Omura-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 95,000 (95,397 in 2020). Its course is, rare for a regional city, a consistent increase. From the 84,414 of 2000, through the 88,040 of 2005, the 90,517 of 2010, the 92,757 of 2015, to the 95,397 of 2020, some eleven thousand were added over twenty years. Among regional cities, where decline is the rule, this town keeps growing its population.

Looking inside, its youth appears. The share aged 65 and over did rise from 16.1% in 2000 to 25.2% in 2020, but amid the many regional cities nearing four in ten, it stays in the twenties percent. The household-with-children share is a high 25.3% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.62 in fiscal 2023 — a middling level for a small or medium city, able to cover about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure of a town that floated an airport on its bay keeping increasing its population and keeping the household-with-children share on the high side comes out in the numbers. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of the lord and the airport.

The urban area of Omura stands upon this land holding a bay and upon two events that happened there. The old layer is the lord’s faith. In the Warring States period, the lord who ruled this land was baptized in 1563 and became the first daimyo in Japan to receive Christianity. This lord is also known for opening trading ports at various points of the bay and, later, opening the western port town that flourished with trade. Under his rule, many believers lived in this land, and at its height the believers within the domain are said to have made up roughly half of the believers in the country of the time. The land holding a bay became the front line of intercourse with the lands across the sea.

And in modern times this town added a new function to the bay itself. In 1975, reclaiming a small island afloat in Omura Bay and the waters around it, an airport was opened. This is held to be the world’s first full-scale offshore airport, built by reclaiming the sea. This airport afloat on the bay became a gateway linking this land with various places by air, and called a new flow of people to the town. On the land of the first Christian daimyo, the world’s first offshore airport opened — this town’s form stands upon the past of faith and airport borne by the geography of a land holding the sea, Omura Bay.

What characterizes Omura is that, while it holds the past of the first Christian daimyo and an offshore airport, it keeps increasing its population, rare for a regional city. From the 84,414 of 2000 to the 95,397 of 2020, some eleven thousand were added over twenty years. The airport afloat on the bay and the convenience of the railway and expressway linked to it have made this land the hub of traffic in the center of the prefecture. A location easy to commute from to places such as the prefectural capital can be read as drawing in the childrearing generation and, with the spread of residential land, growing the population. That the share aged 65 and over stays in the twenties percent at 25.2% in 2020 is also an expression of young households continuing to flow in.

On the other hand, the household-with-children share is a high 25.3% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was zero in both 2024 and 2025. The childcare receptacle can be read as keeping up with the ever-increasing households with children. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.62 is a level able to cover about six-tenths of expenditure with its own tax revenue, middling for a small or medium city. The town that floated an airport on its bay now keeps increasing its population and keeps the household-with-children share on the high side. The population increases, the aging stays in the twenties percent, the body of the finances is middling. An increasing indicator and youth are aligned in the same direction in this town of Omura Bay, amid the regional cities where decline is the rule.

In Omura, the functions that a land holding the sea has borne across the ages are layered. One is the past of a land ruled by the daimyo who was baptized in 1563 and became the first in Japan to receive Christianity, holding an old layer that became the front line of intercourse with the lands across the sea. Another is the modern function of the world’s first full-scale offshore airport, opened by reclaiming Omura Bay, holding the character of a gateway of the air. And the position of the center of the prefecture gives this town the peculiar structure of a traffic hub.

Omura is a town where, on the land of the first Christian daimyo, an offshore airport floats. From the front line of intercourse with the lands across the sea, to a gateway of the air afloat on the bay, and to a suburban city that keeps drawing people in — this land holding the sea, Omura Bay, sent its lord toward the intercourse of the sea four hundred years ago, and in modern times floated an airport on the bay. This bay in the center of the prefecture keeps bearing, across the ages, the function of "connecting with the outside."