Development and Usage Patterns of Second-home Areas at the Foot of Mt. Fuji

SATO Daisuke, SHIBUYA Kazuki

doi:10.5026/jgeography.124.965

The development process and usage patterns of second-home areas at the foot of Mt. Fuji are clarified by analyzing their expansion process, capital, and owner behavior. After World War I, in 1929, Fuji Kyuko Company, profiting from a business boom, started to develop a second-home area south of Lake Yamanaka [Yamanaka Kohan Bessochi]. This approach, by which a private company borrowed a section of Imperial Gift Land from Yamanashi Prefecture and established a second-home area, served as a model for developments at the northern foot of Mt. Fuji. In the early 1960s, second-home areas were developed north of Lake Yamanaka and at Fujizakura Highland south of Lake Kawaguchi. With the opening of the Chuo and Tomei Expressways in 1969, there were large capital flows into the creation of up-scale second-home areas at Juriki Highland, Fujigamine Highland, and Asagiri Highland, as well as around Lake Kawaguchi from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s. Large railway, trading, and paper manufacturing companies, as well as local developers, started to create second-home areas throughout the high-growth period. These investors, therefore, competed for land at the foot of Mt. Fuji. As a result, speculative capital flowed into development projects in second-home areas. This speculation created the potential for massive environmental destruction. Consequently, local governments concluded agreements with second-home owners' associations to clarify management responsibilities. Owners are most frequently at their second homes on weekends and during summer vacations in the hot months from mid-July to mid-September when temperatures at the foot of Mt. Fuji are below 30°C. Owners also visit frequently at weekends and holidays in the spring and autumn. The second-home areas around Mt. Fuji, therefore, are both summer and weekend resorts, because they are located within a two-hour commute from Tokyo by car. The second-home areas, moreover, receive many migrants from urban areas, including aged persons, who seek an attractive natural environment at a relatively low price.

Development and Usage Patterns of Second-home Areas at the Foot of Mt. Fuji

Bibliographic Information

Search this article

Abstract

Journal

Citations (4)*help

References(3)*help

Related Projects

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Export

Report a problem