Onomichi-shi

In the 2020 Population Census it is 131,170. But before laying out this figure in time series, there is something to note first of all: the increase of over fifty thousand, from 92,586 in 2000 to 145,202 in 2010, is not the result of people increasing naturally. It owes to the city area widening by the merger from 2005 to 2006, and the step in the figures mirrors that merger. That the school count leapt from twenty-some to thirty-some around 2005 owes to the same merger.

On top of that, looking inside the post-merger figures, from a peak of 145,202 in 2010 it has fallen by as much as fourteen thousand to 131,170 in 2020. Those under 15 thinned steadily, from 17,282 in the post-merger 2010 to 14,313 in 2020. The share aged 65 and over rose from 23.2% in 2000 to 36.3% in 2020, into the mid-thirty-percent range. The household-with-children share is low at 17.0%. The Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.51 in fiscal 2023. The figure of a port town widened by merger, growing old rapidly, appears in the numbers. Why it takes this shape cannot be read without going back over the history of port town and slope.

The town of Onomichi began as a medieval port. In 1169 (Kao 1), Onomichi was opened as the manor-port land of the Ota Manor of Bingo — later a holding of Mount Koya — that is, a port to load out the tax rice. Since then it prospered through the medieval and early-modern ages as a port of call for ships of the Ming trade, for the later kitamaebune, and for ships passing through the Seto Inland Sea. A port to send the rice of an inland manor out to the sea — this was this town’s starting point.

The landform of that port town gave Onomichi its distinctive figure. On mountain slopes pressing right against the sea, shrines and temples and houses crowded together, and between them narrow alleys and slope roads stretched in complexity, forming a "town of slopes." The prosperity as a port town and commercial city produced wealthy merchants in each age, and by their donations many shrines and temples were built on the slopes. On slopes pressing against the sea, the temples and houses that the port’s wealth built crowd together — this became Onomichi’s distinctive scene.

From the modern era on, the islands across the sea added another industry to the town. Mukaishima and Innoshima are known as "islands of shipbuilding," and shipbuilding became one of the region’s main industries. And in the Heisei merger, Onomichi annexed the surrounding Mitsugi, Mukaishima, Innoshima, Setoda and others, widening into a town with a broad city area combining the urban district on the Honshu side with the islands of shipbuilding. The leap in the school count is because this merger bundled the islands’ school networks. Beginning as a medieval rice port, forming a town of slopes, and widening by combining the islands of shipbuilding. The three histories of port town, slope and shipbuilding are folded together upon slopes pressing against the sea. That is Onomichi.

What characterizes Onomichi is that, after the city area widened all at once by merger, the population falls rapidly and the aging advances into the mid-thirty-percent range. From the post-merger 2010 to 2020, the total population fell by as much as fourteen thousand, and those under 15 thinned steadily. This can be read as the expression of the outflow of the young generation and the decline of children advancing both in the port town of the medieval ages and after and in the annexed islands of shipbuilding. The aging rate of 36.3% is high even among cities of the same scale.

The numbers of living infrastructure mirror this rapid contraction. The primary schools rose all at once from twenty-some to thirty-some with the merger, then decreased in stages in step with the decline of children, moving in recent years at twenty-four. It is a form in which the decline of children across the broad city area bundled by merger appeared as it was in the school network. The Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. But this owes less to having met demand than to the strong aspect of the absolute number of children having greatly fallen, leaving room in the quotas. The population turned to decline, children thin, the aging into the mid-thirty-percent range — a port town that began as a medieval rice port and became a town of slopes is growing old rapidly, together with the broad city area combining the islands of shipbuilding. That figure cannot be confirmed by taking out a single number.

What sets Onomichi apart is that the port’s function piled up not on flat ground but on slopes. The port that, as a medieval manor-port land, sent rice out to the sea produced wealth. That wealth crowded shrines, temples and houses onto mountain slopes pressing right against the sea, forming a "town of slopes" tangled with narrow alleys and slope roads. The donations of wealthy merchants built shrines and temples on the slopes.

In the modern era, Mukaishima and Innoshima across the sea became islands of shipbuilding, adding another industry to the town. The Heisei merger bound the urban district on the Honshu side and the islands of shipbuilding into one city area. From the medieval rice port, to the town of slopes the port’s wealth built, to the merger combining the islands of shipbuilding, and to the starting point of the Shimanami Kaido — functions have piled in layers upon slope and sea.