Kanoya-shi

In the 2020 Population Census the population is 101,096 — 101 thousand. What I want to note first here is that the increase of more than twenty-three thousand, from 81,471 in 2005 to 105,070 in 2010, is not the result of people increasing naturally. It is due to the former Kanoya City merging anew with three towns in 2006, and the effect of the merger appears in the 2010 figure. The former Kanoya City was about eighty-one thousand; becoming one with the surrounding towns, both the city area and the population widened.

That said, looking at the post-merger inside, the population fell only by some four thousand over ten years, from 105,070 in 2010 to 101,096 in 2020 — a gentle shrinking among the cities of Kyushu. The under-15 population fell only by some nine hundred, from 16,032 in the post-merger year of 2010 to 15,134 in 2020. The aging rate rose from 19.0% in 2000 to 29.6% in 2020. The household-with-children share is 20.6%, the crude birth rate, at 9.0 per thousand, is on the high side even nationally, the Childcare Waitlist has been zero in recent years, and the Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.48 in fiscal 2023. The figure shows in the numbers: the center of Osumi stock-raising, keeping a thick layer of children even while widening through merger. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of stock-raising and an airfield.

Kanoya’s frame is set by the geography of a plain that opened in the middle of the Osumi Peninsula. With a warm climate and wide land at its back, this land has long been a center of agriculture and stock-raising. Products such as Berkshire pork, broilers, peanuts and sweet potatoes still form the base of this town. The land of farming and stock-raising in the middle of a peninsula — this is the foundation of this town.

Upon that plain, in modern times, another past is layered: the airfield. Originating in the Kanoya Naval Air Group established in 1936, a naval airfield was placed in this land. During the war it bore the heavy history of becoming one of the sortie bases for the special attack units. After the war that site was inherited as the Kanoya Air Base of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the land use as an airfield continues even now. The peninsula’s plain was at once a land of farming and stock-raising and the site of an airfield.

And the present city was born in 2006 by the new merger of the former Kanoya City with Kushira, Aira and Kihoku Towns. Within the city is also sited the national National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya. Beginning as a center of farming and stock-raising in the middle of the Osumi Peninsula, holding a naval airfield, inheriting that site, and widening through merger — this town’s form stands upon the past of stock-raising and an airfield.

What characterizes Kanoya is that, while gently losing population after the merger, it keeps a thick layer of children. In the ten years after the merger the total population fell by some four thousand, but the under-15 population fell only by some nine hundred. Behind this is that the crude birth rate, at 9.0 per thousand, is on the high side even nationally. While many cities of Kyushu lose population greatly, the center of Osumi, with farming and stock-raising at its back, has kept a relatively thick layer of children.

In the aspect of living infrastructure too, this town bears the role of a hub of the Osumi Peninsula. A national institute of physical education is sited here, and the position of the middle of the peninsula has given this town the character of a node gathering people and goods from the surrounding towns. On the other hand the aging rate has risen by more than ten points over twenty years; while keeping the power of birth, the aging of the generations who have lived here from before is advancing. The Childcare Waitlist has moved at zero in recent years. The town that opened as the center of Osumi stock-raising and held an airfield now, within the city area widened by merger, holds at once a gentle shrinking and the maintenance of the power of birth. A gently falling total population, a shallow decrease of children, advancing aging — these, while separate numbers, upon the same foundation of the center of Osumi with farming and stock-raising at its back, are bound to one another through a high power of birth. With a single number alone, the figure of the town cannot be drawn.

The roles Kanoya has gathered on this peninsula can be counted in several. One is the past of a center of farming and stock-raising that opened in the middle of the Osumi Peninsula, where the character of a production area of Berkshire pork and broilers and the like forms the base of this city. Another is the character of a land use that, originating in a naval air group, still continues as an airfield site. And a national institute of physical education is sited here, and the position of the middle of the peninsula gives this town the role of a hub binding the surrounding towns.

Kanoya is the center of a peninsula where farming, stock-raising and an airfield overlap. From a land of Osumi farming and stock-raising, to a naval airfield, to a town that inherited that site, and to a hub of the peninsula widened by merger — the landform of "a wide plain that opened in the middle of the peninsula" drew the sites of farming, stock-raising and an airfield, and set the form of the town. The wide plain that opened in the middle of the Osumi Peninsula raised farming and stock-raising, drew in the site of a naval airfield, and, through merger, gave this town the character of a hub binding the surrounding towns.