Funahashi Village

Off the train, into the village library.

Funahashi station library

Photo by XF10 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

01 ／ Urban planning

A village where homes could not be builtwas the first in Japan to be let out.

In fiscal 1970 the whole village was designated an urbanization control area, and housing estates could no longer be built. In 1980 just 8 children were born. The mayor went to the national and prefectural governments again and again, and in September 1988 the village became the first in Japan to be taken out of such an area. Estates were laid out from the following year, and the population grew from 1,419 in 1985 to 3,132 in 2020.

First in Japan, September 1988
8 births in 1980
1,419 → 3,132 people

02 ／ Uprising

Farmers in straw capes gatheredat the temple before dawn.

In 1869 (Meiji 2) the summer was cold and the rice failed. Farmers petitioned for lower land tax, and on the day the answer was due they put on bandori (ばんどり), a straw cape with no back, took up bamboo spears and gathered before dawn at Muryōji (無量寺) temple in Takeuchi. The uprising swelled to 50,000 people before it was put down at Namerikawa. The temple's standing Amida Buddha is a prefectural cultural property.

1869 (Meiji 2)
An uprising of 50,000
Amida statue, prefecture-designated

03 ／ Serow

In the library's tenth year,a serow walked in.

The village library, in the same building as Etchū-Funahashi Station, opened in 1998: children's books on the first floor, general books on the second, stacks on the third. In 2008, its tenth year, a Japanese serow, a Special Natural Monument, wandered inside, and the next year a picture book, Kamoshika to Toshokan (カモシカとしょかん, "The Serow and the Library"), was made. Residents borrow 26.2 books a year each (2019).

Opened 1998
Serow walked in, 2008
26.2 books per resident a year

Living here

Anywhere in the village is a 15-minute walk.

about 3,000 people
Rural district town

At 3.47 km², Funahashi is the smallest municipality in Japan, and the village office, library, schools and nursery are all gathered at its centre. From Etchū-Funahashi Station it is about 15 minutes to central Toyama on the Toyama Chihō Railway. In the 2010 census, its share of residents under 15, 21.8%, was the highest in Japan.

People living here: 3,132people
Area: 3.47km²
Households: 1,051households
Rent (average for rentals): —
Healthcare: 0 hospitals ／ 1 clinic

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —0 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

Shape

Surrounded by 3 municipalities, and almost entirely flat.

Funahashi Village in Japan36.703°N 137.307°E

Territory of Funahashi Village

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

3.1km

立山町, 富山市, 上市町

Travel times per leg are not published by the municipality, so they are not shown.

Funahashi Village isthis kind of town.

01The village library shares a building with Etchū-Funahashi Station, and residents borrow 26.2 books a year each
02In 1988 it became the first place in Japan taken out of an urbanization control area, and its population more than doubled in the 35 years from 1985
03Stories remain of Muryōji temple, where farmers gathered for the Bandori uprising of 1869, and of the serow that wandered into the library

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Funahashi Village official site ↗Wikipedia ↗