Ginowan-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about one hundred thousand (100,125 in 2020). Its course is a consistent increase. From 86,744 in 2000, it has increased to 89,769 in 2005, 91,928 in 2010, 96,243 in 2015, and 100,125 in 2020 — some thirteen thousand over twenty years.

Looking inside, the figure of a city increasing its population in the Naha metropolitan area appears in a marked form. The share aged 65 and over rose from 10.3% in 2000 to 18.9% in 2020, but while many regional cities draw near four in ten, it has not reached two in ten and keeps a strong youth. The household-with-children share is high, at 24.0% in 2020, and the Childcare Waitlist was 35 in 2024 and 19 in 2025 — decreasing in recent years but remaining. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.65 in fiscal 2023 — a middling level able to cover about two-thirds of expenditure with its own tax revenue. The figure shows in the numbers: a town with the center of the village taken over by an airfield, consistently increasing its population around it while keeping a strong youth. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of avenue pines and an airfield.

What supports this town’s frame is the long pine avenue that once ran through the village, and the airfield placed at the village’s center in war. The starting layer is the pine avenue. In this town there was once an avenue of Ryukyu pines that ran straight for about six kilometers from the south of the village to the north. This avenue running through the village was, for the splendor of its scenery, designated a National Natural Monument before the war. That a long pine avenue ran through the village is the former figure of this town.

Upon this village of pine avenues, war and an airfield were layered. Before the war, the area where the airfield now stands was a quiet farming village where settlements growing sweet potatoes and the like were dotted about. At the close of the war, the land at the center of that village was requisitioned, and a runway was built. The long-continuing pine avenue, too, lost most of itself in this war. Even after the war ended, the airfield kept spreading at the center of the village, and the town took the form of holding that airfield at its center, with people living around it. The path to becoming a city mirrors this town. This land became a city from a village at the end of the Showa thirties (in the early 1960s). While having the center of the village taken over by an airfield, the town, as one corner of the Naha metropolitan area, has increased its population around it. The six-kilometer pine avenue was lost in war, an airfield was placed at the center of that village, and a residential district was densely built around it — the present Ginowan’s form stands upon the past of avenue pines and an airfield held by a land near Naha in the central part of the main island of Okinawa.

What characterizes Ginowan is that, while holding the past of having the center of the village taken over by an airfield, it consistently increases its population around it and keeps a strong youth. From the 86,744 of 2000 to the 100,125 of 2020, some thirteen thousand increased over twenty years. Because the airfield occupies the center of the village, the land where people can live is limited to its surroundings, but in the position of one corner of the Naha metropolitan area, housing was densely built on the limited land, and young households raising children stayed in the town — and one can read that this is the support that has consistently pushed up the population. That the share aged 65 and over, at 18.9% in 2020, has not reached two in ten, and the household-with-children share, at 24.0%, is high, are also expressions of that strong youth.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was 35 in 2024 and 19 in 2025 — decreasing in recent years but remaining. This can be read as an expression that there are many young households raising children and the demand for childcare is firm. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.65 is a middling level able to cover about two-thirds of expenditure with its own tax revenue. One can read that the income of the households living densely on the limited land around the airfield upholds the tax source at a middling level. The town with the center of the village taken over by an airfield still increases its population consistently around it while keeping a strong youth. The population increased consistently, aging has not reached two in ten, and the fiscal strength is middling. With the center taken over by an airfield, the young households of the Naha sphere flow densely into the land left around it, and their income pushes the tax source up to a middling level — three movements peculiar to a limited land appear overlaid.

In Ginowan, several faces of differing character overlap. One is the past of the avenue of Ryukyu pines that once ran through the village for about six kilometers, designated a National Natural Monument before the war, yet losing most of itself in war. Another is the character of having had the land at the center of the village requisitioned at the close of the war and an airfield placed there, increasing its population around it while holding that airfield at the center. And the landform of the central part of the main island of Okinawa, about ten kilometers northeast of Naha, near a great city, called into this town a residential area living densely around it.

A land where a pine avenue ran through the village changed its figure, with war as the boundary, into a town with the center taken over by an airfield and a dense residential area around it. It is this town whose village form was rewritten from the roots. Upon the geography of "about ten kilometers northeast of Naha," two utterly differing figures — a village of pine avenues and a central airfield — are folded together, before and after the war.