Daito-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 119,000 (119,367 in 2020). Its course is a form of turning from nearly level to decline. From 128,917 in 2000, through 126,504 in 2005 and 127,534 in 2010, holding the late 127-thousand range, then through 123,217 in 2015 to 119,367 in 2020, it has fallen in recent years.

Looking inside, the figure of a city opening on the border of foothill and lowland appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 12.3% in 2000 to 26.3% in 2020 — by about fourteen points over twenty years. The household-with-children share is 19.4% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.70 in fiscal 2023, a level above the middle, able to cover about seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of the lowland of a drained great pond, advancing in aging while shedding population in recent years, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the reclamation of the pond and flood control.

This town’s skeleton is set by the large pond that once held water over a wide range of Kawachi and by the great work of flood control that drained that pond. The beginning layer is the pond. From the medieval era through the Edo era, over a wide range of Kawachi including the middle of this town there was a large pond. This pond, gathering the water flowing down from the foot of the mountain, repeatedly let its water overflow and forced on the surrounding land a difficult dealing with water.

Upon this large pond, the great work of flood control overlapped. In the mid-Edo era, a great work was done to reroute, westward avoiding the Kawachi land, the flow of a large river that had repeatedly flooded. With this rerouting, the large pond was drained and turned into new rice fields. On the new fields gained by draining the pond, besides rice, the production of cotton and rapeseed grew greatly, as records remain. The lowland after the pond departed walked, as a land sloping gently from the foot of the mountain down to the river, together with its dealings with water. Once the modern era came, a large factory of electricity was sited on this lowland, and it became a place of manufacture. The road to becoming a city mirrors this town too. In the 1950s this land became a city through the merger of one town and two villages. The great pond of Kawachi, the rerouting and reclamation of the river, the border of foothill and lowland, and the factory of electricity — this town’s shape stands upon the history of a pond and flood control that a land descending from the foot of the Ikoma mountains to the Neyagawa lowland held.

What characterizes Daito is that, holding the history of a drained great pond and flood control, it sheds population in recent years and advances in aging. With 127,534 in 2010 as its peak, some eight thousand were lost over ten years to 119,367 in 2020. Even in this town, which gathered people on the lowland that drained the pond together with postwar factories, one can read that a part of the young generation moved to the neighboring great metropolitan sphere, and the age of the whole town rose. That the share aged 65 and over rose from 12.3% in 2000 to 26.3% in 2020 — by about fourteen points over twenty years — is its expression.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The household-with-children share is 19.4% in 2020. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.70 is a level able to cover about seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, above the middle. One can read that the fixed assets of the factories sited on the lowland, and the income of the households living on the lowland, support the tax base above the middle. The fall of population in recent years, the aging that rose by about fourteen points over twenty years, and the above-middle finances — these three are not separate phenomena, but the separate appearances of the same flow of time, in which this lowland, which gathered people with factories after the war, now meets the aging of that generation.

Daito holds several functions of its own. One is the history of holding, in its middle, a large pond that held water over a wide range of Kawachi from the medieval era through the Edo era, drained into new fields by the rerouting of the river in the mid-Edo era. Another is its character of having held a population as a place of manufacture, with a large modern factory of electricity sited on the lowland that drained the pond. And this landform, descending from the foot of the Ikoma mountains to the Neyagawa lowland, inscribed on this land both the former large pond and the lowland after it was drained.

Daito is the town where the lowland of a drained great pond walked together with flood control. From the great pond of Kawachi, to the rerouting and reclamation of the river, the border of foothill and lowland, and the factory of electricity — the geography of "the Kawachi land descending from the Ikoma foothills to the Neyagawa lowland" held the former large pond, and the great work of flood control turned it into new fields. From the medieval era through the Edo era, in the middle of this town there was a large pond that repeatedly let its water overflow. In the mid-Edo era, with a great work to reroute the flow of the river westward, that pond was drained and turned into new fields. One great work of flood control rewrote the pond into fields, and then into the land of a modern factory.