Towns are dying across Japan, but one has found a way to survive

On hushed, residential Ohanahan Street, in the regional Japanese city of Ozu, there’s an opportunity to witness a metaphor, of sorts, for a plight afflicting the entire country. At my feet is a rainbow burst of plump koi, or carp, which flourish in the remarkably pristine waters in the street’s gently flowing, narrow waterway.

The exceptionally high fertility rate of carp, an invasive species in other parts of the world, is in stark contrast to that of Japan and, for that matter, Ozu itself. One of about 250 jokamachi, or castle towns, across Japan, Ozu is located in the Ehime prefecture of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan’s four main islands. Once a hub for Japan’s silk and wax trade, the city’s 2005 population of 50,000 has declined to just 40,000 today.

This may well be the Land of the Rising Sun, a term originating from Japan’s location to the east of China, but the truth is that across Japan the light is being extinguished in towns and villages like Ozu.

Due to an acute drop in the birth rate and a historical aversion to mass immigration, Japan is experiencing a severe population decline, coupled with an ageing population. The country’s total population, which peaked at 128 million in 2009, is forecast to fall to 97 million by 2050.

Of course, Japan isn’t alone. European countries, such as Italy and Greece, are experiencing similar declines. In Italy, particularly in the south, an estimated 2500 hill towns face serious decline and even abandonment due to factors such as rural exodus, urbanisation, and ageing populations. However, havens of hope, such as Ozu, do exist with those aforementioned koi offering a modicum of inspiration.

Carp symbolise perseverance, strength, and transformation, and are known for swimming against currents, qualities that also embody the spirit of Ozu. It’s here that its determined citizens, in a public-private partnership, have collectively engaged their own never-say-die attitude. Their efforts have given the city’s old town a chance to avoid the sort of extinction that has befallen other such places across Japan.

Rather than witness the life ebb from the town, with shops and townhouses emptying and becoming derelict, or worse be demolished, as its elderly fade away and its younger folk flee, Ozu enacted a rescue plan before the pandemic. With the support of an altruistic Japanese accommodation brand, Nipponia, empty Edo and Meiji-era buildings – many of them of historic value and spared from World War II bombings – have been transformed into 31 characterful hotel rooms across 26 buildings scattered around the residential streets of Ozu.

Each of the guestrooms, decorated in a mix of antique and contemporary Japanese furnishings, has rustic earthen walls fashioned from mud, clay and bamboo with ceilings supported by solid timber beams.

Happily, the hotel has attracted enough tourists to the old town to encourage new businesses to open. These include an excellent cafe across the street from the hotel reception, opened by an enterprising young couple, while around the corner a maker of traditional Japanese sweets has moved his store from the main and less atmospheric centre of Ozu to its revitalised old town.

Furthermore, the tireless efforts of Ozu’s local community were recognised internationally when in 2022 the city’s resuscitated old own was included in a coveted top 100 list of sustainable places by Green Destinations.

The Netherlands-based non-profit international certification organisation, created to support sustainable destinations, described Ozu as an excellent example of a community where the utilisation of old houses and other historic resources has helped conserve the townscape and revitalised the local economy.

Not far from the old town is Ozu’s comparatively diminutive, but still impressive, castle set atop a hill overlooking the Hiji River which flows beside the city. It was a central part of the scheme to revive Ozu, with the castle becoming the first in Japan to offer overnight accommodation on an exclusive basis – and at a hefty tariff for tourists – with fully costumed locals combining to create an elaborate historical performance for staying guests.

My more humble though eminently comfortable room at Nipponia is a two-storey affair overlooking a courtyard and does nicely in lieu of a stay at the castle, open during daytime hours to non-staying visitors. You can also dine at night at the hotel’s superb French-Japanese restaurant, which operates within a 400-year-old building directly below the alluringly floodlit, whitewashed castle.

In the warmer months, guests can easily stroll to and from the restaurant from your accommodation but, fortunately, in the chill of a winter night during my stay, a courtesy shuttle vehicle is provided for guests.

There’s much to do in Ozu and, then again, not much to do, which can be just as appealing. It’s entirely up to you, but I can confirm this to be one of the most relaxing places I’ve visited in Japan, in what can be one of the world’s most relaxing destinations, in a lifetime of exploring this fascinating land.

Aside from the castle, another of Ozu’s essential sights is Garyu Sanso, a grand villa overlooking the river east of the old town that reminds me of the equally splendid and similarly folly-like Jim Thompson House in Bangkok, once the home of the American Thai silk entrepreneur who disappeared without trace the jungles of Malaysia in 1967.

Garyu Sanso, which means “reclining dragon mountain villa”, was built as a retreat, rather than as a residence, in the early part of the 20th century by another businessman, Torajiro Kouchi, a wealthy Meiji-era wax merchant from Niiya, located elsewhere Ehime prefecture.

The main building is a wooden thatched-roof house with the complex as a whole inspired by the imperial villas of Kyoto. One of the tatami-matted rooms, overlooking archetypal Japanese gardens created in the 17th century, with classic shoji sliding doors, features a circular window symbolising a full moon.

Further along, at the far edge of a slender garden between the river and the villa’s boundaries, is a separate pavilion, or azumaya, a small, open-sided roofed structure where the surrounding scenery can be peacefully contemplated and admired, in the Japanese manner.

Inevitably Ozu has been dubbed a “Little Kyoto” but it’s far from being one, and thank goodness, what with that former imperial capital at risk of being adored to death by tourists. Alas, if only its visitors bore the wit and wherefore to venture to special places such as this one, well off the over-trodden tourist trail.

Back at Ohanahan Street, still as serene as I’d found it on my arrival, I can’t resist making a farewell homage to the old town’s resident koi before I depart Ozu. They’re still there swimming metaphorically against that mellow and calming current in their elongated kerbside pond topped by a series of bamboo planter boxes festooned with winter flowers.

THE DETAILS

TOUR
Led by local “ambassadors”, walking tours dubbed “Ozu Stories’ provide valuable insights into the old town’s remarkable revitalisation. Book via the Ozu Tourist Information Centre in the middle of the old town. See jp.visitozu.com

STAY
Rooms at the Nipponia Ozu Hotel Castle Town, from $395 a night, for a generously sized 45-square-metre renovated suite for two guests, overlooking a bonsai-filled courtyard. See vmg.co.jp

VISIT
To visit Ozu, hire a car or catch the JR Limited Express train on the Yosan Line from Ehime’s capital, Matsuyama, in the north, south to Iyo-Ozu Station, a journey of up to 45 minutes. At Iyo-Ozu Station, take a taxi for the six-minute ride to the Nipponia Hotel and Ozu’s old town. See visitehimejapan.com

FLY
Jetstar operates regular flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Osaka’s Kansai Airport. From there, take a connecting one- to one-and-a-half hour domestic flight to Matsuyama Airport on Shikoku. Alternatively, fly a different airline to one of Tokyo’s airports and connect to Matsuyama with similar flight duration to that from Kansai. See jetstar.com

TRAIN
It’s also possible reach Matsuyama by train from Osaka, with the fastest journey taking under four hours and a Shinkansen bullet train to Okayama and a limited express train (Shiokaze) to Matsuyama. See jr-shikoku.co.jp

The writer travelled as a guest of Visit Ehime.