How Can a "Seasonal" Town Become More "Permanent"?
Karuizawa is best described a seasonal town. The town, situated deep in the central mountain range spanning the length of Honshu, Japan's main island, is known primarily for its cool temperature and secluded nature. In the winter, snow covers the mountains surrounding the town, making it a base for skiing among both the Japanese and foreigners. Yet, given the frigid (at least by the standards of warmer Pacific coast of Honshu where Japan's main metropolitan areas are located) temperature, Karuizawa town itself seems half-deserted, with most of the shops closed until way past the new years, and few pedestrians walking about.
The scene could be quite different from summer days. The mountain-top location making the place a popular spot for urbanites to get away from hot, humid weathers of the cities. The closed shops lining the town's old streets must be crowded with out-of-towners, and summer villas of the well-to-do must all be filled with activities. In those months, despite not having the skiing and snowboarding crowds, the town itself must enjoy a kind of commercial buzz that cannot be bigger in contrast with the deserted feel that makes the cold winter days all the more depressing.
The highly seasonal nature of the town's commercial potential, and indeed its very population, makes for interesting thoughts on how such an extremely seasonal economy works. All tourist spots have high and low seasons, but most are either bigger cities with large permanent populations, or are remote tourist locales without much population to begin with. For such places, seasonal influx of tourists are either an additional revenue boost that do not fundamentally alter the overall economy, or basically is the entire economy, outside which no one needs to be there.
Karuizawa is somewherein the middle of the two extremes. The tourist crowd is everything to the local economy, whether it is the summer or the winter, but at the same time, the town does have a permanent population of sorts that makes the town a living one even in the lowest of low seasons. Massive costs are needed to maintain public services for a few thousand in the long cold months, simply in preparations for millions that show up during a couple of busy months. The town budget calculations simply makes no sense, especially considering many out-of-towners live outside the town in all-inclusive resorts.
One observable solution to the enormous public costs of maintaining the town during low seasons is the sale of villas to the well-to-do out-of-towners. In front of Karuizawa's train station and down its main thoroughfares are several real estate agents. Interestingly, all specialize in sales of "second homes" and go out of the way to call themselves "Second Homes Information Centers." Perhaps sales of expansive (by urban Japan's standards),well-designed, and pricey (by rural Japan's standards) second homes and the property taxes gained from these sales would provide funds to maintain the town in cold months.
But one problem of selling villas is creation of an incredibly spread out town where extensive infrastructure is needed just to serve a few people. Urban elites buy second homes in Karuizawa for their size and seclusion. Along with big homes, they want big yards and gardens. They want to enjoy the massive spaces and nature that they do not see in the cramped concrete jungles that are densely populated cities in Japan. So ideally they do not want to even see their neighbors' houses. The need to give every second home owner desired seclusion, the town becomes massive in size, with extensive roads for private cars.
It is a problem familiar to the US, with its long-standing car-dominant urban design. Yet, there, many youths are no longer sharing the older generations' love of cars and suburban residences, instead preferring gentrified urban centers with high-rise apartment blocks and condominiums. In response, there have been a building spree of streetcars and subways in car-centered cities like LA and Denver, further luring people to live in denser areas close to public transportation nodes and away from the secluded peace and expansive areas of single-house "villas."
It would be interesting to see if small Japanese towns like Karuizawa would follow suit. Unlike Americans, Japanese are used to crowded cities and public transport, hence giving them all the reasons to romanticize the car and the big suburban house. But demographics are working against Japan. Karuizawa, even with revenues raked in from expensive second homes, cannot keep drawing new residents to pay taxes as the country's overall population shrinks. At some point, the town will simply run out of money to continue expanding public services to second homes further and further away from the town center.
Perhaps that grim reality would be cure to the city's depressingly deserted feel in its winter days. As public services are compelled to be more geographically concentrated, the population will follow suit, rejuvenating the town in a much geographically smaller sense around the main train station. More shops will follow suit to take advantage of higher population density among more permanent residents. With more permanent residents served by more permanent shops, the town's reputation as a purely seasonal town with seasonal business would be eradicated.
The scene could be quite different from summer days. The mountain-top location making the place a popular spot for urbanites to get away from hot, humid weathers of the cities. The closed shops lining the town's old streets must be crowded with out-of-towners, and summer villas of the well-to-do must all be filled with activities. In those months, despite not having the skiing and snowboarding crowds, the town itself must enjoy a kind of commercial buzz that cannot be bigger in contrast with the deserted feel that makes the cold winter days all the more depressing.
The highly seasonal nature of the town's commercial potential, and indeed its very population, makes for interesting thoughts on how such an extremely seasonal economy works. All tourist spots have high and low seasons, but most are either bigger cities with large permanent populations, or are remote tourist locales without much population to begin with. For such places, seasonal influx of tourists are either an additional revenue boost that do not fundamentally alter the overall economy, or basically is the entire economy, outside which no one needs to be there.
Karuizawa is somewherein the middle of the two extremes. The tourist crowd is everything to the local economy, whether it is the summer or the winter, but at the same time, the town does have a permanent population of sorts that makes the town a living one even in the lowest of low seasons. Massive costs are needed to maintain public services for a few thousand in the long cold months, simply in preparations for millions that show up during a couple of busy months. The town budget calculations simply makes no sense, especially considering many out-of-towners live outside the town in all-inclusive resorts.
One observable solution to the enormous public costs of maintaining the town during low seasons is the sale of villas to the well-to-do out-of-towners. In front of Karuizawa's train station and down its main thoroughfares are several real estate agents. Interestingly, all specialize in sales of "second homes" and go out of the way to call themselves "Second Homes Information Centers." Perhaps sales of expansive (by urban Japan's standards),well-designed, and pricey (by rural Japan's standards) second homes and the property taxes gained from these sales would provide funds to maintain the town in cold months.
But one problem of selling villas is creation of an incredibly spread out town where extensive infrastructure is needed just to serve a few people. Urban elites buy second homes in Karuizawa for their size and seclusion. Along with big homes, they want big yards and gardens. They want to enjoy the massive spaces and nature that they do not see in the cramped concrete jungles that are densely populated cities in Japan. So ideally they do not want to even see their neighbors' houses. The need to give every second home owner desired seclusion, the town becomes massive in size, with extensive roads for private cars.
It is a problem familiar to the US, with its long-standing car-dominant urban design. Yet, there, many youths are no longer sharing the older generations' love of cars and suburban residences, instead preferring gentrified urban centers with high-rise apartment blocks and condominiums. In response, there have been a building spree of streetcars and subways in car-centered cities like LA and Denver, further luring people to live in denser areas close to public transportation nodes and away from the secluded peace and expansive areas of single-house "villas."
It would be interesting to see if small Japanese towns like Karuizawa would follow suit. Unlike Americans, Japanese are used to crowded cities and public transport, hence giving them all the reasons to romanticize the car and the big suburban house. But demographics are working against Japan. Karuizawa, even with revenues raked in from expensive second homes, cannot keep drawing new residents to pay taxes as the country's overall population shrinks. At some point, the town will simply run out of money to continue expanding public services to second homes further and further away from the town center.
Perhaps that grim reality would be cure to the city's depressingly deserted feel in its winter days. As public services are compelled to be more geographically concentrated, the population will follow suit, rejuvenating the town in a much geographically smaller sense around the main train station. More shops will follow suit to take advantage of higher population density among more permanent residents. With more permanent residents served by more permanent shops, the town's reputation as a purely seasonal town with seasonal business would be eradicated.
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