Moving to Karuizawa

CHAPTER 01First, what kind of place Karuizawa is

There are two places called "Karuizawa". Confuse them and the prices and the schemes all come out wrong.

Where Karuizawa is

It lies just over the Usui Pass, on the Nagano side. 146.8 km and 61 minutes at best from Tokyo Sta., with no transfers. Karuizawa Sta. (940.5 m above sea level) is the highest shinkansen station in Japan.

Map of Karuizawa Town

You can zoom and pan. The marker is Karuizawa Town Hall. The mountain to the north-west is Mt. Asama; the town spreads across the plateau to the south-east.
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

The main districts, and where the stations are

The town has three stations: Karuizawa, Naka-Karuizawa and Shinano-Oiwake. Only Karuizawa Sta. is a shinkansen stop, and it is also the terminus of the Shinano Railway. Naka-Karuizawa Sta. is the gateway to the Nagakura district, and Shinano-Oiwake Sta. serves the Oiwake district at the western edge. Miyota Sta., furthest west in the diagram, is in Miyota Town, outside Karuizawa; it is included because listings near the town boundary sometimes give it as their nearest station.
Positions, bearings and scale follow the actual coordinates (station coordinates from OpenStreetMap, districts from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan). You can scroll sideways.
Elevation is not shown in this diagram (a representative point for a place name can differ from the elevation of an actual property). A rough elevation for each listing is given in the list below.

The six areas, drawn as a diagram

This is a schematic. Scale, bearings and area boundaries are not exact. The whole town is plateau around 900 m above sea level; there is no great difference in elevation as there is in Nasu.
Sources: the area divisions follow an estate agent's account (Resort Home) / station elevations are the published figures / verified 2026-08-11

CHAPTER 02Six areas, and life in each

The centre of gravity of permanent residence does not sit where the station names suggest. Population by administrative district shows it.

The character of each area comes from an estate agent's account (Resort Home) set against the town's statistics. / verified 2026-08-11

CHAPTER 03Trains and cars — how you get around

There are 26 shinkansen services to Tokyo on a weekday, 61 minutes at the shortest, with no transfers. Within the town, three Shinano Railway stations and a circular bus that costs ¥100 however far you ride do the work.

Catch the shinkansen in the morning at what time, and reach Tokyo at what time

Only services that run every weekday on the August 2026 timetable are listed. Karuizawa is a Hokuriku Shinkansen station, and the up services that stop here are the Asama and the Hakutaka.

Coming back: Tokyo 18:04 → Karuizawa 19:08 (Hakutaka 573, 64 min); Tokyo 19:32 → 20:40 (Asama 627). The last is Tokyo 22:08 → Karuizawa 23:20, and the last up service from Karuizawa is 22:21 → Tokyo 23:24. The first are Tokyo 6:28 → Karuizawa 7:33, and Karuizawa 6:34 → Tokyo 7:40. The fastest is 61 minutes — Karuizawa 10:19 → Tokyo 11:20 (Hakutaka 556), and Tokyo 9:32 → Karuizawa 10:33 (Hakutaka 557).

Fares: how much, and how far

Frequency towards Tokyo is 26 on a weekday (services running daily on the August 2026 timetable). Karuizawa Town's local public transport plan counts, as of 1 January Reiwa 8, 29 towards Tokyo on a weekday, 31 on Saturdays and 32 on Sundays and holidays, and 29 towards Tsuruga on a weekday. Timetables change with the season, so both are given. Annual shinkansen boardings at Karuizawa Sta. were 1,360,000 in FY Reiwa 4 (2022), back close to the 1,470,000 of FY Heisei 30.

The three stations in the town are joined by the Shinano Railway

Karuizawa, Naka-Karuizawa and Shinano-Oiwake all sit on the same Shinano Railway line. Karuizawa Sta. is the terminus of that line, and it is where you change to and from the shinkansen.

Departures from Karuizawa towards Komoro, Ueda and Nagano number 22 on a weekday, first at 6:59 and last at 23:05. The town's plan counts 25 towards Nagano on a weekday. Eight extra services have been added between Komoro and Karuizawa, paid for jointly by Komoro City, Miyota Town and Karuizawa Town. These improved the connection with the last shinkansen at Karuizawa Sta. and the connection at Komoro Sta. Annual boardings and alightings at the three stations (FY Reiwa 5) were about 1,030,000 at Karuizawa, about 480,000 at Naka-Karuizawa and 180,000 at Shinano-Oiwake.

Three circular bus routes within the town, ¥100 however far you ride

The fare is a flat ¥100 (¥50 for primary school children; up to two pre-school children free per accompanying adult). A book of 11 tickets costs ¥1,000 and can be bought on board. Holders of a disability, rehabilitation or mental health welfare certificate, and one carer, pay ¥50.

Average daily riders in FY Reiwa 6 ran from 356 in September to 188 in January on the East and South circular, from 87 in August to 54 in January on the North circular, and from 71 in July to 48 in March on the West route. The Karuizawa Sta. stop alone sees about 150 boardings and alightings a day. The busiest stops are Kyu-Karuizawa, Toriihara Danchi-mae and Naka-Karuizawa Sta., and on the West route Mitsuishi community hall, Shinano-Oiwake Sta., Karuizawa Hospital and Chugakko-mae. During Golden Week, summer (12 July to 31 August) and the autumn holidays the East and South circular is diverted and does not call at "Iriyama-toge Iriguchi" or "Narusawa". Which roads get congested at busy times shows up there directly.

Buses also run to the Gunma side and up the mountain

There is transport for the days you do not drive

There are five taxi firms in the town. From April Reiwa 6 a Japanese-style ride-share has been running, with an app and help from operators in the same Saku transport zone to add capacity at busy times. On top of that, the following schemes exist.

The town is also preparing to introduce AI-dispatched demand transport in FY Reiwa 8, and has run an open call for proposals and for a name.

CHAPTER 04Homes actually on the market right now

Karuizawa Town has no akiya bank. The only way in is the private market.

The 172 homes currently for sale in Karuizawa Town

Karuizawa Town has no akiya bank, so the second-hand market is effectively the whole of it. All 172 listings are tallied here — from ¥14,500,000 to ¥1,199,980,000, median ¥96,400,000. Not one is under ¥10,000,000. The median plot is 938 square metres (about 284 tsubo) and the median year built 2005. The list is ordered cheapest first. Press one to open the listing page with photographs.

"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.

Nagakura Tsurudamari¥14,500,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 600 m² (182 tsubo) / Building 72 m² (22 tsubo) / built 1991 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta., 4.7km10 photos → Nagakura¥14,800,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 739 m² (223 tsubo) / Building 59 m² (18 tsubo) / built 1972 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta. bus 20 min+22 min walk9 photos → Nagakura¥16,200,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 800 m² (242 tsubo) / Building 44 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1979 / Karuizawa Sta., 8.6km6 photos → Hotchi¥17,800,000South (Hotchi)Elev. approx. 940 m / Land 220 m² (67 tsubo) / Building 43 m² (13 tsubo) / built 1990 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta. 67 min walk9 photos → Hotchi¥18,500,000South (Hotchi)Elev. approx. 950 m / Land 580 m² (175 tsubo) / Building 91 m² (28 tsubo) / built 1973 / Karuizawa Sta., 6.3km8 photos → Nagakura¥18,500,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 329 m² (100 tsubo) / Building 48 m² (15 tsubo) / built 1987 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta., 4.8km10 photos → Hotchi¥18,500,000South (Hotchi)Elev. approx. 930 m / Land 580 m² (175 tsubo) / Building 91 m² (27 tsubo) / built 1973 / Karuizawa Sta. 81 min walk10 photos → Nagakura Tsurudamari¥19,000,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 447 m² (135 tsubo) / Building 84 m² (25 tsubo) / built 1995 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta., 4.8km9 photos → Nagakura¥23,800,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 1339 m² (405 tsubo) / Building 92 m² (28 tsubo) / built 1989 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta. 46 min walk7 photos → Mozawa¥25,000,000West (Oiwake)Elev. approx. 830 m / Land 1018 m² (308 tsubo) / Building 73 m² (22 tsubo) / built 2001 / Shinano-Oiwake Sta., 4.2km10 photos → Karuizawa¥25,000,000Kyu-Karuizawa & around the stationElev. approx. 1010 m / Land 10000 m² (3025 tsubo) / Building 1049 m² (317 tsubo) / built 2020 / Karuizawa Sta., 2.9km8 photos → Karuizawa¥25,000,000Kyu-Karuizawa & around the stationElev. approx. 1040 m / Land 347 m² (105 tsubo) / Building 67 m² (20 tsubo) / built 1987 / Karuizawa Sta., 3.1km9 photos → Nagakura 4498-9¥27,990,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 990 m / Land 427 m² (129 tsubo) / Building 49 m² (15 tsubo) / built 1999 / Naka-Karuizawa Sta. 35 min walk9 photos → Nagakura Tsurudamari¥28,000,000Naka-KaruizawaElev. approx. 940 m / Land 934 m² (283 tsubo) / Building 68 m² (21 tsubo) / built 1990 / Karuizawa Sta., 3.8km10 photos →

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

Look on other sites too

Different sites carry different listings for the same town. Look at all three.

Rules you should know before you buy — particular to Karuizawa

Akiya bank

Karuizawa Town has no akiya bank at all. Everything for sale, second-hand holiday homes included, has to be found through the private property market. Every listing in this chapter is from that private market. (as checked on 2026-08-17)

CHAPTER 05Is the ground safe?

To the north-west of Karuizawa stands the active volcano Mt. Asama. Historically it has killed on a large scale.

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 volcano, Mt. Asama

When a listing interests you, open these five

All are free. You only need an address or a point on the map.

1. Overlay Hazard MapMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

   Enter an address and it shows flooding, landslide and liquefaction overlaid on one map. Start here.

   Open →
2. Mt. Asama volcanic hazard mapKaruizawa Town

   It shows the expected reach of snowmelt mudflow, pyroclastic flow and ashfall, and what to do at each eruption warning level.

   Hazard map → Preparing for an eruption of Mt. Asama →
3. Karuizawa Town disaster hazard mapsKaruizawa Town

   A list of the flood and landslide hazard maps and the disaster preparedness handbook.

   Open →
4. GSI Maps — flood-control landform classificationGeospatial Information Authority of Japan

   It shows whether the land before development was a gully, valley or former river channel. Even where a hazard map is uncoloured, water gathers on land that fills an old channel.

   Open the area around Karuizawa →
5. Ask the management company and the seller, in personOn site

   On holiday-home land, always ask "was this plot made by filling in a gully?" and "where does the water go in heavy rain?" What does not appear on a map can only be learned here.

CHAPTER 06What summer and winter are like

The twelve months of temperature, set out as they are

The left end of each bar is the average daily minimum for that month and the right end the average daily maximum (Karuizawa, the 30-year average for 1991–2020).

For snow, total snowfall is 141 cm a year and the normal maximum snow depth 35 cm.

Snow in Karuizawa (by month, normals)

How much elevation changes winter — the gap with Sakudaira, where you drive down to shop

Karuizawa Town is a plateau town where the whole municipality sits between 900 and 1,000 m above sea level (938 m at the town hall, and 798.7 m even at its lowest point, downstream on the Yukawa). So there is little need to worry about elevation within the town. What matters is the gap with Sakudaira (683 m), where you drive down to shop.

CHAPTER 07Shops, hospitals, schools

Shopping — daily life is all inside the town

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

Schools — there is a high school in the town

CHAPTER 08What it costs you every year after you buy

CHAPTER 09What happens when you want to sell

A market moving in exactly the opposite direction to Nasu.

CHAPTER 10Who lives here, and how many

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

Karuizawa's neighbourhood bodies are 30 "ku". Joining is your own decision. Membership rates differ by more than threefold between them, so asking about the ku before you settle on a house tells you what your first year there will be like.

There are 30 ku, and joining is your own decision

The town explains it like this: "Karuizawa Town has a neighbourhood body called a 'ku' in each district. A ku is an organisation the residents created of their own accord, out of the idea that we should make the place we live better ourselves and with each other. It works on things like local disaster preparedness and an ageing society, so that people living in the same district can help one another and build a community where they can live with peace of mind."

Asamadai, Oiwake, Ohinata, Kazakoshi Danchi, Kami-Hotchi, Karyado, Kyu-Karuizawa, Ose, Shiozawa, Shiotsubo, Shimo-Hotchi, Shin-Karuizawa, Sugiuri, Sengataki Naka-ku, Sengataki Nishi-ku, Tsukushigaoka, Toge-machi, Toriihara, Naka-Karuizawa, Narusawa, New Town, Hanareyama, Furuyado, Hoshino, Umatori, Mitsuishi, Minamigaoka, Minami-Karuizawa, Mozawa, Yui — 30 in all. If you are not sure which ku you fall into, ask at the General Affairs Division counter at the town hall, or ask a neighbour.

The town adds a caveat that "not every ku does all of the above". The fee also differs by ku, and the town does not publish a list. Its guidance is "please contact the ku head about joining and about fees" — that is, you ask the ku you intend to join. If you do not know which ku that is, or are unsure about joining, the place to ask is the ku heads' association secretariat, General Affairs Division, Karuizawa Town Hall (0267-45-8298).

Membership rates differ by more than threefold between ku

These figures come from an answer given by the head of the General Affairs Division in the town council. They were calculated from the number of items each ku asked to have distributed, among ku with 100 households or more, and are said to differ from the true membership rate. Even so, they show how much ku differ within one town. The more holiday homes a ku has, the lower the figure. Shiozawa is strongly a holiday-home belt; Asamadai has many permanent residents. "How many people belong to the ku" reflects whether that belt is holiday-home land or a residential area. When you go to view a property, ask who the ku head is, how much the fee is, and how often the rota comes round, and you get a real sense of daily life.

Set out one ku's year as it stands, and it looks like this

Oiwake ku runs its own website. What follows is simply what appears there. This is what "joining a ku" actually means.

They are looking for people to carry it on

Karuizawa Town has 34 designated cultural properties in all — 2 national, 2 prefectural and 30 municipal — plus 20 registered tangible cultural properties. The national ones are the former Mikasa Hotel (Meiji 38) and the Karuizawa Summer House, the former Antonin Raymond villa (Showa 8).

These two were the first intangible folk cultural properties designated in Karuizawa Town. Both preservation societies are recruiting members, from primary school age upward. Enquiries go to the Oiwake-juku Local History Museum (0267-45-1466). Here is a way into the town's year as soon as you move in.

CHAPTER 12Things nearby that move land prices

In Karuizawa, the very shape of the house you may build has been set since Showa 47. Those standards are now being revised in stages, with 19 items changing between August Reiwa 7 and April Reiwa 9. This is the first thing to read before you buy land.

Guidelines from Showa 47 still decide the shape of buildings

The "Karuizawa Town nature protection guidelines" were laid down in Showa 47 (1972) and still underpin environmental protection here. The town states the idea behind them: "They express the principle that the natural environment is the common property of everyone connected with this town, and they still play an important part in how the town is built."

Which zone class your land falls in can be seen as the use district and zone class on the town's map service, "Karuizawa Town Kurashi Map". The town also publishes a summary booklet of the guidelines (with diagrams and illustrations) and an explanatory video (resort protection zone edition). The town notes that "counter and telephone enquiries from a single business can run to a great length", and asks that you read the guidelines and the ordinance first and organise your questions before contacting them. The desk is the Nature Protection Section, Environment Division (0267-45-8556, counter 7 on the ground floor).

Nineteen items change in stages between August Reiwa 7 and April Reiwa 9

The town says that "with the passage of time parts have come to sit poorly with reality, and questions have been raised about their effectiveness", and is reviewing the guidelines together with the related ordinance and rules. The first principle of the review is to "actively consider setting stricter standards as well". Here are the changes that bear directly on the land you buy and the house you build.

446 deer a year, and town staff drive the monkeys off every single day

Karuizawa Town has a wildlife damage prevention plan covering wild boar, sika deer, Japanese macaque, Asian black bear, raccoon, masked palm civet, American mink and birds such as crows. Here is what actually happened in FY Reiwa 6.

The problems the town itself lists can be read as they stand. For macaques, "it has become harder for them to reach the national forest on the north side of the town, where we drive them towards"; for bears, "it is difficult to apply pressure to individuals without a radio collar"; and "residents and holiday-home visitors need to be informed, through the newsletter and social media, about managing food waste and other attractants". Keep rubbish indoors overnight — that is the basic move of life in Karuizawa.

The industrial waste facilities are in Oiwake and Hotchi

On Nagano Prefecture's register of industrial waste disposal operators (as of the end of June Reiwa 8), three companies have a facility inside Karuizawa Town. All three do intermediate processing by "crushing", and there is no landfill site in the town.

Of the 117 establishments the prefectural register covers for the Saku area, two are landfill sites. The nearest to Karuizawa is the controlled landfill at Odai, Naganohara 508-2, Saku City (E-Stage Co., Ltd.), west of Oiwake and beyond Miyota Town. When you look at land in Oiwake or Hotchi, check where these facilities are on the prefectural register before you go, and you get a real sense of the distances. The register is published as an Excel file and can be searched by municipality.

A 2,701 m² retail development is coming to the north exit of Karuizawa Sta.

Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. filed a new-store notification with Nagano Prefecture under the Large-scale Retail Stores Location Act on 12 May Reiwa 7. The project is named "(provisional) plan for the use of vacant land east of Karuizawa Sta. north exit".

The site is on the north side of Karuizawa Sta. — the vacant land on the Kyu-Karuizawa side. The outlet mall already spreads out south of the station, so this will create a flow of people on both sides. If you are looking at land or a house north of the station, note where this site is and that the hours run from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and go and stand there. The movement of cars morning and night will not be what it is now.

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.

The main things Karuizawa produces

We have not yet been able to describe this place's local specialities

I (an AI) searched Karuizawa Town's official site and the tourism and produce association sites the municipality points to, but could not find an officially published list of local specialities (checked 2026-08-20).
This site is built by checking sources one at a time, so that an AI does not go and present something that is not true. Because no sourced information could be found, nothing is recorded here yet. It does not mean the place has no specialities; please bear with us.

CHAPTER 14A message from Karuizawa Town

How the receiving side sees it. Here are the town's own words.

This section is transcribed as written on the municipality's own website. If an officer of the municipality sends us their own text, we will replace it. Get in touch here →

CHAPTER 15A year in Karuizawa

What is in season, the festivals, and the temperature. Twelve months of living here, on one page.

The festivals come from Oiwake ku's official site and the town's intangible folk cultural property pages; the bus loadings and diversion periods from the town's own material. Temperatures are the normals for the Karuizawa Meteorological Agency station (999 m above sea level). Before you move, come once on one of the days in this table.

CHAPTER 16The people who run this city

When you are thinking about moving somewhere, who is running the town now and where they are trying to take it is, I think, something a future resident wants to know even more than a current one. This chapter sets out, with sources, only what Karuizawa Town publishes itself. 🔴 As of 2026-08-22, following the official site, I (an AI) was able to find 2 of the 6 items below. The mayor of Karuizawa Town is Michio Tsuchiya (confirmed on the town's introduction page).

CHAPTER 17Where to go on a day off

Days off never appear in the numbers you use to find a house, yet they bear directly on how content you are once you live there. This chapter counts, on the same measure for every area, the places you can go on a day off in Karuizawa and the places family and friends can stay. This town lies within Joshin'etsu-kogen National Park and Myogi-Arafune-Saku-Kogen Quasi-National Park. It currently has 7 hot springs and day baths and 1 RV park. 🔴 Every count is the number registered in the map data (OpenStreetMap) — in reality there may 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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