Izumi-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 184,000 (184,495 in 2020). Its course is a form of increasing, then holding. It increased from 172,974 in 2000, through 177,856 in 2005, 184,988 in 2010, to 186,109 in 2015, and in 2020 it turned to a nearly level course at a high level, at 184,495.

Looking inside, the figure befitting a city holding housing on the hills of Senshu appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 12.7% in 2000 to 25.5% in 2020, but while many regional cities approach four in ten, it stays at about a quarter and keeps its youth. The household-with-children share is high, at 24.1% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is two in 2024 and nine in 2025 — small numbers, yet they remain. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.70 in fiscal 2023, a level able to cover about seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, above the middle. The figure of the land of the old provincial capital that gave a province its name, holding its population at a high level while keeping its youth, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the provincial capital and the hills.

This town’s skeleton is set by the history of being, in the era of the ancient codes, the land of an old provincial capital where the office of a province was placed, and by the legends and industry, and the housing on the hilltop, that overlapped upon it. The central layer is the provincial capital. In the era of the ancient codes, an office that governed one province was placed in this area. The name of that province is handed down as coming from the welling spring, and the land where the office was placed came to be called, just as it is, by dividing off the name of the province. That people and government gathered in this land as the center of an old province made the central layer of this town.

Upon this land of the provincial capital, several histories overlapped. One is a legendary forest. This town has a forest handed down from of old, which has remained in people’s memory as the stage of a tale of a bond between a person and one not human. Another is industry. After the war, in this town and the surrounding land of Senshu, artificial pearls made from glass developed as an industry, and the town gained the face of a producing area of handwork. And in recent years, on the Senshu hills of this town, a large residential town was built, and many households came to live on the hilltop. The road to becoming a city mirrors this town. This land became a city in the late 1950s, and since then has increased its population together with the housing on the hilltop. The land of the provincial capital that gave a province its name, with the legendary forest and the artificial pearls, and the housing on the hilltop — this town’s shape stands upon the history of an old provincial capital that the plain and hills of Senshu held.

What characterizes Izumi is that, holding the history of the land of an old provincial capital, it holds its population at a high level and keeps its youth. It increased from 172,974 in 2000 to 186,109 in 2015, and in 2020 too it holds a high level at 184,495. In this land at the southwest edge of the Osaka urban sphere, the large residential town built on the Senshu hills received child-rearing households, and that young generations stayed in the town can be read as the support that pushed up and held the population at a high level. That the share aged 65 and over stays at about a quarter, at 25.5% in 2020, and the household-with-children share is high, at 24.1%, is the expression of that young population make-up.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist is two in 2024 and nine in 2025 — small numbers, yet they remain. It can be read as the expression that, with many child-rearing households living in the town, demand for childcare too is firm. 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. It can be read that the income of the many households living on the hilltop supports the tax base above the middle. The population turned to nearly level at a high level, the aging that stays at about a quarter, and the firm demand for childcare — these three are not separate merits, but the separate appearances of one flow, in which the large residential town on the hilltop keeps holding child-rearing households.

Izumi holds several functions of its own. One is the history of being the land of an old provincial capital, where in the era of the ancient codes the office that governed one province was placed and which was called, just as it is, by dividing off the name of the province. Another is the histories that overlapped upon the land of the provincial capital — the legendary forest of a bond between a person and one not human, the producing area of artificial pearls that developed after the war, and the large residential town built on the Senshu hills. And the landform that rises from the plain of Senshu toward the hills made this land hold both the old provincial capital and the housing on the hilltop.

Izumi is the town where the land of the provincial capital that gave a province its name holds housing on the hilltop. From the provincial capital of the ancient codes, through the legendary forest, the artificial pearls, to the housing on the hilltop — the geography of "opening on the land that rises from the plain of Senshu toward the hills" called in the old provincial capital, and later called in the housing on the hilltop. The office of the province placed in the era of the ancient codes gave this land the name of the province, and that name still remains as the name of the city. The land that was the center where government and people gathered now, after a thousand years and more, gathers people as a residential town at the edge of a great metropolitan sphere.