Okinawa-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 143,000 (142,752 in 2020). This city’s population, from 119,686 in 2000 to 126,400 in 2005, 130,249 in 2010, and 139,279 in 2015, has consistently kept increasing — not by a merger-derived step. Among the nation, where regional cities that lose population are many, having kept an increasing trend over twenty years places it in a small minority.

Looking inside, a form different from many other regional cities appears. The under-15 population, from 25,722 in 2000 to 23,829 in 2020, decreased by only about two thousand over twenty years. The aging rate rose from 11.9% in 2000 to 20.2% in 2020, but this is a low level among the nation, where many cities exceed three in ten. The household-with-children share is high at 25.1%, and the crude birth rate, at 10.5 per thousand, is on the high side nationwide. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.57 in fiscal 2023. The total population increases, and the layer of children is also kept thick — where this form comes from cannot be read without going back to the past of "from Koza to Okinawa City."

The present form of Okinawa City is set by the rapid urbanization of the postwar years. This stretch, originally peaceful farming country, changed its character entirely through the Battle of Okinawa, the confusion after the war’s end, and the process by which U.S. military facilities were placed here. Before the gate of the facilities, commerce and dwellings gathered, and from inside and outside the prefecture, and from across the sea, people and goods flowed into this land. Farming country changed, in a short time, into a city.

The administrative frame born in that process is Koza. In 1956, Goeku Village enacted city status to become Koza City, and the central urban district that developed as a town before the gate of the facilities became the prefecture’s foremost downtown from the 1960s through the 1980s. And in this city, a performing-arts culture grew. Folk song, and the music later called Okinawan rock, spread from this land across the nation, and together with a distinctive food culture and fashion, a culture of mingling called "Koza culture" and "champuru culture" took shape.

The present name of the city was born in 1974. In that year, Koza City and Misato Village merged anew, and Okinawa City was established. The central city of the central main island, holding the second-largest population in the prefecture, gained its form through this merger. Beginning as farming country, urbanizing rapidly after the war, raising a culture in the town before the gate, and becoming Okinawa City through the merger of Koza City and Misato Village — this city’s form stands upon the past of "from Koza to Okinawa City."

What characterizes Okinawa City is that the total population keeps increasing without a merger, and moreover the layer of children is kept thick. That the under-15 population decreased by only about two thousand over twenty years is striking among the nation, where in many cities the children decrease by three or four in ten. Behind this lies the crude birth rate, high at 10.5 per thousand, and the household-with-children share of 25.1%, also at a high level. The growth of the total population and the thickness of the layer of children continue at the same time in the same city.

On the other hand, another number appears at the front line of childcare. The Childcare Waitlist still remains in recent years, counting 32 in 2024 and 14 in 2025 most recently. This is the reverse of the many regional cities where children decrease and supply and demand loosen: it shows that, because the child-rearing households are thick, a phase remains in which demand for places to entrust children exceeds supply. The aging rate rose from 11.9% to 20.2% over twenty years, but is still low from the national level. The city, which urbanized from farming country and raised a culture in the town before the gate, still increases its people, keeps the layer of children thick, and holds the weight of childcare demand. The total population increases, the children are thick, and the Waitlist still remains — the structure, the reverse of that of cities losing population, in which an increasing city instead holds a shortage of childcare, appears here.

In Okinawa City, the swiftness of change by which farming country became the prefecture’s second city in the few years after the war is inscribed first. Before the gate of the facilities, commerce and dwellings gathered, and from inside and outside the prefecture and from across the sea, people and goods flowed in. Out of that mingling, folk song and the music later called Okinawan rock were born, and a distinctive blend called "Koza culture" grew. The position of the central main island layered upon this city the role of tying together Naha to the south and the municipalities to the north.

From farming country, to the town before the gate and the downtown of Koza City, to the place of origin of Koza culture, and to the prefecture’s second city formed by the merger of Koza City and Misato Village — this city’s outline is made by the swiftness of change compressed into the short time after the war, and the culture born of mingling, folded together upon the position of the central main island.