Takarazuka-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 226,000 (226,432 in 2020). From 213,037 in 2000, it gained some thirteen thousand over twenty years, keeping a gentle uptrend.

What I want to note here is that, behind the increasing population, the make-up of ages is moving greatly. The share aged 65 and over rose from 15.3% in 2000 to 28.1% in 2020 — nearly doubling over twenty years. Those under 15 fell from 31,877 to 29,195, a decrease held to a little over two thousand. The household-with-children share is 22.5% (2020), not low among the residential cities of the Hanshin area. Elementary schools moved nearly level, from 26 to 27 and back to 26, and the Childcare Waitlist has run at zero. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.82 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a mature Hanshin-area residential city, comparatively keeping its number of children while aging advances, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of the hot spring and the private railway.

What set Takarazuka in place was a single hot spring, and the idea of the railway company that sought to make use of it. In 1887, the Takarazuka hot spring opened on the right bank of the Muko River. This hot water along the Muko River became the starting point that would later change the town’s fate.

Decisive was the railway. In 1910 the Minoo-Arima Electric Tramway opened, and a station was placed at Takarazuka. This was the later Hankyu Railway. The man who led this railway was Kobayashi Ichizo. He held the idea of making, along the line itself, a destination where people would gather, in order to put passengers on the railway. At Takarazuka, in order to draw in hot-spring guests, he remodeled an unused indoor pool of a newly built spa facility into a theater, and in 1913 organized a chorus of girls only. This was the beginning of the Takarazuka Revue, and the first performance was held the following year, 1914. The prototype of suburban sightseeing development by a private railway — developing railway, hot spring, and revue as one, and selling residential land along the line — took shape in this town.

This idea raised Takarazuka as a residential city as well as a sightseeing place. The railway gave birth to the destinations of hot spring and revue, and along its line a residential area within commuting distance spread. As a residential area in the hills of the Hanshin area, a settled place of dwelling was formed. From the hot spring of the Muko River, to the development of the private-railway line, and to a town holding a revue and a residential area — upon this history, in which a railway company built a line with a hot spring and a revue, Takarazuka stands.

What characterizes Takarazuka is that, while the total population gained some thirteen thousand over twenty years, the decline of children was held to a little over two thousand, comparatively small. It appears in the numbers of living infrastructure as a gentle stability. Elementary schools in the city have hardly moved, from 26 to 27 and back to 26. In this town, where the number of children does not greatly crumble, the school network too is nearly kept.

The Childcare Waitlist has run at zero. In this town, where the household-with-children share is not low at 22.5%, it can be read as a zero that is the result of keeping supply abreast of demand while comparatively holding the number of children. Its meaning differs from a zero that is the result of children having thinned out, as in a regional city of population decline. But it must be read together with the fact that the aging rate rose from 15.3% to 28.1%. A town that gathered people early as a residential area in the hills of the Hanshin area now sees that generation aging just as it is. Children comparatively kept, a waitlist of zero, yet aging advances — these are different facets of one phase, in which a residential area that the private railway drew in early matures just as it is. Take out only one indicator, and the image of the town cannot be grasped.

Takarazuka holds several functions of its own. One is the destination that the railway company built — the hot spring along the Muko River and the revue placed there. Another is the residential area in the hills of the Hanshin area spreading along the Hankyu line, with its character as a settled place of dwelling from which one can commute toward Osaka and Kobe.

Takarazuka is a town that, taking a single hot spring as its starting point, a railway company developed for sightseeing and dwelling as one. From the hot spring, to the development of the private-railway line, and to a town holding a revue and a residential area — the single fact that a hot spring was along the Muko River drew in the railway, and that railway gave birth to the revue and the residential area. The hot spring, the revue, and the residential area in the hills are all, when one traces back, set upon the same idea of a railway company seeking to draw guests and residents along its line. It is neither a sightseeing place nor a residential area that grew of itself. The human design of private-railway line development alone made this town a place holding both sightseeing and dwelling. That is the origin of the town of Takarazuka.