Tomigusuku ranks as Okinawa’s most livable city

July 19, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo

Tokyo-based Toyo Keizai magazine announced their annual ranking of the Japan’s most livable cities for 2013. In Okinawa, Tomigusuku came 1st followed by Uruma and Nago. The previous year Nago came 2nd ahead of Uruma.

In the national rankings, Tomigusuku recorded the highest growth rate in the past five years based on other indices including population. The city has now come 1st four times in 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2013. It has topped the list for three consecutive periods except for 2011 when the magazine did not carry out the survey.

In the category of how reassured people can be, a rating based on the number of registered bed spaces and nursing home capacity, Nago came 9th in the national rankings. Tomigusuku was 11th followed by Itoman (16th).

The magazine focused on 789 cities nationwide and the wards of Tokyo. Based on official statistics it graded them according to 14 indices in the categories of how reassured people can be, levels of convenience and comfort, levels of wealth and housing satisfaction. The magazine carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the average scores.

It evaluated the growth rate of the cities based on 11 indices such as population and the number of companies operating in the past five years. In addition to Tomigusuku, four cities in Okinawa ranked in the top 20 in that category. Ginowan came 5th followed by Uruma (7th), Urasoe (11th) and Itoman (15th).

In the general rankings, Ienzai in Chiba Prefecture came 1st followed by Nonoshi in Ishikawa Prefecture and Moritani in Ibaraki Prefecture.

Although none of the cities in Okinawa ranked in the top 50 in the general ranking, Tomigusuku came 15th in the Kyushu-Okinawa region. Tomigusuku Mayor Haruki Gibo said, “Residents and local officials will work together to make Tomigusuku Japan’s most livable city.”

(English translation by T&CT, Mark Ealey)

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