Shiga Prefecture

A prefecture second in the nation for longevity sinks to 33rd in the number of physicians—the first thing that snags you when reading Shiga is this gap. The indicators as a whole gather near the national average with small undulations, and neither a standout peak nor a fatal single-point collapse is easy to see. What actually draws the contour of that flat surface are the two poles: the highest is “average life expectancy” (2nd nationally), the lowest is “number of physicians (per 100,000 people)” (33rd nationally). The very absence of flashiness is this prefecture’s visible feature.

Within that, what is structurally non-obvious is the relationship between these two indicators. In many prefectures nationwide, life expectancy and physician numbers tend to move together (correlation 0.49), yet Shiga alone faces the opposite way. The length of life here is not supported by a thickness of medical supply. It is a twist inside the balanced type, easily concealed by the average value or the overall ranking. On the strength side, the population change rate and the unemployment rate also stand in the upper ranks, but per-capita prefectural income stays mid-pack—the advantage is not on a single leg but thin and broad.

The richness of tourism and nature the lake radiates also does not directly fill in the real figure that is the physician count. The nationwide tendency that “more physicians means longer life” is quietly betrayed by Shiga alone. Why a 2nd-place lifespan and a 33rd-place physician count coexist in the same prefecture—it is too early to pin the reason on a single cause, but the geography of holding at its center a lake circled by Biwaichi may be placing a peculiar constraint on the arrangement of medical resources. I leave this reversal on the line as it is, as the contour of Shiga.

Shiga’s future takes a position on the Shinkansen that is the reverse of other prefectures. For the section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen west of Tsuruga, Shiga supports not the “Maibara route” but the Obama–Kyoto route, and the governor’s policy is to continue not accepting the Maibara route. Because the Maibara route could deal a blow to the existing conventional network of the Hokuriku and Biwako lines, the prefecture deliberately supports a choice in which no Shinkansen passes through it—a rare composition that prizes the preservation of the existing network over the capture of benefit. As for certainty, the route is already settled on Obama–Kyoto, but the timing of construction is undetermined.

On the other hand, the weight of what lies ahead points the same way as in other prefectures. The generational turnover concentrated in 2031–33 and the rising vacant-home ratio push downward, and this coexists with the twist seen in the previous section—“2nd in longevity but lower-ranked in physicians.” Shiga, whose population has grown through closeness to the Kyoto–Osaka area, heads toward a phase of decline in the projections of the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. The prefecture is advancing measures under its “Comprehensive Strategy for a Shiga Where Happiness Continues into a Future That Anticipates Population Decline.”

A settled present, the absence of a Shinkansen chosen for the sake of preserving the conventional network, and the certain weight of demographics. I want to read the absence of benefit distinct from the non-adoption of benefit—Shiga is one of the few prefectures that treats a Shinkansen that was supposed to come as a topic it does not want to come. I keep the very judgment of choosing preservation over benefit on the numbers side as I observe it. The individual schedules, plans, and degrees of certainty are lined up one by one in the development roadmap at the bottom of the page.