Urasoe-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 116,000 (115,690 in 2020). From the 102,734 of 2000, it has consistently kept increasing over twenty years. While many cities lose population, this is a striking form.

What first draws the eye here is the city’s youth. The share aged 65 and over has risen from 9.7% in 2000 to 20.0% in 2020, yet compared with the cities of the nation it stays at the low level of about 20% even in 2020. The under-15 population, from 21,892 in 2000 to 19,722 in 2020, decreased somewhat, but still holds a high share of the population. The household-with-children share, at 26.7%, is a high level nationwide. The Childcare Waitlist rises and falls by the year, and in recent years there have been years of zero. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.76 in fiscal 2023. With a location adjoining Naha, a population that keeps increasing, and a high weight of the child-rearing generation — the figure of a young, swelling suburban city shows in the numbers. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of an ancient capital and a base.

Urasoe’s frame is set upon two layers far apart in time: the history of an old royal capital, and the land use of the postwar years. From the Kamakura to the Muromachi ages — roughly between about 1200 and 1400 — this land was the royal capital of Ryukyu before the capital moved to Shuri. Under the royal lines of Shunten, Eiso and Satto, Urasoe Castle stood as the royal seat, and the place flourished as a center of trade and culture. Below the cliff to the north of the castle ruins remain the "Yodore," the mausoleums of King Eiso and King Sho Nei. Urasoe was an old capital that came before Shuri.

War left a great wound on that old land. In the battle in Okinawa at the close of the Pacific War, the Maeda Heights, where Urasoe Castle had stood, became the stage of a fierce struggle as an important strongpoint before Shuri. After the war, a broad coastal stretch in the west of the city came to be used as a military supply facility — the Makiminato Service Area — and came to occupy a considerable part of the city area. A part of the land of the old royal capital was, after the war, given over to a base.

And on the land except for the western side given over to the base, people have kept increasing. The location of lying right next to Naha City pushed Urasoe up into a residential city of the suburbs of the prefectural capital. Onto the limited land, households living and working in the Naha sphere flowed in, and the population kept increasing over twenty years. An old land that was the royal capital before Shuri gave over its western side to a base after the war, and gathered the households of the Naha sphere onto the land that was left — the present Urasoe’s form stands upon those two pasts of an ancient capital and a base.

What characterizes Urasoe is that the population has kept increasing over twenty years, and the aging rate stays at a level still low compared with the cities of the nation. The location adjoining Naha has kept drawing in households living and working in the Naha sphere, and has kept the younger generation thick in the city. The household-with-children share of 26.7% is a high level nationwide, and shows that the city is still swelling around the child-rearing generation. While many cities head toward aging, this is the form of a suburban city that keeps its youth.

The numbers of living infrastructure also mirror this youth. The Childcare Waitlist rises and falls by the year — in recent years there have been years of zero, and also years when it rises. This can be read as the demand and supply of childcare contending with each other while child-rearing households keep flowing in. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.76 shows that, as a suburban city of the Naha sphere, the tax revenue arising from the households working and living there can cover more than seven-tenths of expenditure. The city, which began as an old royal capital and had its western side given over to a base, has kept gathering people on the land that was left, and is still swelling while keeping its youth. The population increase, the city’s youth, and the contention of childcare demand are not separate events but, from the single structure of a location adjoining Naha that keeps gathering young households onto a limited land, branch off at the same time and show in the numbers.

In Urasoe, several faces of differing character overlap. One is the old past of the royal capital of Ryukyu before Shuri — the Urasoe Castle ruins, and the "Yodore," the mausoleums of King Eiso and King Sho Nei, convey to this day the history of this land that was an old capital. Another is the character of the postwar land use of the Makiminato Service Area, which occupies the coastal stretch in the west of the city. And it holds together the present character of a residential city in the suburbs of the prefectural capital, lying right next to Naha City.

It has yielded the coastal western side broadly to the base, and onto the limited land left on the eastern side, the households of the Naha sphere have settled densely. On the land of an old capital where the mausoleums of the royal lines sleep below the cliff, young families now live densely. Upon the past of "where the royal capital of Ryukyu once stood, and the western side was given over to a base after the war," many layers — an ancient capital, war, a base, a suburb — are folded together in this city.