Moving to Kameoka City

CHAPTER 01First, what kind of place Kameoka is

About 20 km west of Kyoto City. It is a basin ringed by mountains of 500 to 800 metres, and about 70% of its 224.8 km² (24.6 km east to west, 20.5 km north to south) is forest. The Hozugawa (the Katsuragawa) runs north to south along the floor of the basin, turns east once past the built-up part of Kameoka, enters the valley of the Hozu Gorge and comes out at Arashiyama. People live on the flat floor of that basin and on the terraces and hills that ring it.

Map of Kameoka City

You can zoom and pan. The marker is Kameoka city hall. Through the Hozu Gorge to the east (right) lie Arashiyama and central Kyoto; over the mountains to the south (below) is Osaka Prefecture.
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

CHAPTER 02Six areas, and life in each

Kameoka is a basin ringed by mountains of 500 to 800 metres. Two things matter when choosing an area: “the Kyoto side or the far end of the basin” and “the floor of the basin or the high ground”. Across the 82 houses on the market the district medians run from ¥4,800,000 to ¥29,490,000 — a sixfold spread.

There are 6 districts

How the districts and the stations sit

The city has four stations — Umahori, Kameoka, Namikawa and Chiyokawa — all strung along the floor of the basin on the JR Sagano Line (the San'in Main Line). Tsutsujigaoka, Sogabe and the hamlets in the hills have no station, so it is a bus or a car to Kameoka Station. Positions, bearings and scale follow the real coordinates (stations from OpenStreetMap, districts from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan). You can scroll sideways.

How life differs by district

Prices and elevations are the medians of the listings currently on the market (82 on SUUMO).

CHAPTER 03Trains and cars — how you get around

Kameoka’s strength comes down to one thing — “Kyoto Station in 20 minutes by rapid service, ¥410, 90 trains a day”. Not many cities of 85,000 people sit twenty-odd minutes from the main station of a designated city.

You can reach both Kyoto and Osaka

The JR Sagano Line — how the stations run from Kameoka to Kyoto

It is 10 stations from Kameoka to Kyoto (Umahori, Hozukyo, Saga-Arashiyama, Uzumasa, Hanazono, Enmachi, Nijo, Tambaguchi, Umekoji-Kyotonishi and Kyoto). The diagram shows only the main ones. The valley of the Hozu Gorge lies between Kameoka and Kyoto, and the line passes through it in tunnels. Northwards, Namikawa and Chiyokawa continue inside Kameoka, and from Yagi, Yoshitomi and Sonobe you are in Nantan City. Positions, bearings and scale follow the real coordinates (station coordinates from OpenStreetMap). You can scroll sideways.

By car — the Kyoto Jukan Expressway runs north to south through the city

The Kameoka and Shino interchanges of the Kyoto Jukan Expressway are inside the city, connecting by motorway both to central Kyoto and to the Japan Sea coast (Miyazu and Maizuru). The districts in the hills are far from any station, and a car is a given there.

CHAPTER 04Homes actually on the market right now

SUUMO lists 82 second-hand houses in Kameoka City. All 82 listings have been taken in, and the 20 cheapest are shown. Pressing anywhere on a row opens that property’s page on SUUMO.

"Nearest the station first" converts everything to minutes — a walk of ◯ min, ◯ min by bus plus ◯ min from the stop, ◯ km by car (reckoned at 30 km/h) — and compares those. Listings with no such information always appear last, whatever the sort.

Hatano-cho Sengahata 高橋¥1,800,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 300 m / Land 153 m² (46 tsubo) / Building 76 m² (23 tsubo) / built 1982 / Hirono bus stop 1 min walk9 photos → Shino-cho Oji 上上牧¥1,900,000Shino-cho and Umahori (the Kyoto side)Elev. approx. 130 m / Land 43 m² (13 tsubo) / Building 42 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1971 / Umahori Sta. 27 min walk7 photos → Hatano-cho Hirono 金山1-36¥2,000,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 480 m / Land 137 m² (41 tsubo) / Building 99 m² (30 tsubo) / built 199810 photos → Higashibetsuin-cho Kamakura 見立¥2,000,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 540 m / Land 198 m² (60 tsubo) / Building 135 m² (41 tsubo) / built 1987 / 銭原 bus stop 27 min walk10 photos → Hatano-cho Hirono 金山¥4,500,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 480 m / Land 137 m² (41 tsubo) / Building 97 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1999 / Kameoka Sta. bus 50 min+34 min walk10 photos → Hatano-cho Hirono 白砂¥4,800,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 280 m / Land 135 m² (41 tsubo) / Building 99 m² (30 tsubo) / built 1995 / Chiyokawa Sta. bus 43 min+9 min walk9 photos → Sogabe-cho Anao 口山90-19¥4,800,000Sogabe and Hiedano (the southern villages)Elev. approx. 130 m / Land 112 m² (34 tsubo) / Building 70 m² (21 tsubo) / built 1979 / Kameoka Sta., 5.6km10 photos → Homme-cho Higashikaya 塩脇5-10¥4,800,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 210 m / Land 109 m² (33 tsubo) / Building 82 m² (25 tsubo) / built 1995 / Chiyokawa Sta. bus 20 min+6 min walk2 photos → Shimoyada-cho 3¥5,800,000Tsutsujigaoka (the southern heights)Elev. approx. 110 m / Land 72 m² (22 tsubo) / Building 56 m² (17 tsubo) / built 1976 / Kameoka Sta. 19 min walk8 photos → Chiyokawa-cho Kitanosho¥5,800,000Oi, Chiyokawa and Namikawa (the northern farmland)Elev. approx. 120 m / Land 810 m² (245 tsubo) / Building 98 m² (30 tsubo) / built 1976 / Chiyokawa Sta. 25 min walk6 photos → Shino-cho Shino 観音芝¥6,000,000Shino-cho and Umahori (the Kyoto side)Elev. approx. 110 m / Land 50 m² (15 tsubo) / Building 49 m² (15 tsubo) / built 1974 / Umahori Sta. 13 min walk10 photos → Oi-cho Namikawa 2¥6,000,000Oi, Chiyokawa and Namikawa (the northern farmland)Elev. approx. 100 m / Land 45 m² (14 tsubo) / Building 44 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1973 / Namikawa Sta. 4 min walk3 photos → Hatano-cho Sengahata 高橋¥6,000,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 410 m / Land 195 m² (59 tsubo) / Building 108 m² (33 tsubo) / built 1991 / Kameoka Sta. bus 49 min+4 min walk9 photos → Shino-cho Hirota 2¥6,500,000Shino-cho and Umahori (the Kyoto side)Elev. approx. 110 m / Land 71 m² (21 tsubo) / Building 79 m² (24 tsubo) / built 1991 / Umahori Sta. 20 min walk10 photos → Higashitsutsujigaoka Akebonodai 3¥6,500,000Tsutsujigaoka (the southern heights)Elev. approx. 120 m / Land 70 m² (21 tsubo) / Building 59 m² (18 tsubo) / built 1978 / Umahori Sta. 25 min walk10 photos → Hatano-cho Sengahata 高橋2-203¥6,700,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 320 m / Land 205 m² (62 tsubo) / Building 104 m² (31 tsubo) / built 1982 / Kameoka Sta. bus 35 min+2 min walk10 photos → Chitose-cho Chitose 垣内山¥6,800,000Oi, Chiyokawa and Namikawa (the northern farmland)Elev. approx. 150 m / Land 166 m² (50 tsubo) / Building 103 m² (31 tsubo) / built 1975 / Chiyokawa Sta. 47 min walk10 photos → Kawarabayashi-cho Shorinjima 畑ケ田¥6,800,000Oi, Chiyokawa and Namikawa (the northern farmland)Elev. approx. 90 m / Land 99 m² (30 tsubo) / Building 114 m² (35 tsubo) / built 1971 / Kameoka Sta. bus 15 min+2 min walk10 photos → Hatano-cho Hirono 平井¥6,800,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 310 m / Land 128 m² (39 tsubo) / Building 77 m² (23 tsubo) / built 1995 / Chiyokawa Sta. bus 43 min+6 min walk6 photos → Homme-cho Higashikaya 三十代¥7,800,000The hills to the west and southElev. approx. 210 m / Land 177 m² (53 tsubo) / Building 94 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1993 / Namikawa Sta., 11.8km10 photos →

The photographs are the images carried on SUUMO. They disappear once a listing ends. Check the real condition of a property on site.

Akiya bank — 1 listings

This is every house for sale registered on the at-home municipal vacant-home bank — 1 in all (as checked on 17 August 2026). They are listed cheapest first.

CHAPTER 05Is the ground safe?

Is this town inside a national earthquake-preparedness zone?

For each major earthquake, national law designates the areas where preparation is to be advanced. Whether a town is designated tells you directly how the national government views the shaking and tsunami expected there.

The strongest shaking in Kameoka comes not from the Nankai Trough but from the fault underfoot

Kyoto Prefecture publishes the damage expected in each municipality for each earthquake it models. Set out for Kameoka City, it looks like this.

The Hozugawa — the rail level at Kameoka Station is 6.35 m, and the water reached 6.81 m in 2013

The Kameoka basin is shaped so that all the water it collects leaves through a single narrow outlet, the Hozu Gorge. The city’s master plan for town planning puts it this way — “because the Hozu Gorge at the mouth of the basin drains poorly … even now it floods and ponds again with every flood”. The city’s regional disaster plan records past floods with water levels and the number of homes affected.

What actually happened on the two most recent occasions

The city’s own assessment, district by district

In its regional disaster plan, Kameoka City assesses “the risk of wind and flood damage” in words for each of the city’s 23 districts, and counts the warning zones for debris flows and steep slopes. Pulling out the main districts where houses are on the market gives this.

In 1951 the Heiwaike dam burst

The city’s regional disaster plan opens its history of disasters with this — “in the flood of July 1951 (Showa 26) the embankment of the Heiwaike gave way, and many lives were lost, above all in the Kasebara area of Shino-cho downstream”. Kyoto Prefecture’s chronology of disasters records that the flood of 11 July killed 91 people, left 23 missing, injured 238 and damaged 15,252 homes. The page of the city’s Shotoku Elementary School says that “75 people lost their lives in Kasebara alone, and 25 of them were children”. If you are house-hunting in Shino-cho, this is a memory of the land worth knowing.

Checking for yourself whether this lot is safe

Kameoka City’s hazard maps come as 12 separate district PDFs, and alongside the projected depth of flooding (under 0.5 m / 0.5–1.0 m / 1.0–2.0 m / 2.0–3.0 m / 3.0 m and over) they colour in the zones where houses are expected to collapse (where the flow or bank erosion is projected to sweep away or break a house). The projection assumes rainfall of roughly the kind seen once in 1,000 years (327 mm over two days on the Katsuragawa, 85.8 mm in an hour on the tributaries).

CHAPTER 06What summer and winter are like

There is no Meteorological Agency observation point in Kameoka City. The nearest place measuring temperature is Sonobe, about 14 km north-north-west (Sonobe-cho in Nantan City, elevation 134 m). It sits in the same basin at much the same height, so it agrees closely with the readings in Kameoka’s own statistical yearbook (annual mean 14.2–14.8℃). For comparison we set Kyoto beside it, over the pass (Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto City, elevation 41 m).

The twelve months of temperature, set out as they are

The left end of each bar is the mean daily low for that month and the right end the mean daily high (around Kameoka, at Sonobe; the 30-year mean for 1991–2020).

What tells is not the mean temperature but “0.8 tropical nights a year”

The Tamba fog — from autumn into winter, the basin becomes the floor of a sea of mist

What makes a Kameoka morning look the way it does is the Tamba fog. The city’s landscape plan sets it down as an official document — “the Kameoka basin and the country around it … have the character of an inland climate. The wind is light, and frequent fog is a defining feature”; “fog forms most often from October to January, which bears out the Tamba fog that arises from late autumn into winter”. Comparing how often dense-fog advisories are issued against Kyoto City, “from November to January in particular, eight or more advisories are issued for Kameoka City alone”, while “in Kyoto City and the neighbouring municipalities, fog forms rarely”. On an autumn or winter morning, fog lamps genuinely earn their keep here. The fog has even given its name to a city cultural programme, the “Kameoka Fog Art Festival”.

CHAPTER 07Shops, hospitals, schools

Hospitals — where you are taken if you collapse in the night

For more serious cases, the emergency and critical care centres (tertiary emergency care) are six in Kyoto City — the Kyoto Second Red Cross Hospital (Kamigyo Ward) and Uji Tokushukai Hospital (Uji City) are advanced critical care centres, along with the Kyoto First Red Cross Hospital, the Kyoto Medical Center, Rakuwakai Otowa Hospital, Kyoto University Hospital and the University Hospital of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and also Fukuchiyama City Hospital. From Kameoka there are two routes to a critical care centre — heading into Kyoto City, or being flown by air ambulance from the helipad at the Kyoto Chubu Medical Center.

On Sundays and public holidays the city runs a daytime holiday clinic

Schools — 21 of them. The four in the hills became one in 2024

Shopping — three stores of over 10,000 m² inside the city

For a large shopping mall, the nearest is Aeon Mall Kyoto Katsuragawa (Minami Ward, Kyoto City; about 77,000 m² of lettable floor space and parking for about 3,100 cars). It is right in front of JR Katsuragawa Station, so you can reach it from Kameoka by changing to the Kyoto Line.

There is a J-League stadium at the station’s north exit

Sanga Stadium by Kyocera (officially the Kyoto Prefectural Kyoto Stadium) stands about 300 m — a three-minute walk — from the north exit of JR Kameoka Station, at an address fixed by prefectural ordinance as “Kameoka-eki-kita 1-chome 8-2, Kameoka City”. It holds 21,600 and opened in January 2020. It is the home of Kyoto Sanga F.C., and even on days without a match it houses a climbing facility, two 3×3 basketball courts, a foot bath and an all-weather indoor play area called “KIRI no KO”. Not many cities have something like this within walking distance for a family with children.

CHAPTER 08What it costs you every year after you buy

Kameoka City reads meters and bills for water and sewerage every two months. What is distinctive is that 20 m³ of water is included in the standing charge, so a household that uses little still pays the standing charge and no more.

The city is cutting the cost of raising children head-on

Kameoka City sets out four things under its “Children First Declaration” — extending free children’s medical care to 18; making childcare fees free from the second child onwards; providing nappies and disposing of them free at nurseries, kindergartens and integrated centres; and making after-school clubs free from the second child in a household, open until 7 p.m. on weekdays and running at weekends.

CHAPTER 09What happens when you want to sell

SUUMO lists 82 second-hand houses in Kameoka. Against a population of 85,225 that is one for every 1,039 people — a deep market. And Kameoka is just about the only city in northern Kyoto Prefecture where land prices are rising.

CHAPTER 10Who lives here, and how many

The first city in Japan to ban plastic carrier bags

Kameoka City has an “Ordinance on the prohibition of providing plastic carrier bags” (promulgated 25 March 2020, in force from 1 January 2021). Article 5, paragraph 1 reads: “a business shall not provide plastic carrier bags at its premises, whether for payment or free of charge”. It goes a step beyond the national requirement to charge for carrier bags (July 2020) and is the first ordinance in Japan to go as far as a ban. It applies to companies, organisations and individuals doing business in the city; biodegradable, biomass and paper bags fall outside it. There is no penalty, but the city may publish the name of anyone who does not follow a recommendation. Taking your own bag when you shop is simply what people do here. The city was also chosen as a Cabinet Office SDGs Future City in 2020.

The information on this site is gathered by an AI that visits primary sources — municipalities, the Japan Meteorological Agency, national statistics — on a regular cycle, and it is updated with a source and a date of verification attached.

Source: calculated by this site from the municipality-level tables of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "Population, population change and households based on the Basic Resident Register" (as of 1 January Reiwa 8, published 2026-07-29). The ministry's publication page / verified 2026-08-17

CHAPTER 11Community life and the year's events

Community life in Kameoka is a different thing in the estates of the built-up area and in the villages and hills that ring the basin. What is expected of you on a new hilltop estate like Tsutsujigaoka is not what is expected in a village like Sogabe or Hiedano.

What comes round every year

What comes round without fail in a Kameoka year is the Tamba fog. From autumn into winter, the basin becomes the floor of a sea of mist in the mornings (§6). And there are 0.8 tropical nights a year — summer nights are far easier than in Tokyo. “Cool summer nights, and fog on autumn and winter mornings” — that is what living in the basin means.

CHAPTER 12Things nearby that move land prices

What bears on land in Kameoka is the distance to Kyoto City, the Hozugawa and elevation. Those three are what create the sixfold price spread inside the city.

① Being within commuting distance of Kyoto City

Within the same prefecture, residential land in Kameoka is 2.8 times Ayabe’s. What creates that gap is the distance — 20 minutes to Kyoto Station — and Kameoka’s prices are best read as the other side of rents in Kyoto City. As long as Kyoto City rises, Kameoka is held up with it.

② The Hozugawa, and the floor of the basin

Kameoka’s built-up area sits on the floor of the basin. The rail level at Kameoka Station is 6.35 m, and the Hozugawa reached 6.81 m in 2013 — the water came higher than the rails at the station (§5). In 1951 the Heiwaike gave way. The town centre at 102 m, Tsutsujigaoka at 214 m, the hills at 323 m — that difference in height may well open up as a difference in price from here on. Check the hazard maps address by address.

③ That 70% of the city is forest

About 70% of the 224.80 km² is forest (§1). That is why the median in the hills is ¥4,800,000 — a sixth of the town centre. But the reason it is cheap is that it is far from a station, the fog is thick and the winters are cold. “Kameoka is 20 minutes from Kyoto Station” holds true for only three tenths of the city.

CHAPTER 13What this place makes

What a place earns its living from shows up both at your dinner table and in your work once you live there. The amount raised through the hometown tax scheme is a rough measure of how many products a place has that people all over Japan choose.

What this town names as its own products

What Kameoka City itself calls “a speciality of Kameoka” is Kamemaru-imo, a yam.

CHAPTER 14A message from Kameoka City

How the receiving side sees it. Kameoka City’s relocation site is titled “Move to Kyoto–Kameoka to raise your children — raising them in a town you can love” — aimed squarely at families with children, and that is the city’s stance.

Move to Kyoto–Kameoka to raise your children →

CHAPTER 15A year in Kameoka

The temperatures, and what they mean day to day. What decides the Kameoka year is being a basin. Summers are hot (an August daily high of 32.8℃, 1.5℃ above Tokyo), winter mornings are cold, and fog comes from autumn into winter. The temperatures are those for Sonobe, about 14 km north-north-west (§6).

CHAPTER 16The people who run this city

When you are thinking of moving somewhere, who is running the place now, and where they are trying to take it, is something people about to move there want to know even more than the people already living there. This section sets out, with sources, only what Kameoka City publishes itself. 🔴 As of 1 September 2026, following the official site, I (the AI) could find 5 of the 6 items below. The mayor of Kameoka is Katsuragawa Takahiro (confirmed on the city’s own page).

CHAPTER 17Where to go on a day off

Something that never shows up in the numbers you use to find a house, yet bears directly on how happy you are once you live there, is days off. This section counts, by the same measure across every area, the places you can go on a day off around Kameoka (at Sonobe) and the places family and friends can stay when they visit. This area currently has 2 hot spring and day bath facilities, 1 roadside station and 2 RV parks. 🔴 All the counts are the numbers registered in the map data (OpenStreetMap) — in reality there may well be more.

Somewhere to stay — for family and friends, and for your own travels

This table is the result of me (an AI) putting the same question to the map data for every area (areas are retrieved in batches, so the verification date on some pages is a day apart). Facilities not registered on the map are not counted. "Not found" does not mean "there are none" — nor that the town is any the lesser for it.

Compare with other areas

Every page has the same 17 chapters in the same order. Move between them and you can compare the same line.

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