Habikino-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 109,000 (108,736 in 2020). Its course is a form of crossing one peak and decreasing. Taking 119,246 in 2000 as a peak, it nearly held through 118,695 in 2005 and 117,681 in 2010, and then, through 112,683 in 2015 to 108,736 in 2020, it has quickened its decline in recent years.

Looking inside, the figure befitting a city at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.3% in 2000 to 30.6% in 2020 — by more than fifteen points over twenty years — and passed three in ten. The household-with-children share is 20.1% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.55 in fiscal 2023, a middling level able to cover a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a village holding a group of great tombs, shedding its population over a peak while advancing in aging, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the kofun group and the grapes of the hills.

This town’s skeleton is set by the group of great tombs held within the city area and by the grapes grown on the southeastern hills. The old layer is the kofun group. In this town there is a group of great tombs, including several large keyhole-shaped tombs over 200 meters in mound length. Seen as the tombs of the kings of an old age, they were inscribed, together with another tomb group in a neighboring city, on the World Heritage of culture. That in an old age this neighborhood was a corner of the center of a great power is told by these great tombs.

Upon this village holding the group of tombs, the grapes of the modern era overlapped. The southeastern hills of this town possess a landform and environment suited to growing grapes, and grapes have been cultivated since around the mid-Meiji era. From the grapes grown, grape wine too was brewed, and this town was known as a producing area of Kawachi grapes and grape wine. On the flat land to the north of the kofun group, housing spread as the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere, and after the war it received many households. The road to becoming a city too mirrors this town. This land became a city in the late 1950s through the merger of two towns. The name of the city is said to come from a myth. The group of great tombs, the World Heritage of culture, the grapes of the Minamikawachi hills, and the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere — this town’s shape stands upon the history of the kofun group and the grapes that the land of Minamikawachi, at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere, held.

What characterizes Habikino is that, holding the history of the kofun group and the grapes of the hills, it has shed its population over one peak and advances in aging. Taking 119,246 in 2000 as a peak, more than ten thousand were lost over twenty years to 108,736 in 2020. As the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere, this village, which received many households after the war, now meets the aging of that generation, and it can be read that it sheds its population over a peak. That the share aged 65 and over rose from 15.3% in 2000 to 30.6% in 2020 — by more than fifteen points over twenty years — and passed three in ten, is the expression that the generation that moved in together at a certain period now raises its years all at once.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist is zero in both 2024 and 2025. The household-with-children share is 20.1% in 2020. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.55 is a level able to cover a little over half of expenditure with its own tax revenue, in the middle. It can be read that the income of the households living at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere supports the tax base at the middle. The population shedding over a peak, the aging that passed three in ten, and the middling finances — these three are not separate phenomena, but the separate appearances of the same flow of time, in which this village, which received many households after the war, now meets the aging of that generation.

Habikino holds several functions of its own. One is the history of holding within its city area a group of great tombs, including several large keyhole-shaped tombs over 200 meters in mound length, inscribed together with a neighboring city on the World Heritage of culture. Another is the character of being a producing area where grapes have been grown on the southeastern hills since around the mid-Meiji era and grape wine too is brewed. And the landform of Minamikawachi, at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere, has held the group of tombs and housing on the flat land, and the grape fields on the hills.

Habikino is the town where the group of great tombs and the grapes of the hills overlapped at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere. From the group of great tombs, through the World Heritage of culture and the grapes of the Minamikawachi hills, to the residential area at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere — the geography of "the land of Minamikawachi at the southern edge of the great metropolitan sphere" left the tombs of the old kings, grew grapes on the hills, and spread housing on the flat land. On the flat land lie the group of great tombs of the World Heritage, on the southeastern hills the grapes since the mid-Meiji era ripen and wine too is brewed. The tombs of the far-off old kings and the grapes of the hills, begun in the modern era, stand side by side in the same city area.