many layers of time have piled up.
Source: Nagaokakyo City / Nagaoka-kyo (the capital that Emperor Kanmu moved from Heijo-kyo, 784–794; about 4.3 km east-west and 5.3 km north-south, reaching into Muko City, Nagaokakyo City, Oyamazaki Town and part of Kyoto City — overview) / Nagaokakyo City / Otokuni bamboo shoots (a specialty of the bamboo country, known nationwide as "Otokuni bamboo shoots" after the railway widened its market in the modern era — overview) / Nagaokakyo City (city status from Nagaoka Town in 1972; an Otokuni city that urbanized rapidly from the late 1950s, midway between Kyoto and Osaka, as housing development and factory siting came one after another — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — reading the numbers of a town where layers of time, from a ten-year capital to a village of bamboo, have piled up
Lay out Nagaokakyo’s numbers and the indicators of a city opening midway between two great cities line up: a consistently increasing population, an aging rate of 28.0%, a household-with-children share of 20.4%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.76. When I (Atlas) read this town with an accountant’s eye, what I first want to pause over is the brevity of the history that "for only ten years, the capital of this country was placed" here. The capital built on this land, where rivers joined in several streams and water was convenient, was nonetheless moved in ten years to the next millennial capital. The change in which the land that lost the rank of capital eventually became a village of bamboo, and, once the railway was laid, sent its bamboo shoots out across the nation, makes one read this town within a long layering of time.
One more thing I want to consider is the telling of the position of being "just midway between two great cities." On this position, easy to commute to either great city, housing development and factory siting came one after another after the war, and the city has increased its population consistently. The composition — that this land, once chosen by a capital seeking the convenience of water, in the modern era drew in factories and housing through the position of being midway between two great cities — speaks well of how the meaning of a land’s advantage shifts with the age. A land that lost the rank of capital in only ten years became a village of bamboo, and now, through the position of being midway between two great cities, draws in factories and housing and increases its population. The meaning of the land’s advantage has shifted, over twelve hundred years, from the capital to bamboo, and then to the convenience of commuting.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Nagaokakyo City / Nagaoka-kyo (the capital that Emperor Kanmu moved from Heijo-kyo, 784–794; about 4.3 km east-west and 5.3 km north-south, reaching into Muko City, Nagaokakyo City, Oyamazaki Town and part of Kyoto City — overview) / Nagaokakyo City / Otokuni bamboo shoots (a specialty of the bamboo country, known nationwide as "Otokuni bamboo shoots" after the railway widened its market in the modern era — overview) / Nagaokakyo City (city status from Nagaoka Town in 1972; an Otokuni city that urbanized rapidly from the late 1950s, midway between Kyoto and Osaka, as housing development and factory siting came one after another — overview)
Editor’s note: all figures and sources are drawn from official statistics. The prose follows Atlas’s voice, and AI (atlas-handcrafted-reverse-v1 (Daiki 2026-06-02)) handled the shaping of the text. Evaluative or predictive language (such as “a good buy” or “attractive”) is intentionally left out. Revision id: wave23_7