On the mid-slope of the mountain standing at the back of this town is a temple that has gathered faith from of old as a deity of commerce and wishes. At the beginning of the Taisho era, as a road of pilgrimage to that temple, the first cable car in Japan was laid on the slope of this mountain. That conveyance, hauling a car up by a steel rope, came in time to carry not only worshippers but also the people who crossed the mountain to commute to a great city, and the mountain of pilgrimage changed its form into a mountain of housing. The town where a cable car was laid to the Shoten of the mountain increased its population, and then in recent years has decreased that number little by little. Ikoma’s numbers are the record of a town inscribed with the history of Japan’s first cable car.
A city opening on the eastern slope of the mountain that forms the boundary with Osaka Prefecture, in the northwestern part of Nara Prefecture. The population increased from 112,830 in 2000 to 118,233 in 2015, and then has decreased gently in recent years to 116,675 in 2020. What I (Atlas) want to read here is not the sign "a bedroom town of Nara," but the causal thread: how the history — pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain, and Japan’s first cable car — is translated into today’s population and finances.
01 · Seeing the present Ikoma in its numbers
In the latest Population Census the population is about 117,000 (116,675 in 2020). Its course is a form of increasing, then decreasing gently. From 112,830 in 2000, through 113,686 in 2005, 118,113 in 2010, to 118,233 in 2015 it increased, and taking that as a peak, in 2020 it has decreased gently in recent years to 116,675.
Looking inside, the figure of a mountain residential area standing at the back of a great city appears. The share aged 65 and over rose from 13.4% in 2000 to 28.7% in 2020, but while many regional cities approach four in ten, it stays short of three in ten, comparatively keeping its youth. The household-with-children share is high at 24.3% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist is sixteen in 2024 and nineteen in 2025, remaining somewhat in recent years. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.74 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 the town where a cable car was laid to the Shoten of the mountain, decreasing its population gently from the peak while keeping its youth, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of pilgrimage and housing.
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 · The Shoten of the mountain, Japan’s first cable car, the private railway commuting to a great city, the mountain residential area — the history behind the numbers
The beginning of Ikoma’s history is the faith in a temple standing on the mid-slope of the mountain. The beginning layer is the temple. On the mid-slope of the mountain standing at the back of this town is a temple restored by a monk in the Edo period, which has gathered faith from of old as a deity of commerce and wishes. On fixed days of the month many worshippers visit, and this temple on the mid-slope of the mountain was a place of faith that drew people even from the side of the great city.
As a road of pilgrimage to this temple, at the beginning of the Taisho era, the first cable car in Japan was laid on the slope of this mountain. That conveyance, hauling a car up by a steel rope, linked the station at the foot with the temple on the mid-slope of the mountain and shortened the road of pilgrimage all at once. This cable car was laid by the hand of the group of a private railway heading from the great city toward Nara, and came in time to bear the role of carrying the people who crossed the mountain to commute to the great city. As the private-railway line was opened up as a residential area, the mountain for pilgrimage changed its form into a mountain where the people who commute to the great city dwell. The road to becoming a city too mirrors this town. This land became a city in the 1970s, and since then has increased its population as a residential area along the private-railway line. The Shoten of the mountain, Japan’s first cable car, the private railway commuting to a great city, and the mountain residential area — upon this history of pilgrimage and the cable car, which the slope of the mountain forming the boundary with the great city held, the present Ikoma stands.
Source: Ikoma City / Hozan-ji (the Hozan-ji of Mount Ikoma, restored by the Edo-era monk Tankai Risshi — "Shoten-san" — thronged with worshippers — overview) / Kinki Nippon Railway, "Ikoma Cable Line" (the Torii-mae–Hozanji section opened in 1918 as the first cable car in Japan; the Ikoma Cable Railway of the Osaka Electric Tramway — the forerunner of Kintetsu — group — overview) / Ikoma City (a bedroom town of Osaka/Nara; city status 1971; a residential city along the Kintetsu line — overview)
03 · In a mountain residential area, decreasing its population gently from the peak and keeping its youth
What characterizes Ikoma is that, holding the history of pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain and Japan’s first cable car, it decreases its population gently from the peak and still comparatively keeps its youth. Taking 118,233 in 2015 as a peak, it has decreased gently in recent years to 116,675 in 2020. It can be read that the generation that once moved into the residential area on the mountain slope to commute to the great city now raises its years and shifts into the elderly layer, and with the independence of children the scale of households grew smaller, so the population has decreased gently from the peak. Even so, because the advantage of a position from which one can commute easily to both Osaka and Nara has kept drawing in child-rearing households, the share aged 65 and over stays short of three in ten at 28.7% in 2020, and the household-with-children share too stays on the high side at 24.3%.
On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist is sixteen in 2024 and nineteen in 2025, remaining somewhat in recent years. It can be read as the expression that child-rearing households flow into the residential area to a degree, and the demand for childcare is firm. A Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.74 is a level able to cover a little over seven-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, above the middle. It can be read that the income of the households dwelling in the mountain residential area supports the tax base above the middle. The population decreasing gently from the peak, aging staying short of three in ten, and fiscal strength above the middle — these are different facets of one structure, in which a residential area that the traffic of pilgrimage gave birth to matures, while the ease of commuting to two cities holds back its youth. Take out only one indicator, and the image of the town cannot be grasped.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Local Government Finance Survey, Fiscal Capacity Index (MIC) / Childcare Facility Status Report (Children and Families Agency)
04 · A town where the road of pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain became a mountain of housing
Ikoma holds several functions of its own. One is the history in which a temple standing on the mid-slope of the mountain has gathered faith as a deity of commerce and wishes. Another is the character in which, as a road of pilgrimage to that temple, the first cable car in Japan was laid at the beginning of the Taisho era, and that cable car came to carry the people commuting to the great city, so the mountain of pilgrimage changed into a mountain of housing. And the landform of the mountain slope forming the boundary with the great city raised the temple of faith, the cable car of pilgrimage, and the residential area in this land.
Ikoma is a town where the road of pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain became a mountain of housing. From the temple on the mid-slope of the mountain, to Japan’s first cable car for pilgrimage, the private railway commuting to the great city, and the mountain residential area — a single vertical line of traffic laid on the mountain for faith later carried the people commuting to the great city, and changed the mountain of pilgrimage into a mountain of dwelling. That a residential area spread on a slope hard to settle a dwelling upon was, when one traces back, because the cable car of pilgrimage to the temple had run there first. The traffic for faith unexpectedly gave birth to a place of living — that is the starting point of the town of Ikoma.
Source: Ikoma City / Hozan-ji (the Hozan-ji of Mount Ikoma, restored by the Edo-era monk Tankai Risshi — "Shoten-san" — thronged with worshippers — overview) / Kinki Nippon Railway, "Ikoma Cable Line" (the Torii-mae–Hozanji section opened in 1918 as the first cable car in Japan; the Ikoma Cable Railway of the Osaka Electric Tramway — the forerunner of Kintetsu — group — overview) / Ikoma City (a bedroom town of Osaka/Nara; city status 1971; a residential city along the Kintetsu line — overview)
05 · Atlas’s note — the cable car of pilgrimage to the Shoten changed a mountain into a mountain of housing
Lay out Ikoma’s numbers and indicators that, for a mountain residential area standing at the back of a great city, keep their youth line up: a population decreasing gently from the peak, an aging rate of 28.7%, a household-with-children share of 24.3%, and a fiscal capacity of 0.74. But to put it in my (Atlas) habit, as an accountant, of reading the unexpectedness of the starting point of a dwelling, what I want to read here is that this town’s residential area was born from "the road of pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain." The mountain forming the boundary with the great city is, by nature, a slope hard to settle a dwelling upon, but because there was a temple gathering faith on its mid-slope, and the first cable car in Japan was laid for pilgrimage to it, a vertical axis of traffic ran through the mountain. That axis came later to carry the people commuting to the great city, and the mountain of pilgrimage changed into a mountain of housing. The order in which "traffic for faith gave birth to a place of dwelling" is peculiar to the making of this town.
One more thing I want to consider is that this residential area now decreases its population gently from the peak and advances in aging. The generation that once moved into the mountain slope to commute to the great city now raises its years and shifts into the elderly layer. The tendency that a town which turned a mountain into a residential area all at once is liable, from a certain period, to have its population strike a peak and its aging advance — because the generation that moved into that residential area ages all together — can be read as appearing here too. Even so, the advantage of a position from which one can commute easily to both Osaka and Nara still keeps its youth. Whether one reads it off as the sign "a bedroom town of Nara," or sees it as "a town where the road of pilgrimage to the Shoten of the mountain became a mountain of housing," changes with the reader’s way of life. What is unexpected is that so much housing spread on a steep slope hard to settle upon was, when one traces back, because the cable car for pilgrimage to the temple had run there first. The traffic for faith gave birth to a place of dwelling — the role of measuring the livability of that slope comes round to the person who is considering moving in.
Source: Population Census (Statistics Bureau, MIC) / Ikoma City / Hozan-ji (the Hozan-ji of Mount Ikoma, restored by the Edo-era monk Tankai Risshi — "Shoten-san" — thronged with worshippers — overview) / Kinki Nippon Railway, "Ikoma Cable Line" (the Torii-mae–Hozanji section opened in 1918 as the first cable car in Japan; the Ikoma Cable Railway of the Osaka Electric Tramway — the forerunner of Kintetsu — group — overview) / Ikoma City (a bedroom town of Osaka/Nara; city status 1971; a residential city along the Kintetsu line — 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: wave18_7