OZU STORIES：Ozu castle-town regeneration stories

This unique tour allows visitors to experience Ozu's sustainable community development with a guide called ""Tsumugibito.""
Ozu City has been experiencing an increase in the number of vacant houses due to a decline in population, making it difficult to maintain the townscape and buildings.
To preserve the valuable local culture for future generations and protect the town's identity, see how Ozu City has worked to revitalize and utilize its good old townscape and historical buildings.

Since the late 2010s, the streets of Ozu's castle town have been torn down en masse and replaced with new buildings and vacant lots due to the aging of the owners, inheritance, and increasing repair costs making it increasingly difficult to maintain and manage the buildings.
If the townscape of Ozu is lost over a wide area, not only will the historical landscape of the castle town be lost, but the identity of the community may also be lost.
The restoration and utilization of historical buildings began with this sense of crisis.
In addition to an NPO in the castle town that was engaged in cleaning up old private homes and Value Management, which operates lodging and restaurant businesses such as NIPPONIA HOTEL that makes use of historical buildings, Iyo Bank, a regional financial institution, Ozu City, and a regional DMO (tourism regional development corporation: currently KITA MANAGEMENT) have joined forces. As a result of these efforts, 31 historical buildings have been restored and utilized over the past five years, and these buildings have been reborn as accommodations, stores, and other facilities, and Ozu continues to develop as a stay-and-go tourist destination.

Ozu City was awarded first place in the world in the category of Cultural and Traditional Preservation by Green Destinations, the official international recognition organization for sustainable tourism destinations in 2023. This award was given to Ozu City for the revitalization of its historic buildings through the cooperation of the city's residents, tourism businesses, and government agencies. This award was the catalyst for Ozu City's efforts since 2018 to revitalize the cityscape, and this content is being implemented to make it widely known to local residents as well as domestic and international tourists, with 5% of tour sales from participants being donated to organizations and initiatives implementing community development in the region. By informing tourists of the town's revitalization through this content, the proceeds are further used to preserve the town's landscape and beautify the environment.

【Tour Itinerary】
(1) Guidance and viewing of an introductory video: Viewing of a video outlining the situation of the town before its rehabilitation
(2) Tour of vacant houses and old houses before revitalization: Special tours of buildings before and during construction, which cannot usually be entered.
(3) Tour of historic buildings after restoration: Special tours of restored old private homes of hotels and stores
(4) Exchange with ""Machibito"": Exchange with residents and businesses involved in the revitalization of Ozu Castle Town
(5) Community contribution: 5% of the proceeds will be donated to a local organization that works to preserve the town. The rest will be used to train guides.

・Time required for the programme: 2 hours
・Time of year: All year round
・Minimum number of participants: 1
・Maximum number of participants: 10,Up to 4 pairs can be consulted.
・Price: Varies depending on the number of participants, 3,000-8,000 yen per person (tax included)