Information as of 2026-08-12
This page is a relocation summary written by an advanced AI
It is not a personal opinion piece written by a human. An AI gathered official information published on the internet — municipal and national statistics, the Japan Meteorological Agency, railway companies, property portals — and rebuilt it into a form that someone considering a move can read and act on. Every figure carries a source link and the date it was checked, so please confirm anything that matters to you against the original document. Rules and prices change. Always check the latest information yourself before you sign anything.
Moving to Odawara City
32 to 35 minutes from Tokyo Station on a Kodama Shinkansen. A castle town of 180,000 people, and the only critical care centre in western Kanagawa, along with five upper secondary schools, are here. At the same time, Odawara sits almost directly above the epicentre of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, and the projected time for a tsunami to arrive is 1 minute. Here we go in turn from the houses on the market now, through the earthquakes and tsunami beneath them, to what it costs each year once you live there.
National and quasi-national parks: Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park / Hot springs and day baths: Natural Hot Spring Manyo-no-Yu, Odawara Onsen
Sources: national and quasi-national parks identified from Ministry of the Environment boundary data and other sources (details in §17 of the main text) (checked 21 August 2026) / hot springs and day baths from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) (checked 20 August 2026). 🔴 Only the items a town has are shown — this does not mean that a town without them is inferior.
Last verified 2026-08-12
CHAPTER 01First, what kind of place Odawara is
The mountains of Hakone, the Ashigara Plain of the Sakawagawa, the hills coming down from Tanzawa, and Sagami Bay — all four are packed into 113.60 km².
Map of Odawara City
You can zoom and pan. The marker is Odawara City Hall (Ogikubo 300). A few hundred metres from the seafront town centre, the mountains rise.
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors
What should I know first about moving to Odawara?
The mountains of Hakone, the Ashigara Plain of the Sakawagawa, the hills coming down from Tanzawa, and Sagami Bay — all four are packed into 113.60 km². A few hundred metres from the seafront town centre, the mountains rise.
CHAPTER 02Four areas, and life in each
Odawara is a city where the mountains of Hakone, the Ashigara Plain of the Sakawagawa, the hills coming down from Tanzawa and Sagami Bay are packed into 113.60 km². Looking at all 194 houses on the market, even the cheapest is ¥5,980,000 and the median is ¥26,970,000, with only 4 at ¥10,000,000 or less — clearly at the dearer end of the areas this site has covered.
How the main districts of Odawara City lie
■ = public offices (orange) and stations (green), ● = districts. Positions, directions and scale follow the coordinates of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan. You can scroll sideways.
Elevations are not shown on this map (the representative point of an oaza can return a hill-side value even for a seafront district, and putting that on a map would mislead). A guide to each property's elevation is given in the list below.
Prices divide like this by nearest station
| Nearest station | Listings | Median price | Price range / rough elevation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Odawara JR, Odakyu and Hakone Tozan | 41 listings | ¥42,000,000 | ¥12,000,000 to ¥220,000,000 / elevation 3 to 62 m (median 8 m). The most listings in the city, and the dearest |
| Kamonomiya JR Tokaido Line, east | 39 listings | ¥25,500,000 | ¥10,800,000 to ¥79,800,000 / elevation 3 to 25 m (median 10 m). The eastern side of the plain, where listings come up often |
| Kozu JR, the eastern edge | 27 listings | ¥22,990,000 | ¥13,800,000 to ¥59,800,000 / elevation 5 to 26 m (median 12 m). Where the Gotemba Line branches off |
| Shimosoga the JR Gotemba Line | 17 listings | ¥30,800,000 | ¥11,900,000 to ¥70,000,000 / elevation 13 to 31 m (median 23 m). The Soga country, known for its plum groves |
| Ninomiya outside the city, next to it on the east | 7 listings | ¥12,300,000 | ¥5,980,000 to ¥52,000,000 / elevation 13 to 36 m (median 36 m). The cheapest listing in the city, at ¥5,980,000, has this as its nearest station — right on the eastern edge of the city boundary |
| Hotaruda, Tomizu, Kayama and others | 63 listings | — | Hotaruda 9 (¥11,000,000 to ¥65,900,000) / Tomizu 9 (¥12,000,000 to ¥36,800,000) / Kayama 7 (¥7,000,000 to ¥75,000,000) / Hakone-Itabashi 7 (¥13,000,000 to ¥54,800,000) / Iidaoka 7 (¥15,800,000 to ¥20,990,000) / Ashigara 6 (¥19,800,000 to ¥48,700,000) / Hayakawa 5 (¥33,800,000 to ¥42,800,000) / Midori-cho 4 and others |
How life differs from one area to another
Suits — anyone commuting on the JR Tokaido Line, or wanting flat land
Worth knowing — 🔴 the tsunami is projected to arrive in 1 minute, at most 3, reaching T.P. +11.9 m (§5). That is the projection for land 10 m above sea level. Check the elevation of the specific address
Suits — anyone travelling to Shinjuku on the Odakyu, or wanting to avoid the crowds at Odawara Station
Worth knowing — prices are the highest in the city, so the same budget buys more space on the plain and in the east
Suits — anyone travelling to Tokyo in 32 minutes on the Shinkansen
Worth knowing — listings almost never come up. The elevation is 7 to 9 m, inside the tsunami projection area (§5)
Suits — anyone who wants to live at the entrance to Hakone, or to buy cheaply
Worth knowing — as set out in §5, the sea side and the hill side are full of landslide warning zones. And the epicentre of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was directly above Odawara. The Kozu-Matsuda fault zone moves "at the same time" as the next trench earthquake
Which part of Odawara should I live in?
Across all 194 houses on the market, even the cheapest is ¥5,980,000 and the median is ¥26,970,000 — clearly at the dearer end of the areas this site has covered. The choice is between four parts: the town centre, the hill side, the sea side, and the plain to the east.
CHAPTER 03Trains and cars — how you get around
Odawara's strength is two things: five lines meet at Odawara Station and Tokyo is 32 minutes away by Shinkansen. In a city of 180,000, a station where the Shinkansen stops and which is also the terminus of a private railway and a third-sector line is not common.
How far Tokyo is, and what it costs
| How | Time | One way |
|---|---|---|
| Kodama Shinkansen (Tokyo) | 32–35 min | Unreserved ¥3,280 / reserved ¥4,010. More than 30 a day, from 6:30 to 22:48 out of Tokyo, at roughly 30-minute intervals |
| Odakyu Romancecar (Shinjuku) | — | ¥1,851 to ¥1,910 (IC fare ¥901 + ticketless limited-express charge ¥950) |
| the JR Tokaido Line (Tokyo) | 1 hr 16 min | IC ¥1,595. Operating distance 83.9 km |
| Expressway | — | The Odawara-Atsugi Road (Atsugi IC to Odawara-Nishi IC, 31.7 km) |
Where the railways run — five lines meet at Odawara Station
Five lines meet at Odawara Station. Along the coast runs the JR Tokaido Main Line (Kozu, Kamonomiya, Odawara, Hayakawa, Nebukawa); the JR Gotemba Line branches north from Kozu (Shimosoga); the Odakyu Odawara Line runs north (Ashigara, Hotaruda, Tomizu, Kayama); the Izuhakone Railway Daiyuzan Line cuts across the north of the city (Midori-cho, Isaida, Gohyakurakan, Anabe, Iidaoka); and the Hakone Tozan Railway climbs towards Hakone (Hakone-Itabashi, Kazamatsuri, Iryuda). There are 18 stations inside the city alone, so wherever you live there is a good chance of reaching one on foot or by bicycle — that is what marks Odawara out.
The map also includes the termini outside the city (Daiyuzan, Hakone-Yumoto and Shin-Matsuda) and Ninomiya Station, which properties near the boundary give as their nearest. The lines join the stations that properties give as their nearest, so some intermediate stations are left out. Positions, directions and scale follow the real coordinates (station coordinates from OpenStreetMap). You can scroll sideways.
✈ Airports
The nearest is Tokyo International Airport (a hub airport under national management), about 66.6 km in a straight line. 🔴 This is a straight-line distance. It is not a road distance or a journey time — check each operator's timetable for how you would actually travel.
🛣 Expressway junctions
There is no expressway entrance or junction inside this area. You will use an interchange in a neighbouring town.
How long does it take from Odawara to Tokyo?
🔴 There are two strengths. Five lines meet at Odawara Station, and Tokyo is 32 to 35 minutes away on a Kodama Shinkansen (¥3,280 unreserved). There are more than 30 a day, from 6:30 to 22:48 out of Tokyo, at roughly 30-minute intervals. On the Odakyu Romancecar, Shinjuku is ¥1,851 to ¥1,910.
CHAPTER 04Homes actually on the market right now
Listed cheapest first. Tapping one opens 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.
Odake¥5,980,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 40 m / Land 372 m² (113 tsubo) / Building 109 m² (33 tsubo) / built 1983 / Ninomiya Sta. bus 10 min+4 min walk10 photos →
Odake¥6,900,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 20 m / Land 81 m² (24 tsubo) / Building 70 m² (21 tsubo) / built 1991 / Ninomiya Sta. 48 min walk10 photos →
Nishiodomo¥7,000,000the town centreElev. approx. 20 m / Land 233 m² (70 tsubo) / Building 106 m² (32 tsubo) / built 1970 / Kayama Sta. 28 min walk9 photos →
Itabashi¥8,500,000the sea side (Hayakawa and Kataura)Elev. approx. 10 m / Land 85 m² (26 tsubo) / Building 70 m² (21 tsubo) / built 1977 / Kazamatsuri Sta. 9 min walk10 photos →
Odake¥10,700,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 40 m / Land 124 m² (38 tsubo) / Building 105 m² (32 tsubo) / built 1988 / Ninomiya Sta. bus 12 min+2 min walk8 photos →
Maekawa¥10,800,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 20 m / Land 76 m² (23 tsubo) / Building 61 m² (18 tsubo) / built 1978 / Kamonomiya Sta. 23 min walk9 photos →
Kamonomiya 311-5¥11,000,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 10 m / Land 102 m² (31 tsubo) / Building 95 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1992 / Kamonomiya Sta. 15 min walk6 photos →
Nakazone¥11,000,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 20 m / Land 165 m² (50 tsubo) / Building 106 m² (32 tsubo) / built 1971 / Hotaruda Sta. 12 min walk8 photos →
Renshoji¥11,800,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 10 m / Land 88 m² (27 tsubo) / Building 75 m² (23 tsubo) / built 1994 / Hotaruda Sta. 9 min walk10 photos →
Chiyo¥11,900,000the town centreElev. approx. 30 m / Land 201 m² (61 tsubo) / Building 121 m² (37 tsubo) / built 1972 / Shimosoga Sta. 7 min walk10 photos →
Hama-cho 3¥12,000,000the town centreElev. approx. 10 m / Land 63 m² (19 tsubo) / Building 73 m² (22 tsubo) / built 1982 / Odawara Station 16 min walk9 photos →
Iidaoka¥12,000,000the town centreElev. approx. 20 m / Land 156 m² (47 tsubo) / Building 134 m² (41 tsubo) / built 1974 / Tomizu Sta. 6 min walk5 photos →
Nakamurahara¥12,300,000the town centreElev. approx. 10 m / Land 107 m² (32 tsubo) / Building 95 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1994 / Ninomiya Sta. 28 min walk10 photos →
Anabe¥12,400,000the town centreElev. approx. 20 m / Land 205 m² (62 tsubo) / Building 135 m² (41 tsubo) / built 1962 / Anabe Sta. 5 min walk10 photos →
Itabashi¥13,000,000the sea side (Hayakawa and Kataura)Elev. approx. 10 m / Land 122 m² (37 tsubo) / Building 83 m² (25 tsubo) / built 1999 / Hakone-Itabashi Sta. 11 min walk10 photos →
Takata 648-13¥13,500,000the plain and the eastElev. approx. 10 m / Land 119 m² (36 tsubo) / Building 73 m² (22 tsubo) / built 1981 / Shimosoga Sta. 20 min walk9 photos →
The photographs are the images carried on SUUMO. They disappear once a listing ends. Check the real condition of a property on site.
See all 194 on SUUMO → Source: SUUMO listings for second-hand detached houses (Odawara City, Kanagawa Prefecture). All 194 SUUMO listings retrieved, with the 16 cheapest shown (from ¥5,980,000) / checked 2026-08-19. Elevations are the values obtained by putting the per-property map coordinates from the SUUMO listing pages through the Geospatial Information Authority elevation API (rounded to 10 m). For an exact elevation, see GSI Maps .There is an akiya bank too
| Akiya bank | Run by Odawara City (the At Home municipal version). No total registration count is shown. Nine listings (8 detached houses and 1 plot) appeared under "recommended" on the front page |
|---|---|
| Help with the agent's commission | Half the agent's commission, up to ¥50,000. The conditions include registration with the vacant-property support system and brokerage by an estate agent with an office in the city. Sales between relatives within the third degree of kinship are excluded |
| Help with a building condition survey | Half the inspection cost, up to ¥30,000 |
Akiya bank — 8 listings
All 8 houses on the market that are registered with the At Home municipal akiya bank (as checked on 17 August 2026). They are listed cheapest first. There is also 1 plot-only registration.
What is the cheapest house you can buy in Odawara?
The floor is ¥5,980,000 in Odake (built 1983, land 372 m²). Only 4 of the 194 are ¥10,000,000 or less, and the median is ¥26,970,000: the entry point is on the high side.
CHAPTER 05Is the ground safe?
Disaster in Odawara is not a question of whether, but of how many minutes you have when it happens.
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.
| Nankai Trough Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area | 🔴 Designated |
|---|---|
| Tokyo Inland Earthquake Emergency Measures Area | 🔴 Designated |
| Japan Trench / Kuril Trench Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area | Not covered (the whole of Kanagawa Prefecture is outside the scheme) |
| Shaking of intensity 6-lower or above within 30 years | 75.8% (32.0% for Shindo 6-upper or above) At Odawara City Hall. Surface ground AVS30 293 m/s, alluvial fan |
Look up an address on J-SHIS → Designations from the Cabinet Office list of designated municipalities (Nankai Trough Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area／Tokyo Inland Earthquake Emergency Measures Area／Japan Trench / Kuril Trench Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area ) / probability and surface ground from theNational Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience, J-SHIS earthquake hazard information API (2024 edition, average case, all earthquakes), queried at the town hall coordinates / verified 2026-08-13
Tsunami — arriving in 1 minute, at most 3
| Municipality | Maximum tsunami height (T.P. +m) | Arrival time | Maximum arrival |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oiso Town and Ninomiya Town | 17.1 | 1 min | 3 min |
| Manazuru Town | 16.5 | 1 min | 3 min |
| Odawara City | 11.9 | 1 min | 3 min |
| Kamakura City | 14.5 | 1 min | 10 min |
| Fujisawa City | 11.5 | 1 min | 12 min |
The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 — the epicentre was directly above Odawara
| When | 1 September 1923 at 11:58, magnitude 7.9 |
|---|---|
| Epicentre | Western Kanagawa Prefecture, 35°19.8' north, 139°08.1' east, depth 23 km — just north of the Odawara town centre |
| Shaking | Shindo 6, the highest class at the time, was recorded in Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa and Yamanashi. The Sagami Bay coast and the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula are estimated at the equivalent of today's Shindo 7 |
| Tsunami | 12 m at Atami, 9.3 m at Aihama. In some places the tsunami arrived about 5 minutes after the earthquake |
| Damage | More than 105,000 dead and missing (in total) |
The Kozu-Matsuda fault zone — it moves "at the same time" as the next trench earthquake
| Position | From near Oi Town in Ashigarakami District, along the western edge of the Oiso Hills, through Odawara City and into Sagami Bay. At least about 35 km long |
|---|---|
| Character | Not an independent active fault but a fault branching from the subduction boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the continental plate |
| Average interval between events | About 800 to 1,300 years (active once in every few trench earthquakes along the Sagami Trough) |
| Most recent event | After the 12th century and before the first half of the 14th. Estimated to correspond to the historical earthquake of 1293 (about 733 years ago as of 2026) |
| If it moves next | Estimated to produce a step or flexure at the ground surface near the fault, with the north-east side rising about 3 m relative to the south-west side |
Landslides — the sea side and the hill side are full of warning zones
| Debris flow | 116 zones. The torrents are concentrated in Enoura, Nebukawa, Komekami, Ishibashi, Hayakawa, Iryuda, Kazamatsuri, Itabashi and Mizunoo (from Kataura to Hayakawa, where the mountains come down to the sea) and in Ogikubo and Kuno (the hill side) |
|---|---|
| Steep-slope collapse | 396 zones |
| Special hazard zones | 346 zones designated on 19 March Reiwa 3 (red zones carry building restrictions) |
For flooding, during Typhoon No. 19 of Reiwa 1 Odawara City opened 86 evacuation places in the city and 7,118 people evacuated. The projected flood inundation areas have been revised in turn: the Hayakawa system (24 March Reiwa 2), the Moritogawa and Nakamuragawa systems (20 December Reiwa 1) and the Karigawa in the Sakawagawa system (27 July Heisei 30).
Sources: publication of the Odawara City Federation of Neighbourhood Associations (PDF) / Odawara City hazard maps / checked 2026-08-12
When a property interests you, open these four
-
Overlay Hazard MapMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Enter an address and it shows the tsunami, landslide and flood projections overlaid on one map. Start here.
Open → -
Odawara City hazard maps (8 sections)Odawara City, issued September Reiwa 4
Flooding, landslides, storm surge and tsunami brought together district by district. Check which section the address you are considering falls in.
Open → Tsunami inundation projection map → -
Kanagawa Prefecture, notification documents for landslide warning zonesKanagawa Prefecture
The positions of the 116 debris-flow zones and 396 steep-slope zones are given down to the lot number. Red zones carry building restrictions, so check before you buy.
Open → -
Odawara City fault pageOdawara City
Check where the Kozu-Matsuda fault zone runs. Given that a step of about 3 m in the ground surface near the fault is projected, it is worth knowing where that line passes.
Open →
Is the disaster risk high in Odawara?
🔴 The city is designated under both the Nankai Trough and the Tokyo inland earthquake programmes, and the chance of Shindo 6-lower or above within 30 years is 75.8% (32.0% for 6-upper or above) — at the high end. Disaster in Odawara is not a question of whether, but of how many minutes you have when it happens.
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 (Odawara, the 30-year average for 1991–2020).
These are the numbers for how the summer nights and the winter mornings compare with Tokyo
| Days per year | Odawara | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical nights minimum 25°C or above | 7.3 days | 17.8 days |
| Days above 35°C maximum 35°C or above | 2.5 days | 4.8 days |
| Days above 30°C maximum 30°C or above | 42.2 days | 52.1 days |
| Frost days minimum below 0°C | 32.5 days | 15.2 days |
| Days below freezing all day maximum below 0°C | 0.0 days | 0.0 days |
What is the climate like in Odawara?
At AMeDAS Odawara (elevation 14 m) the August daily high is 30.6°C and the January daily low 0.6°C, barely different from Tokyo (31.3°C and 1.2°C). But Hakone, about 10 km away in a straight line, is 841 m higher.
CHAPTER 07Shops, hospitals, schools
Hospitals — the only critical care centre in western Kanagawa is here
| Tertiary emergency care | Odawara Municipal General Medical Center is the only critical care centre in the western Kanagawa secondary medical region. It is also the region's only disaster base hospital with a critical care centre attached. Five full-time emergency physicians and three DMAT teams |
|---|---|
| The new hospital | Phase 1 opened on 4 May 2025. Operating theatres 8 to 10, chemotherapy places 9 to 15, intensive care beds (eICU) 4 to 16, about 36% single rooms, and a rooftop helipad |
| Secondary emergency care | On holiday daytimes and every night, 2 of the 10 hospitals take turns covering internal medicine and surgery |
| Nights, holidays and children | Odawara City Holiday and Night Emergency Clinic (Sakawa 2-32-16). Nights: internal medicine and paediatrics / holidays: internal medicine, paediatrics, ENT and ophthalmology. Weekday nights 19:00-22:00, weekends and public holidays 18:00-22:00, holiday mornings 8:30-11:30 and afternoons 13:00-15:30 |
Schools — but 36 schools are to be reorganised into 12
| Upper secondary | Prefectural Odawara High School (Shiroyama) / prefectural Seisho High School (Sakawa) / prefectural Odawara Higashi High School (general and integrated business courses) / prefectural Odawara Johoku Technical High School (mechanical, electrical, design and construction) / private Soyo High School (Shiroyama) |
|---|
Shopping
| Large shopping centres | Dynacity (Nakazato 208, 10:00-20:00; the ground floor of EAST from 9:00). The largest suburban centre in the city |
|---|---|
| Station building | Lusca Odawara (10:00-20:00). Seijo Ishii and Hac Express are 9:00-22:00, Doutor 7:00-22:00 |
| Home centres | Cainz Odawara (Nakazato 322-2, 9:00-20:00). A new store that had its grand opening on 25 April 2026 |
What is emergency medical care like in Odawara?
Odawara Municipal General Medical Center is the only critical care centre in the western Kanagawa secondary medical region, and also the region's only disaster base hospital with a critical care centre attached. Phase 1 of the new hospital opened on 4 May 2025, taking intensive care beds from 4 to 16, with a rooftop helipad.
CHAPTER 08What it costs you every year after you buy
| Water and sewerage | For a 20 mm connection, domestic use, 20 m³ over two months: ¥1,870 water + ¥2,172 sewerage = ¥4,042 in all (including tax). Meters are read every two months |
|---|---|
| Sewerage coverage | Population coverage 83.9% (85.1% on the left bank of the Sakawagawa, 79.9% on the right), area coverage 89.0%, connection rate 94.6%. About 16% is outside the treatment area, i.e. on septic tanks |
Is there a grant if I move to Odawara?
🔴 No. The national ¥1,000,000 moving-in grant requires somewhere outside the Tokyo area, or a disadvantaged area within it, and in Kanagawa Prefecture only Miura City, Yamakita Town, Hakone Town, Manazuru Town, Yugawara Town and Kiyokawa Village qualify — Odawara City is not among them. Neighbouring Hakone, Manazuru and Yugawara do qualify: the line runs right through western Kanagawa.
CHAPTER 09What happens when you want to sell
Odawara has 194 second-hand detached houses on SUUMO and 8 on the akiya bank. Against a population of 184,336 that is one for every 913 people. And in the Reiwa 8 published land prices, residential land is +0.9%, commercial land +3.1% and industrial land +4.5% — all three are up.
| City | Average, residential land | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Kanagawa Average | ¥221,100/m² | ＋3.4% |
| Odawara City | ¥102,400/m² | ＋0.9% |
| What to look at | Odawara City in practice |
|---|---|
| Depth of the market | SUUMO 194 + 8 on the akiya bank. One for every 913 people. Only 4 of the 194 are ¥10,000,000 or less, and the median is ¥26,970,000 |
| Price band | ¥5,980,000 to ¥220,000,000, median ¥26,970,000 (all 194). The nearest station to the cheapest, at ¥5,980,000, is Ninomiya, outside the city (§2) |
| Land prices | Residential land averages ¥102,400/m², +0.9%. Commercial land ¥249,600/m², +3.1%. Industrial land ¥70,500/m², +4.5%. All uses ¥139,500/m², +1.7% |
| Where it stands in the prefecture | The Kanagawa Prefecture average for residential land is ¥221,100/m² (+3.4%). Odawara is 46% of that, and its growth is below the prefectural average too. Its position is "an inexpensive city, by Kanagawa standards" |
| The pool of buyers | 184,336 people, ageing rate 30.9%, 10.1% aged 0-14. The only critical care centre in western Kanagawa is in the city (§7) |
| 🔴 36 schools becoming 12 | 25 primary and 11 lower secondary schools, 36 in all, are to be reorganised in stages into 12 combined primary and lower secondary schools between FY2033 and FY2044 (§7). Do check what happens to the schools in the district you buy in over the next 20 years |
Will the house I buy sell when I want to sell it?
SUUMO's 194 plus 8 on the akiya bank make one house for every 913 people. And land prices are up on all three: residential +0.9%, commercial +3.1% and industrial +4.5%.
CHAPTER 10Who lives here, and how many
| Census | Population | Households | 1 households |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak, Heisei 12 (2000) | 200,173 | 71,532 | 2.80 |
| Heisei 27 (2015) (2015) | 194,086 | 79,120 | 2.45 |
| Reiwa 2 (2020) (2020) | 188,856 | 81,864 | 2.31 |
| Preliminary, Reiwa 7 (2025) | 184,934 | 83,983 | — |
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.
Of the 185,424 people living in Odawara City, 4,035 are foreign residents. That is below the national average of 3.26%.
Nationally, foreign residents make up 3.26% of the total population (4,031,159 out of 123,767,642).
There are 34 municipalities in Japan where the share is over 10%.
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
Is Odawara's population falling?
184,336 (1 July Reiwa 8), -7.61% from the peak of 200,173 in 2000. But while the population falls, the number of households keeps rising (2.80 to 2.31 people per household). The ageing rate is 30.9%.
CHAPTER 11Community life and the year's events
Community life in Odawara shows itself best in the way the whole city turns out for the castle festival. The Odawara Hojo Godai Festival is held every year on 3 May, with a parade of 1,600 people — the event the city itself calls "our largest tourism event".
| Where you live | What community life involves |
|---|---|
| The town centre (around Odawara Station) | The parade route of the Godai Festival is the everyday street. On 3 May the crossings at Aomono-cho, Hama-cho, Ginza-dori and Sakae-cho become the venue in turn |
| the plain and the east (Kamonomiya, Kozu) | The part of the city with the most listings (§2), and many people have moved in. Mostly bin duty and the circulating notice board of the neighbourhood association |
| The north (Hotaruda, Ashigara and Tomizu) | Housing areas along the Odakyu. The dearest part of the city, with many newer houses |
| Seaward and hillward | Hayakawa, Kataura, Kuno and Ogikubo. Long-standing villages, and because there are many landslide warning zones (§5), the voluntary disaster-prevention groups actually work here |
What comes round every year
The Hojo Godai Festival on 3 May. It goes ahead in light rain, and if it is cancelled the Odawara City Tourism Association announces it from 6:30 that morning. The departure ceremony is on the special stage at the Akaganemon gate, and the parade runs through Odawara Castle Park and around it. The city's notice goes as far as saying that Aratama Primary School is used as the waiting area for the brass bands, so a rehearsal is held on its ground from 8:30 to 11:00 that day — for people living nearby, that is "the day" of the year.
Source:Odawara City, the 62nd Odawara Hojo Godai Festival (3 May Reiwa 8 / organised by the Odawara City Tourism Association / parade line-up, participating groups and schedule) / landslides from the same source as §5 / checked 2026-08-18What events does Odawara have?
It shows itself best in the way the whole city turns out for the castle festival. The Odawara Hojo Godai Festival on 3 May is a parade of 1,600 people, the event the city calls "our largest tourism event". Alongside the warrior and gunner corps, school brass bands, preservation societies and the chamber of commerce all put their names to it.
CHAPTER 12Things nearby that move land prices
What tells on land in Odawara is that the Shinkansen stops here, the things found nowhere else in western Kanagawa, and the tsunami and the fault.
1. 32 minutes to Tokyo — and what it costs
32 to 35 minutes to Tokyo on a Kodama Shinkansen. ¥3,280 unreserved, ¥4,010 reserved. More than 30 a day, from 6:30 to 22:48 out of Tokyo, at roughly 30-minute intervals (§3). And five lines meet at Odawara Station — the Shinkansen, the JR Tokaido Line, the Odakyu, the Izuhakone Railway Daiyuzan Line and the Hakone Tozan Railway.
For those conditions, residential land at ¥102,400/m² is 46% of the Kanagawa Prefecture average (¥221,100/m²). Being "one of the cities in Kanagawa furthest from Tokyo" is exactly what makes it cheap. Whether you can pay the Shinkansen fare every day is what decides whether Odawara is open to you.
2. The things found nowhere else in western Kanagawa
The only critical care centre in western Kanagawa is in the city (§7). In a city of 184,336 people, that means it carries the medical load for the surrounding towns as well. This position as "the centre of western Kanagawa" is what holds up the +3.1% for commercial land.
On the other hand, 25 primary and 11 lower secondary schools, 36 in all, are to be reorganised in stages into 12 combined primary and lower secondary schools between FY2033 and FY2044 (§7). A plan to cut them to a third over 20 years, and that changes how you choose where to live before it changes land prices.
3. The tsunami arrives in 1 minute, and the fault moves "at the same time"
The tsunami is projected to arrive in 1 minute, at most 3, reaching T.P. +11.9 m (§5). The median elevation of the listings is 10 m at Kamonomiya, 12 m at Kozu and 8 m at Odawara Station (§2) — the numbers are much the same.
And the epicentre of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was directly above Odawara. On top of that, the Kozu-Matsuda fault zone is thought to move "at the same time" as the next trench earthquake (§5). The sea side and the hill side are full of landslide warning zones as well. The condition of "32 minutes from Tokyo at half the prefectural average" comes with these reasons attached. It is not that it is cheap; it is that this is the kind of land it is.
Sources: land prices from[Official land prices] (Reiwa 8) Table of average prices and year-on-year change by prefecture, municipality and land use (compiled from the Land Information Center and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism published land prices, 27 April Reiwa 8) / railways as §3, hospitals and the school reorganisation as §7, tsunami, faults and landslides as §5, elevations as §2 / checked 2026-08-18What decides land prices in Odawara?
32 minutes to Tokyo by Shinkansen and a station where five lines meet — for those conditions, residential land at ¥102,400/m² is 46% of the Kanagawa Prefecture average (¥221,100/m²). Being "one of the cities in Kanagawa furthest from Tokyo" is exactly what makes it cheap.
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.
335th of the 1,788 municipalities in Japan, and 8th within Kanagawa Prefecture
What this town names as its own products
What Odawara City lists as "local products of Odawara" are Odawara chochin lanterns, Odawara lacquerware, Odawara castings, Hakone yosegi marquetry, wood mosaic, Odawara kamaboko, Odawara dried fish, wagashi and pickles.
Source:Odawara City, "Local industries and traditional crafts of Odawara"／the same, "Food and local specialities"/ Verified 2026-08-20You can support a town without living there
Even if a move is still some way off, you can be involved from today through the hometown tax scheme. Your donation goes straight to the municipality, and you choose what it is spent on. A way to give something back to a place you got to know here.
Source:Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "Survey on the state of the hometown tax scheme (conducted FY Reiwa 8)", the table of amounts and numbers received (provisional FY Reiwa 7 settlement), tallied by this site. The rank is out of all 1,788 municipalities in that table / verified 2026-08-14What does Odawara earn its living from?
Furusato tax donations received came to ¥1,000,290,000 in FY Reiwa 7 (44,857 gifts), 335th of the 1,788 municipalities in Japan and 8th within Kanagawa Prefecture.
CHAPTER 14A message from Odawara City
How the receiving side sees it. Odawara City has a dedicated moving-in site called Odawalab, and its central idea is putting you in front of people. The desk is the Policy Coordination Section, Planning and Policy Division, Planning Department (0465-33-1268).
| What the city does | Detail |
|---|---|
| Online moving-in consultation | Talk to city staff online |
| Online greeting | Talk online to someone who has already moved — the city arranges a chance to speak not to an official but to a person who moved before you |
| Made-to-measure moving-in support | A guided visit. While you ask about housing, shopping and the area, they will also send you material, introduce supporters (mainly people who have moved here) and take you round the facilities |
| The Odawalab community | An online community, so you can connect with people living there before you move |
| Akiya bank | A scheme where the city receives information from owners and publishes it. No registration or usage fee. 8 listings (§4) |
| Help with the agent's commission | Half the agent's commission on the sale of a vacant property, up to ¥50,000. The conditions include brokerage by a member of the Odawara branch of the Kanagawa Real Estate Association or the Shonan branch of the All Japan Real Estate Association with an office in the city, and that it is not a sale between relatives within the third degree of kinship. Prior consultation is required (City Policy Division, 0465-33-1307), and applications close at the end of February |
| PR video | "What I found in Odawara" — a moving-in PR video made by the city |
Odawara City moving-in site "Odawalab" →
Does Odawara welcome people moving in? Where do I ask?
There is a dedicated moving-in site, Odawalab, and its central idea is putting you in front of people. Besides online consultations there is an "online greeting" where you talk to someone who has already moved, "made-to-measure moving-in support" with a guided visit, and the "Odawalab community" you can join before you move. The desk is the Planning and Policy Division (0465-33-1268).
CHAPTER 15A year in Odawara
Temperatures, and what they mean in daily life. Thanks to Sagami Bay, the Odawara year is barely different from Tokyo in either summer or winter. The August daily high of 30.6°C is 0.7°C below Tokyo, and the January daily low of 0.6°C is 0.6°C below (§6). As places to move to go, this is the climate closest to "the same as Tokyo".
| Month | Odawara that month |
|---|---|
| month 1 | Daily low 0.6°C. Almost the same as Tokyo (1.2°C), and a different world from the inland places people move to |
| month 2 | The peak of the cold. Even so, the daily low rarely goes below freezing — in the Soga Hills to the east, the mandarin harvest is still going on (§2) |
| month 3 | Spring. The cherry blossom at Odawara Castle Park is coming |
| month 4 | Cherry blossom. And preparations for the Godai Festival on 3 May begin |
| month 5 | 🔴 The 3rd is the Odawara Hojo Godai Festival. A parade of 1,600 people makes its way through Odawara Castle Park and around it (§11). The roads in the city are at their busiest on this day |
| month 6 | The rainy season. The month to check the landslide projections for the sea side and the hill side on a map (§5) |
| month 7 | The sea season. This is a city on Sagami Bay |
| month 8 | A daily high of 30.6°C, 0.7°C below Tokyo. The sea breeze makes the afternoons that much easier |
| month 9 | The typhoon month. The epicentre of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1 September 1923 was directly above Odawara (§5) — in this city, Disaster Prevention Day is an actual memory |
| month 10 | Autumn. The autumn colour begins in Hakone, and tourist traffic builds on the city's roads |
| month 11 | The mandarin season. The 546 ha of mandarin orchards in the Soga Hills are the largest single item in the city's agricultural output (§2). Hayakawa and Kataura on the sea side are mandarin terraces too |
| month 12 | Even in winter the daily low rarely goes below freezing. Heating costs are among the lightest of any area on this site |
What is a year in Odawara like?
Thanks to Sagami Bay, summer and winter are barely different from Tokyo. The August daily high is 0.7°C below Tokyo and the January daily low only 0.6°C below — as places to move to go, this is the climate closest to "the same as Tokyo". 3 May is the Hojo Godai Festival.
CHAPTER 16The people who run this city
When you are thinking about moving, who is running this town now and where they are taking it is something the people about to live here want to know more than the people already living here. This chapter lines up only what Odawara City publishes itself, with sources. 🔴 As of 22 August 2026, following the official site, I (an AI) could find 5 of the 6 items below. The mayor of Odawara City is Kato Kenichi (confirmed on the city's own introduction page).
| What is published | Published | What you can read |
|---|---|---|
| About the mayor | The mayor's office | Name, career, greeting |
| Policy address | Mayor Kato's statement of policy | What they say they will do this year |
| List of council members | List of council members and related pages | Who the members are, and their groupings |
| Council broadcasts and recordings | Could not find one | Whether you can watch the council in session |
| Searchable minutes | Minutes | Whether you can search past debates by wording |
| Master plan | Comprehensive plan | How many years ahead this town has decided |
🔴 Age and gender have not been guessed from the name.Only what is published is reproduced here, as published.Odawara City introduction page →
🔴 The names, photographs and social media of individual council members are not carried on this site. We point you to where you can read them.
Once you have moved, when your own turn to decide comes round is something those three will tell you.
🔴 And mayors change. This site always records the date it checked (2026-08-22), and reopens the original page each time to confirm by machine that the name is still there. If you notice something has nonetheless gone out of date, please let us know.
Who runs Odawara City now?
The mayor of Odawara City is Kato Kenichi (confirmed on the city's introduction page on 22 August 2026). What this site looks for is six things: an introduction to the head of the municipality, the policy address, a list of council members, broadcasts of the council, a search for the minutes, and the comprehensive plan. 🔴 No judgement of good or bad is made here. Only whether it is published or not.
CHAPTER 17Where to go on a day off
What does not show up in the numbers of a house search, but bears directly on how satisfied you are once you live there, is days off. This chapter counts, on the same measure for every area, the places you can go on a day off in Odawara and the places family and friends can stay when they visit. This is a town with Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. In this area there are now 3 hot springs and day baths. 🔴 All counts are the numbers registered in the map data (OpenStreetMap) — in practice there may be more than this.
| What | Number counted, and names |
|---|---|
| ⛰ National and quasi-national parks | Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park |
| ♨ Hot springs and day baths | Natural Hot Spring / Corona-no-Yu Odawara, Manyo-no-Yu, Odawara Onsen / Hachiri (3 facilities) |
| 🏯 Castles and castle sites | Ishigakiyama Castle, the keep of Odawara Castle (2 places) |
| 🎡 Amusement parks, zoos and aquariums | Not found in the map data |
| 🖼 Museums, galleries and memorial halls | The Hotoku Museum, the Odawara City Sontoku Memorial Hall, the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History, the Suzuhiro Kamaboko Museum, the Odawara Castle History Museum, the Odawara City Local Culture Museum, the Matsunaga Memorial Hall (annexe of the Odawara City Local Culture Museum) and the Odawara Literature Museum and 10 in all |
| ⛩ Shrines and temples | 84 shrines and 238 temples. Those with a Wikipedia entry are Matsubara Shrine, Rensen-ji, Rensho-ji, Iizumi Kannon, Okubo Shrine, the Hotoku Ninomiya Shrine, Igami Shrine and Kaizo-ji |
| 🚗 Roadside stations | Not found in the map data |
| 🐕 Dog runs | Not found in the map data |
| 🛣 Expressway service and parking areas | Odawara PA (down) (🍔 fast food) / Seisho PA (up) (🍽 restaurant 🏪 convenience store) / Seisho PA (down) (🍽 restaurant 🏪 convenience store) |
Somewhere to stay — for family and friends, and for your own travels
| What | Number counted |
|---|---|
| 🏨 Hotels and ryokan | 14 |
| 🏠 Guesthouses and hostels | 6 |
| ⛺ Campsites and auto-campsites | Odawara City Ikoi-no-Mori, Naminoko-mura (2 places) |
| 🏕 Glamping | Not found among the campsite or hotel names |
| 🚐 RV parks (overnight in your vehicle) | Not found in the map data |
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.
Sources: the counts and names of facilities fromOpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) / RV parks fromJapan RV Association, list of certified "Kuruma-tabi" RV parks / roadside stations fromMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, list of "michi-no-eki" roadside stations / expressway service and parking areas, and the shops inside them, also from OpenStreetMap (judged by machine on whether they fall within the site outline) / national parks judged from the boundary data of the Ministry of the Environment Biodiversity Center overlaid on National Land Numerical Information (administrative boundaries); for quasi-national parks the municipalities concerned were confirmed at the link behind the park name / verified 2026-08-20Are there places to go on a day off, and places to stay?
This is a town with Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. Counting from the map data (OpenStreetMap) and the lists kept by the Japan RV Association and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, there are 3 hot springs and day baths, 14 hotels and ryokan and 2 campsites. Anything not on the map is not counted, so in practice there may be more (details in §17).
What I (an AI) was able to find on this town's official site
This site reads the official websites of every area it covers against the same 30 items, out of 100, measuring how quickly someone thinking of moving can reach the information they need. What was measured is the official website of Odawara City, and the total was 59 points (measured 20 August 2026).
"Not found" does not mean "there is none." It means I followed the official site and could not find it. Tell us the published page and the next measurement will reflect it.
| Area | Score | What was found |
|---|---|---|
| Getting started with a move | 0 / 20 | Not found |
| Housing | 11 / 15 | There is an akiya bank; listings carry photographs, price, year built and floor area; completed deals are organised |
| The money side of living here | 7 / 15 | Water and sewerage charges are readable from a rate table; child-raising support is specific about amounts and scope; there are explanations of national health insurance tax and fixed asset tax |
| Disaster information | 20 / 20 | Hazard maps are published by district; flood, landslide and earthquake are all covered; the year the assumptions were last reviewed is stated; and 2 more |
| Industry and local produce | 10 / 10 | A list of local speciality products is on the official site; hometown tax results are published year by year; there are support schemes for businesses and industry |
| Transport | 4 / 10 | There is a community bus timetable; fares are stated |
| Can an AI read it? | 7 / 10 | Every page carries an updated date; there is a sitemap.xml; statistics are published as Excel or CSV; and 1 more |
See all 30 items and the pages used to judge them
0 / 3 There is a relocation and settlement pageNot found 0 / 3 There is a dedicated relocation site
Only pages within the official site 0 / 3 A contact point (department, telephone, opening hours)
0 of department, telephone and opening hours were stated 0 / 5 Support schemes state amounts and conditions
Not found 0 / 3 There is trial housing or a trial-stay scheme
Not found 0 / 3 Vacancies in trial housing are published
Not found 4 / 4 There is an akiya bank
There is a municipal akiya bank 3 / 4 Listings carry photographs, price, year built and floor area
7 of the 9 (78%) have all four items 4 / 4 Completed deals are organised
No completed deals appear in the list 0 / 3 The conditions of use are stated
Not found 1 / 5 Water and sewerage charges are readable from a rate table
There is a water and sewerage page Go and see → 3 / 5 Child-raising support is specific about amounts and scope
Grants are described Go and see → 3 / 3 There are explanations of national health insurance tax and fixed asset tax
Both the rates and the amounts are stated Go and see → 0 / 2 Tie-ups with banks for mortgages and the like
Not found 5 / 5 Hazard maps are published by district
83 documents by area Go and see → 5 / 5 Flood, landslide and earthquake are all covered
Flood / landslide / earthquake Go and see → 3 / 3 The year the assumptions were last reviewed is stated
On 24 March Reiwa 2 the projected inundation area for the Hayakawa system was revised Go and see → 4 / 4 Is it machine-readable (a map system or a text PDF)?
Viewable in a map system Go and see → 3 / 3 Disasters are announced through more than one channel
Disaster email / disaster app / social media / municipal loudspeakers / TV and radio Go and see → 5 / 5 A list of local speciality products is on the official site
9 items (on the city's official site) Go and see → 3 / 3 Hometown tax results are published year by year
Entries for 8 fiscal years Go and see → 2 / 2 There are support schemes for businesses and industry
Commerce and industry Go and see → 2 / 4 There is a community bus timetable
There is a page Go and see → 2 / 3 Fares are stated
There is material on fares, but the amounts could not be read from the text of the page Go and see → 0 / 3 The date of the last revision is given
Not found Go and see → 3 / 3 Every page carries an updated date
17 of the 20 pages read Go and see → 2 / 2 There is a sitemap.xml
Go and see → 0 / 2 Site search runs on the server side
It was a Google custom search Go and see → 1 / 2 Statistics are published as Excel or CSV
There is a statistics page Go and see → 1 / 1 Open data is published
Go and see →
Compare with other towns → For municipalities and local organisations (get in touch here) →
Measurement by this site. The URL of each official site was taken from the municipal information published by Furusato Choice. The score is a score for publishing information, not a score for how good the place is to live / verified 2026-08-20Compare 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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This page is made by an AI. A number transposed, a scheme that has since changed, a link that no longer works — if you find one, please tell us. No name and no email address are needed. Just what is wrong, and how.
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