Nanjo-shi

In the latest Population Census the population is about 44,000 (44,043 in 2020). Because this city was established in 2006 when one town and three villages were bound into one on equal footing, the statistics cover the period after that establishment. The population after establishment has increased, from 39,758 in 2010, through 42,016 in 2015, to 44,043 in 2020. That this city increases while many regional cities lose population stands out.

Looking inside, the figure of a city in the suburbs of the prefectural capital where young households dwell appears. The share aged 65 and over is, at 25.9% in 2020, low for a regional city. The household-with-children share is high at 27.8% in 2020, and the crude birth rate, at 10.1 per thousand in 2020, is at a high level nationwide. On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was 16 in both 2024 and 2025, and is not zero (the Waitlist rate was 0.68% in 2024 and 0.70% in 2025). This honestly shows that, in a city where child-rearing households gather and demand for childcare grows, a gap can arise between the households needing childcare and the places to receive them, even in a land where the population increases. The Fiscal Capacity Index was 0.37 in fiscal 2023 — a level whose own tax revenue can cover a little under four-tenths of expenditure. The figure shows in the numbers: the land of the southern island holding a sacred place and castle ruins increases its population after the merger. Why it takes this form cannot be read without going back to the past of a sacred place, castle ruins, and the suburbs of the prefectural capital.

This city’s frame is set by the position of the eastern coast of the southern island, an old sacred place of faith, castle ruins, the location of the suburbs of the prefectural capital, and the equal merger of one town and three villages. The starting layer is the eastern coast of the southern island. This land, on the eastern coast of the southern part of the main island of Okinawa, has three of its sides except the west bordering the coastline; the eastern, coastal side has comparatively much level land, and to the south settlements have formed on a tableland. The eastern coast of the southern island was the foundation of this city.

The old memory of the island is inscribed in this land. In a forest looking out over the sea there is a sacred place of faith kept with as little human hand added as possible, counted among the heritage of the world, and the city area also keeps several ruins of former castles. A sacred place and castle ruins have conveyed the old faith and the memory of power of the island to this land. The path to becoming a city, too, mirrors this city. In 2006, one town and three villages were bound into one on equal footing and became the present city. The location of a mere twelve kilometers southeast of the prefectural capital has, in recent years, called in people amid the residential development of the prefectural capital’s sphere. The eastern coast of the southern island, an old sacred place of faith, castle ruins, the suburbs of the prefectural capital, and the equal merger of one town and three villages — this city’s form stands upon the past of a sacred place, castle ruins, and the suburbs of the prefectural capital inscribed by the eastern coast of the southern island. As to the manner of the faith of the sacred place, I, as one who lines up numbers, do not step in deeply.

What characterizes Nanjo is that, while it holds the old past of a sacred place and castle ruins, it is, after the merger, increasing its population. From 39,758 in 2010, after establishment, to 44,043 in 2020, more than four thousand were added over ten years. That this city increases while many regional cities lose population can be read as because the location of a mere twelve kilometers southeast of the prefectural capital has called in young households amid the residential development of the prefectural capital’s sphere. That the share aged 65 and over is low for a regional city at 25.9% in 2020, and that the household-with-children share is high at 27.8%, are expressions of that.

On the other hand, the Childcare Waitlist was 16 in both 2024 and 2025, and is not zero. In a city where the population increases and child-rearing households gather, demand for childcare grows, and a gap can arise with the places to receive them. That the population increases does not itself promise room in childcare. The household-with-children share is 27.8% in 2020, and the crude birth rate is 10.1 per thousand in 2020. The Fiscal Capacity Index of 0.37 is a level whose own tax revenue can cover a little under four-tenths of expenditure. The land of the southern island holding a sacred place and castle ruins is now, after the merger, increasing its population supported by the location of the suburbs of the prefectural capital. The population increased by more than four thousand over ten years, the household-with-children share is high, but the Waitlist is not zero — the structure, the reverse of the zero Waitlist of cities that lose population, in which the childcare places cannot keep up precisely because people increase, appears here.

In Nanjo, the position of the eastern coast of the southern part of the main island of Okinawa lies at the foundation. With three of its sides except the west bordering the coastline, level land has spread on the eastern, coastal side, and settlements on a tableland to the south. In a forest looking out over the sea there is a sacred place of faith kept with as little human hand added as possible, counted among the heritage of the world, and the city area also keeps several ruins of former castles. And the location of a mere twelve kilometers southeast of the prefectural capital has, in recent years, called in people amid the residential development of the prefectural capital’s sphere.

From the position of the eastern coast of the southern island, to an old sacred place of faith, castle ruins, the suburbs of the prefectural capital, and the equal merger of one town and three villages. The geography of an eastern coast twelve kilometers southeast of the prefectural capital has held an old sacred place of faith and castle ruins while receiving the residential development of the prefectural capital’s sphere. In this land of the southern part of the main island of Okinawa, a sacred place, castle ruins, and the suburbs of the prefectural capital overlap.