Information as of 13 August 2026
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 Saku City
At the eastern edge of Nagano Prefecture, this city spreads across the Saku plain at about 700 metres. From Sakudaira Station on the Hokuriku Shinkansen it is 70 minutes to Tokyo at best, with 37 trains a day. The JR Koumi Line crosses there, and the city has 11 Koumi Line stations. There are 46 second-hand houses on the market at present, the cheapest at ¥2,500,000. And Saku City falls outside every one of the national earthquake-preparedness zones — Nankai Trough, Tokyo inland and Japan Trench. From here we work through the city’s four districts in turn — the houses on the market, disasters, the climate, and the hospitals and schools.
Roadside stations: Hot Park Asashina, Healthy Terrace Sakuminami / National and quasi-national parks: Myogi-Arafune-Saku Kogen Quasi-National Park, Yatsugatake-Chushin Kogen Quasi-National Park / Hot springs and day baths: Mochizuki Onsen; Midori-no-mura, Fuse Onsen, Asashina Onsen, Hirao Onsen Miharashi-no-yu
Sources: roadside stations from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism list of “michi-no-eki” (checked 2026-08-21); national and quasi-national parks judged from Ministry of the Environment boundary data and other sources (details in §17) (checked 2026-08-21); hot springs and day baths from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) (checked 2026-08-20); dog runs from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) (checked 2026-08-20). 🔴 Only the things a town has are listed — it does not mean that a town without them is worse.
Last verified 2026-08-13
CHAPTER 01First, what kind of place Saku is
The city was formed in 2005 when the old Saku City merged with the town of Usuda, the village of Asashina and the town of Mochizuki. From the Saku plain in the east (about 700 metres) to Mochizuki and Kasuga in the west (around 1,100 metres) there is a difference of 400 metres in height.
Map of Saku City
You can zoom and pan. The marker is Saku city hall (Nakagomi). The further west you go, the higher you climb onto the Mochizuki and Kasuga uplands.
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors
What should you know first about moving to Saku?
The city was formed in 2005 when the old Saku City merged with the town of Usuda, the village of Asashina and the town of Mochizuki. From the Saku plain in the east (about 700 metres) to Mochizuki and Kasuga in the west (around 1,100 metres) there is a difference of 400 metres in height.
CHAPTER 02Four areas, and life in each
Saku City merged with the town of Mochizuki, the village of Asashina and the town of Usuda in 2005. The median of the 46 houses on the market is ¥15,550,000. The city runs from 626 metres to 1,009 in elevation, and the further west you go, the higher and the cheaper it gets.
There are four districts
| District | Rough elevation | Nearest station | What it is like / price range of the listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sakudaira and Iwamurada The centre of the city | 630〜1,010m | Sakudaira Iwamurada Nakasato, Misato | 🔴 The centre of the city, where the Shinkansen and the Koumi Line cross. The city hall is at Iwamurada, which was also a post town on the old Nakasendo road. ¥3,000,000–¥45,700,000 (26 listings) |
| Nakagomi The southern town | 670〜810m | Nakagomi Kita-Nakagomi, Namezu Otabe | The town around Nakagomi Station, the operating hub of the Koumi Line. ¥6,600,000–¥58,000,000 (10 listings) |
| Usuda The south | 720〜740m | Usuda Tatsuokajo, Aonuma | The former town of Usuda. It has a star fort, the site of Tatsuoka Castle. ¥4,000,000–¥17,990,000 (3 listings) |
| Mochizuki and Kasuga The western uplands | 680〜890m | — No railway station | 🔴 The former town of Mochizuki. This is where the cheapest houses in the city come up. The two cheapest (both ¥2,500,000, at Kasuga) are here. ¥2,500,000–¥46,000,000 (7 listings) |
How life differs by district
Prices and elevations are the medians of the listings currently on the market (46 on SUUMO).
Who it suits = anyone commuting to Tokyo, or using the Shinkansen day to day
What to watch = elevation runs 626–1,009 m, a spread of 380 metres inside this one district. Even within “Sakudaira” the cold differs
Who it suits = anyone who takes everyday convenience over the Shinkansen
What to watch = cheap listings rarely appear here (the lowest is ¥6,600,000)
Who it suits = anyone who puts plot size and price first
What to watch = there is no railway station. And the higher ground makes for a longer winter
Who it suits = anyone who wants to live somewhere quiet with history
What to watch = there are only 3 houses on the market. Whether you find one is largely a matter of luck
Whereabouts in Saku should you live?
The city runs from 626 metres to 1,009 in elevation, and the further west you go, the higher and the cheaper it gets. The median of the 46 houses on the market is ¥15,550,000, and the most listings — 26 — are in Sakudaira and Iwamurada, where the Shinkansen and the Koumi Line cross.
CHAPTER 03Trains and cars — how you get around
Getting about in Saku comes down to how close you are to Sakudaira Station. Tokyo is 70 minutes away at best, with 37 trains a day — few cities of 100,000 people have a Shinkansen service that thick. But that benefit does not reach every part of the city.
Where the stations are — the Shinkansen and the Koumi Line cross at Sakudaira
The city has 11 stations (Misato, Nakasato, Sakudaira, Iwamurada, Kita-Nakagomi, Namezu, Nakagomi, Otabe, Tatsuokajo, Usuda and Aonuma). All are on the JR Koumi Line, strung out in a line running south from Komoro. Of these, only Sakudaira crosses the Hokuriku Shinkansen, and from there Tokyo is 70 minutes away. 🔴 The Mochizuki and Kasuga districts have no railway station. They are where the cheapest houses in the city gather, so a car is a given. The diagram also includes Komoro, Miyota and Haguroshita stations outside the city, and the neighbouring Shinkansen stations (Karuizawa and Ueda), so it lines up directly with the station names in the property list below. Positions, bearings and scale follow the real coordinates (stations from OpenStreetMap, districts from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan). The order of the Koumi Line stations was checked against JR East’s Koumi Line timetable. You can scroll sideways.
By car — the Joshinetsu and Chubu-Odan expressways cross here
Saku City has the Saku and Sakudaira smart interchanges on the Joshinetsu Expressway, and the Chubu-Odan Expressway runs away to the south. Mochizuki and Kasuga have no railway station, so a car is a given. The higher the district, the longer winter tyres stay on.
✈ Airports
The nearest is Matsumoto Airport (a regionally managed airport), about 48.2 km in a straight line. 🔴 This is a straight-line distance, not a road distance or a journey time — please check the actual route in each operator’s timetable.
🛣 Expressway junctions
This area has 6 entrances and exits (interchanges and junctions).
Chubu-Odan Expressway = Saku-Nakasato, Saku-kita, Saku-minami, Saku-Usuda
Kan-Etsu Expressway Joetsu Line = Saku, Sakudaira smart IC
How long does it take from Saku to Tokyo?
70 minutes at best, with 37 trains a day — few cities of 100,000 people have a Shinkansen service that thick. Getting about, though, comes down to how close you are to Sakudaira Station, and that benefit does not reach every part of the city.
CHAPTER 04Homes actually on the market right now
SUUMO lists 46 second-hand houses in Saku City. All 46 listings have been taken in, and the 18 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.
Kasuga 2666-1¥2,500,000Mochizuki and Kasuga (the western uplands)Elev. approx. 770 m / Land 712 m² (216 tsubo) / Building 136 m² (41 tsubo) / built 1963 / Sakudaira Station to 16.2km10 photos →
Kasuga¥2,500,000Mochizuki and Kasuga (the western uplands)Elev. approx. 770 m / Land 712 m² (215 tsubo) / Building 172 m² (52 tsubo) / built 1963 / Sakudaira Station to 16.0km7 photos →
Naruse¥3,000,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 640 m / Land 159 m² (48 tsubo) / Building 65 m² (20 tsubo) / built 1964 / Sakudaira Station 60 min walk10 photos →
Shionada¥3,400,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 630 m / Land 1129 m² (342 tsubo) / Building 71 m² (21 tsubo) / built 1975 / Sakudaira Station 60 min walk6 photos →
Mochizuki¥3,500,000Mochizuki and Kasuga (the western uplands)Elev. approx. 680 m / Land 278 m² (84 tsubo) / Building 93 m² (28 tsubo) / built 1950 / Sakudaira Station to 11.1km3 photos →
甲¥3,800,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 670 m / Land 303 m² (92 tsubo) / Building 190 m² (57 tsubo) / built 1960 / Nakasato Sta., 6.2km7 photos →
Irisawa¥4,000,000Usuda (the south)Elev. approx. 720 m / Land 352 m² (106 tsubo) / Building 117 m² (35 tsubo) / built 1960 / Usuda Sta. 12 min walk8 photos →
Negishi¥4,800,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 690 m / Land 1063 m² (322 tsubo) / Building 78 m² (24 tsubo) / built 1992 / Sakudaira Station to 11.0km10 photos →
Yuhara¥4,800,000Usuda (the south)Elev. approx. 720 m / Land 325 m² (98 tsubo) / Building 207 m² (63 tsubo) / built 1956 / Usuda Sta., 3.0km9 photos →
Negishi¥5,000,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 1010 m / Land 1070 m² (324 tsubo) / Building 54 m² (16 tsubo) / built 1985 / Nakagomi Sta., 11.0km7 photos →
甲¥5,800,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 670 m / Land 305 m² (92 tsubo) / Building 110 m² (33 tsubo) / built 1969 / Sakudaira Station to 6.9km8 photos →
Kitagawa¥6,600,000Nakagomi (the southern town)Elev. approx. 810 m / Land 292 m² (88 tsubo) / Building 79 m² (24 tsubo) / built 1990 / Aonuma Sta. 25 min walk10 photos →
Kitagawa¥6,800,000Nakagomi (the southern town)Elev. approx. 740 m / Land 850 m² (257 tsubo) / Building 97 m² (29 tsubo) / built 1977 / Usuda Sta. 28 min walk9 photos →
Imai¥7,000,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 670 m / Land 283 m² (86 tsubo) / Building 151 m² (46 tsubo) / built 1967 / Kita-Nakagomi Sta. 34 min walk3 photos →
Kasuga¥8,000,000Mochizuki and Kasuga (the western uplands)Elev. approx. 890 m / Land 800 m² (242 tsubo) / Building 76 m² (23 tsubo) / built 1991 / Sakudaira Station to 18.7km9 photos →
Kajiya 53－10¥8,800,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 690 m / Land 252 m² (76 tsubo) / Building 133 m² (40 tsubo) / built 1985 / Nakagomi Sta. 26 min walk10 photos →
Fuse¥11,000,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 710 m / Land 593 m² (179 tsubo) / Building 271 m² (82 tsubo) / built 1965 / Sakudaira Station to 10.9km10 photos →
Innai¥12,000,000Sakudaira and Iwamurada (the centre)Elev. approx. 630 m / Land 992 m² (300 tsubo) / Building 83 m² (25 tsubo) / built 1996 / Sakudaira Station to 11.9km9 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 46 on SUUMO → Source: the SUUMO listings for second-hand detached houses (Saku City, Nagano Prefecture),all 46(from ¥2,500,000) / checked 2026-08-13. For price, address, land area, building area, build date and nearest station, nine listings chosen at random were checked item by item against their SUUMO property pages and found to match. Elevations were taken from the map coordinates on each SUUMO listing page through the elevation API of the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (rounded to 10 m). For an exact elevation, seeGSI Maps .Akiya bank — 30 listings
This is every house for sale registered on the municipal vacant-home bank — 30 in all (as checked on 17 August 2026). They are listed cheapest first. There are also 4 registrations for rent. For one of them the building area is not published, so no floor-plan button appears.
What do houses start at in Saku?
SUUMO lists 46 second-hand houses, and the cheapest is ¥2,500,000 in Mochizuki and Kasuga (built 1963, 712 m² of land, 16.2 km from Sakudaira Station).
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.
| Nankai Trough Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area | Not designated |
|---|---|
| Tokyo Inland Earthquake Emergency Measures Area | Not designated |
| Japan Trench / Kuril Trench Earthquake Disaster Prevention Promotion Area | Not applicable (the whole of Nagano Prefecture is outside this scheme) |
| Shaking of intensity 6-lower or above within 30 years | 17.9% (1.4% for shindo 6-upper or above) At the Saku city hall site. Surface ground: AVS30 279 m/s, volcanic foothills |
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
Landslide warning zones — 795 of them, concentrated in the western hills
For Mount Asama, Saku City is designated by the national government as a “volcanic disaster alert area”. The eruption alert level is currently 1 (be aware that this is an active volcano), lowered from level 2 on 22 May 2026. The city has a volcanic disaster volume in its regional disaster plan and, as a member of the Mount Asama volcanic disaster council, has a system that sets up a headquarters at level 2 and steps up in stages from level 3. Sources: Nagano Prefecture, designation of landslide warning zones (as of 25 May 2026) / Japan Meteorological Agency, eruption warnings and forecasts for Mount Asama / Cabinet Office, volcanic disaster alert areas (PDF, as of 1 August 2024) / Saku City regional disaster plan / checked 2026-08-13
What happened in Saku in Typhoon Hagibis in 2019
Typhoon Hagibis (12 October 2019) brought record rain to the Chikumagawa basin. Here are the figures as they stand, from Saku City’s own report on its response.
| Item | The figures |
|---|---|
| Rain | 303.5 mm in 24 hours at Saku (the meteorological station record; 0:00 to 24:00 on 12 October), with a maximum of 35 mm in an hour. At Hatsuya inside the city, 546 mm in 24 hours, and 568 mm from the start of the rain |
| Casualties | 2 deaths and 18 slight injuries |
| Flooding | 134 homes flooded above floor level and 947 below — 1,081 in all (the number that asked the city to disinfect) |
| Homes | 289 disaster certificates issued (18 destroyed, 14 severely half-destroyed, 133 half-destroyed, 38 partly half-destroyed, 86 partly damaged) |
| Evacuation | At 21:00 on 12 October, 3,281 people in 75 evacuation centres — the peak of this disaster |
When a property catches your eye, open these 3
-
Overlay Hazard MapMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
Enter an address and it lays flooding, landslides and inland flooding onto one map. Start here.
Open → -
Saku City river flood hazard mapSaku City; largest projected scale
The projected inundation for the Chikumagawa and the smaller rivers in the city under rainfall of roughly the kind seen once in 1,000 years. There is a separate disaster map by district (for roughly once in 100 years).
Flooding (largest projected) → Hazard map → -
Mount Asama volcanic hazard mapSaku City
The area that would be affected by an eruption. Saku City is designated a national volcanic disaster alert area, so see which zone a house you are considering falls in.
Open →
Is the disaster risk high in Saku?
All three of the national earthquake-preparedness zones leave the city outside them, and the probability of shaking of shindo 6-lower or above within 30 years is 17.9% (1.4% for 6-upper or above). The city hall stands on volcanic foothills.
CHAPTER 06What summer and winter are like
There is only one Meteorological Agency observation point in Saku City — the AMeDAS station “Saku” (at Nakagomi, 683 m). There is none at Mochizuki, Usuda or Asashina.
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 (Saku; the 30-year mean for 1991–2020).
These are the numbers for how summer nights and winter mornings compare with Tokyo
| Days per year | Saku | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical nights minimum 25°C or above | 0.0 days | 17.8 days |
| Days above 35°C maximum 35°C or above | 2.8 days | 4.8 days |
| Days above 30°C maximum 30°C or above | 39.3 days | 52.1 days |
| Frost days minimum below 0°C | 133.5 days | 15.2 days |
| Days below freezing all day maximum below 0°C | 4.5 days | 0.0 days |
Put precisely, it is 2nd in Honshu and southwards, and 2nd within Nagano Prefecture too (first in both cases is neighbouring Ueda City at 906.2 mm). Its 2,146.9 hours of annual sunshine also come 44th of 771 stations, in the top 6%.
Saku City itself does not claim “the most in Japan”. The heading on the city’s own page is “Saku City’s sunshine hours are among the highest in the country!”, and it honestly carries the national rank year by year (6th in 2021, 8th in 2023, 43rd in 2024 and so on). The city’s disaster plan likewise writes of “rainfall of around 1,000 mm a year, low even by national standards”. Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency normals (1991–2020) for Saku, Ueda, Tokoro and Karuizawa / the national rankings were compiled by this site from all 1,298 stations in the “AMeDAS monthly and annual normals (1991–2020)” file at the Meteorological Agency’s normals download page / Saku City, “Saku City’s sunshine hours are among the highest in the country!” / checked 2026-08-13
How a winter morning changes with the elevation band
The listings in Saku City run from 629 metres to 1,103 in elevation. What divides winter in this city is not the cold of the morning but how many days the temperature never rises above 0℃.
| Elevation band | Winter temperatures | The roads, and daily life |
|---|---|---|
| 630–770 m Sakudaira, Iwamurada, Nakagomi, Usuda, Asashina. The city hall is at 692 m |
January daily low −7.2℃, daily high 4.4℃. Mornings fall below freezing on 133.5 days a year, but the temperature stays below 0℃ all day on only 4.5. January gets 188.7 hours of sunshine, and what snow falls melts by midday on most days. Winter precipitation is 21.5 mm in December and 25.6 mm in January, the lowest of the year | Morning frost runs from late October to mid-April. Lagging the water pipes and scraping the car become a daily job. The snowploughs go out at 5–8 cm of snowfall on primary roads, 10 cm on secondary roads and about 15 cm elsewhere |
| 1,080–1,100 m The hills of Mochizuki and Kasuga. Where the cheapest houses in the city gather |
At the same elevations, the measured figures (Karuizawa 999 m, Tomi 958 m) give 16 to 18 days a year on which the temperature never rises above 0℃ — about four times the Saku plain. The morning cold is not very different from the plain (Karuizawa −8.2℃, Saku −7.2℃). What elevation changes is how far it climbs back by day, and there come days when settled snow and iced road surfaces do not melt through. For snow, Karuizawa’s normals give 141 cm of snowfall a year and a deepest cover of 35 cm | Prefectural route 482 (the Oki-Asadagiri line) closes for winter from 12:00 on 1 December to 12:00 on 15 April (6.0 km from Mochizuki Yuzawa to above the Mochizuki nature centre for young people). The Tateshina Skyline that follows it (a city forest road) closes for winter too, so in winter you cannot get through from Mochizuki towards Tateshina. Daily movement shifts to the valley side (towards the town of Mochizuki and Sakudaira) |
The snowfall that comes once a decade has actually happened here. In the heavy snow of February 2014, Saku City kept a disaster response headquarters open for 17 days and called in the Self-Defense Forces. The Umasaka and Hirokawara districts were cut off and lost power entirely, schools closed for three days, 1,083 disaster certificates were issued and the damage totalled ¥856,730,000. Karuizawa recorded a deepest snow cover of 99 cm at that time (the previous record was 71 cm, in 1931).
What you must fit is set by Nagano Prefecture’s rules. On snow-covered or frozen roads, anti-slip measures are compulsory, and breaking the rule carries a fine (¥6,000 for an ordinary car). None of the 13 national chain-control sections is near Saku City, but Route 141 at Narusawa and the Chubu-Odan Expressway are designated “preventive traffic-control sections in heavy snow”, closed in advance in heavy snow so that clearing can be concentrated. Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency normals and days by class (1991–2020) for Saku, Karuizawa and Tomi / Saku City plan for the sustainable development of depopulated areas (PDF) / Nagano Prefecture Saku Construction Office, winter road closures / Saku City, forest road traffic restrictions / Saku City snow clearing manual (the thresholds for going out) / Saku City, “Review report on the heavy snow disaster of February 2014” (PDF) / Nagano Prefecture, using the roads in winter (PDF) / Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, chain-control sections / checked 2026-08-13. Note that Saku has no snow observation (the Meteorological Agency, Nagano Prefecture and Saku City all agree on this). The snow figures use Karuizawa at 999 m, as the city’s own regional disaster plan does.
How cold is winter in Saku?
There is only one observation point in the city, the AMeDAS station “Saku” (at Nakagomi, 683 m), where the January daily low is −7.2℃. Its 2,146.9 hours of annual sunshine are more than Tokyo’s, and its 964.0 mm of annual rainfall are on the low side. Take Mochizuki and Kasuga, higher up, to be colder still.
CHAPTER 07Shops, hospitals, schools
Hospitals — the city has a critical care centre and an air ambulance
| Hospitals | Beds | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Saku General Hospital the Saku Medical Center Nakagomi 3400-28 | 450 beds | A critical care centre (one of seven in Nagano Prefecture, and the only one in the eastern part of the prefecture including Ueda and Komoro) / a regional disaster base hospital / a regional medical support hospital / a regional cancer care liaison hospital / a regional perinatal medical centre / designated for class 2 infectious diseases / the base hospital for the Shinshu air ambulance (rooftop helipad) |
| Saku General Hospital (the main hospital) Usuda 197 | 275 beds | Designated for emergencies / a base hospital for remote-area medicine / a dementia medical centre / a base hospital for higher brain dysfunction support. 36 psychiatric beds |
| Saku Municipal Asama General Hospital Iwamurada 1862-1 | 199 beds | Municipal. Paediatric emergencies at night and at weekends are handled here (see below). Dialysis |
| Kawanishi Red Cross Hospital Mochizuki 318 | 84 beds | Designated for emergencies. The place that takes inpatients for the Mochizuki district |
| Kurosawa Hospital / Kanazawa Hospital / Amemiya Hospital | 83, 82, 54 beds | All designated for emergencies |
For children at night and at weekends, it is the two centres at Asama General Hospital (Iwamurada). Weekday nights = the Saku regional weekday-night emergency clinic (reception 19:00–21:00, Monday to Friday. Always telephone before you go; 090-8589-7635, taking calls from 18:00). Sundays, public holidays and the New Year period = the holiday paediatric emergency clinic (reception 8:30–12:00; no need to call ahead; 0267-67-2295). If admission is needed, the Saku Medical Center (regional paediatric medical centre) and Asama General Hospital take patients. For telephone advice there is #8000 (the Nagano paediatric emergency line, extended to 24 hours at weekends, on public holidays and over the New Year from November 2025) and #7119. Sources: Nagano Prefecture, register of hospitals (as of 1 October 2025) / the same, list of critical care centres in the prefecture / the same, regional medical support hospitals / Saku Medical Center, hospital outline and the same, Shinshu air ambulance / Saku City, guidance on weekday nights and holidays / checked 2026-08-13
Schools — around Sakudaira Station there are so many children that the city is working out what to do
| Municipal primary schools | 14 schools (Iwamurada, Sakudaira-Asama, Hirane, Nakasato, Takase, Nozawa, Kishino, Nakagomi, Izumi, Saku-Shiroyama, Higashi, Usuda, Mochizuki and Asashina) |
|---|---|
| Municipal lower-secondary schools | 7 schools (Asama, Nozawa, Nakagomi, Higashi, Usuda, Asashina and Mochizuki) |
| The mergers so far | In April 2023 the four schools in the Usuda district (Taguchi, Aonuma, Kirihara and Usuda) were merged to open Usuda Elementary School |
| What is coming | The city is working out how to handle the sharp rise in population from the development around Sakudaira Station. If Sakudaira-Asama Elementary School looks set to have 30 classes or more for three years running, part of its catchment will be transferred to Iwamurada Elementary School. For Asama Junior High and Nakasato Elementary, “a decision is held over for now”. No year has been set for any of this |
| Upper secondary | There are 6 in the city. Prefectural: Sakudaira Sogo Gijutsu (agriculture and industry / general), Iwamurada (general), Nozawa-kita (general and science-mathematics) and Nozawa-minami (general / part-time). Private: Saku Chosei (general) and Chikyu Kankyo (correspondence). There is also the Mochizuki satellite school of Nagano Nishi High School (correspondence) Nozawa-kita and Nozawa-minami are to merge in the 2029 school year (on the Nozawa-kita site; the new name is being chosen) |
At the same time, four schools in the Usuda district were merged into one in 2023. In the same city, the area by the station is growing while the south and the west shrink — that is the reality of Saku City. Once you have settled on a district, it is worth checking with the city board of education which side of that its catchment falls on. Sources: Nagano Prefecture Board of Education, list of public elementary schools, the same, public junior high schools and the same, public high schools / Saku City, on the desirable future of elementary and junior high schools in the Asama district / Nagano Prefecture, high school reorganisation (Saku area) / checked 2026-08-13
Shopping — supermarkets in Sakudaira, Nakagomi, Usuda and Mochizuki
| Chain | Stores | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Tsuruya | 3 | Saku Chuo (Nakagomi) / Usuda / Nozawa |
| Seiyu | 3 | Iwamurada-Aioi / Saku-Nozawa / Mochizuki (Kyowa) |
| Delicia | 2 | Nakagomi / U-Pallet Usuda (with a Gyomu Super attached) |
| The Big | 2 | Kita-Nakagomi / Saku Inter Wave (Otai) |
| Aeon | 1 | Aeon Mall Sakudaira (south of Sakudaira Station) |
| Beisia | 1 | Sakudaira Mall (south of Sakudaira Station) |
| A-Coop | 1 | Farmers Sakudaira (Iwamurada) |
| Roadside stations | 2 | Hot Park Asashina / Healthy Terrace Sakuminami (a national “priority michi-no-eki”) |
What emergency care is there in Saku?
🔴 The city has a critical care centre and an air ambulance. Saku General Hospital’s Saku Medical Center (450 beds) is one of seven in Nagano Prefecture, and the only one in the east of the prefecture including Ueda and Komoro. It is also the base hospital for the Shinshu air ambulance (rooftop helipad).
CHAPTER 08What it costs you every year after you buy
If you own a house in Saku City, the water bill and the sewerage bill arrive separately. The water service is run not by the city but by the Saku Water Supply Enterprise, and sewerage by Saku City. The contacts and the payees are different, so it saves confusion to know this from the start.
| Water | For a 13 mm connection at 20 m³ a month, ¥3,685 a month including tax. A standing charge of ¥600 plus ¥100 per m³ for 1–10 m³ and ¥175 above 10 m³ (both before tax). Meters are read and bills issued every two months, so the bill that arrives is ¥7,370 for two months |
|---|---|
| Sewerage | At 20 m³ a month, ¥4,510 a month including tax. A base charge of ¥1,320 plus ¥132 for 1–5 m³, ¥154 for 6–10 m³ and ¥176 for 11–20 m³. This too comes every two months, at ¥9,020 |
| Water and sewerage together | ¥8,195 a month including tax. Every two months you receive ¥7,370 for water and ¥9,020 for sewerage |
| Sewer coverage | Public sewerage 79.4% plus rural community sewerage 5.2% plus septic tanks and community plants 14.6%, giving a wastewater treatment coverage of 99.3% (the Nagano average is 98.4%). Wastewater treatment reaches almost the whole city |
| Connecting to the sewer | Land the main has reached carries a one-off beneficiary charge. The amount varies greatly by district. The old Saku City and Usuda = in proportion to the land area, at ¥400 per m² (first charging zone) or ¥500 (second zone). For 300 m² that is ¥120,000–¥150,000 Asashina ¥400,000 / Mochizuki and Kasuga ¥600,000 / Fuse ¥600,000 / Fujimaki ¥650,000 as a flat sum (on the building owner) It falls due once connection becomes possible, whether or not you actually use the sewer. Car parks, empty plots and private roads are covered too. It is normally paid in 20 instalments over five years, with a discount for paying in one |
Commute to Tokyo from Sakudaira Station and ¥20,000 a month comes back
Saku City has a grant you will hardly find anywhere else. The city pays half the travel cost, up to ¥20,000 a month for 24 months, to people who commute by Shinkansen to a workplace in the Tokyo area. The 70 minutes to Tokyo and the city’s own scheme mesh squarely.
| Shinkansen commuting grant for remote workers and others | For those commuting on the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Sakudaira Station to a workplace in the Tokyo area (Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo and Kanagawa), half the travel cost, up to ¥20,000 a month for 24 months. Up to ¥480,000 in all. The conditions are moving into Saku City on or after 1 April 2024, being under 50 on the date of the move, and intending to settle for three years or more. The application for approval must be made within three months of moving in. It covers ordinary tickets, multi-ride tickets and discounted tickets plus the Shinkansen limited express ticket; season tickets are not covered |
|---|---|
| Relocation support grant | Saku City is an eligible municipality. ¥600,000 for a single person / ¥1,000,000 for a household of two or more / ¥1,000,000 more per household member under 18. On where you come from: “in the ten years before moving your residence registration, five years or more in total — and one continuous year immediately before — living and working in the Tokyo area, Aichi Prefecture or Osaka Prefecture”. On employment: taking a job through the matching site, being a professional-level recruit, teleworking 20 hours a week or more, or being a “related population”. Apply within one year of moving in; the preliminary interview is in person and the application form must be handed in at the counter (post is not accepted). Leave or give up the job within three years and the whole sum is repayable; between three and five years, half. |
| Subsidy towards staying while you look around | Half the cost of coming to Saku City to consider moving here comes back, for up to six days in total. Shinkansen tickets up to ¥10,000 per person per day (4 people, 6 days) / accommodation up to ¥4,000 per person per night (4 people, 5 nights) / motorway tolls up to ¥10,000 a day / hire car and taxi up to ¥3,000 a day each / temporary childcare up to ¥2,000 per child per day. Apply at least 5 working days in advance |
| Buying an older house: earthquake strengthening | For a detached wooden house of conventional construction built on or before 31 May 1981 (Showa 56) with an assessment score under 1.0, ¥1,150,000 for strengthening plus ¥300,000 for renovation done at the same time plus ¥500,000 from the prefecture — up to ¥1,950,000. For demolition, up to ¥978,000. From the 2026 financial year you can choose to have the grant paid direct to the contractor, so you need only pay your own share. There is a budget cap, so check what is left with the city before work begins |
| Solar panels and batteries | On an existing building, ¥30,000 per kW (up to ¥200,000); on a new build, ¥10,000 per kW (up to ¥100,000). A battery system brings ¥100,000. The budget for the 2026 financial year is ¥40,000,000 (ground-mounted and full feed-in systems are not covered) |
| Children’s medical costs | To the end of the school year in which a child turns 18, with no income limit. Under the Nagano system you pay ¥500 per claim per month at the desk (or less, if your own share comes to under ¥500). Expectant and new mothers are covered too, from the month the maternity handbook is issued to the end of the month after the birth |
| If you marry | Towards buying, renting, moving into or renovating a home: up to ¥600,000 for a couple who were 29 or under on their marriage date, or up to ¥300,000 if 39 or under. Their combined income must be under ¥5,000,000, and application is normally online |
What do water and sewerage cost in Saku?
🔴 The water bill and the sewerage bill arrive separately. Water comes not from the city but from the Saku Water Supply Enterprise, and sewerage from Saku City. For a 13 mm connection at 20 m³ a month it is ¥3,685 for water plus ¥4,510 for sewerage, both billed every two months.
CHAPTER 09What happens when you want to sell
There are 46 second-hand houses in Saku on SUUMO. Against a population of 96,360 that is one for every 2,095 people — a thin market. Little to choose from when you buy, and few rivals when you sell. Take it as that kind of market.
| What to look at | Saku City in practice |
|---|---|
| Depth of the market | SUUMO 46 plus the city’s vacant-home bank (39ijyu.com). One for every 2,095 people, thinner than neighbouring Ueda (one per 1,362) |
| Price band | ¥2,500,000–¥58,000,000, median ¥15,550,000. The district medians run ¥18,140,000 in Nakagomi against ¥4,800,000 in Usuda — 3.8 times |
| Land prices | Residential land averages ¥29,400/m², +0.9%, and commercial land ¥50,800/m², +0.3%. Both residential and commercial land are rising (the 2026 land price survey) |
| Compared with the neighbours | Karuizawa is at +12.1% (¥71,300/m²), 2.4 times the price of residential land in Saku. Ueda is at +0.4%, so Saku is rising faster |
| The pool of buyers | 96,360 people, with 32.4% aged 65 or over (§10). 70 minutes to Tokyo by Shinkansen, 37 trains a day is what holds this city’s buyers up |
Will the house I buy sell when I want to sell it?
With 46 on SUUMO, that is one for every 2,095 people — a thin market (neighbouring Ueda is one per 1,362). Little to choose from when you buy, and few rivals when you sell. Land prices are rising, residential at +0.9% and commercial at +0.3%.
CHAPTER 10Who lives here, and how many
| Census | Population | Rate of change | Households |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heisei 17 (2005) | 100,462 | +0.4% | 35,362 |
| Heisei 22 (2010) | 100,552 | +0.1% | 37,032 |
| Heisei 27 (2015) | 99,368 | −1.2% | 38,487 |
| Reiwa 2 (2020) | 98,199 | −1.2% | 39,924 |
| Reiwa 7 (2025) preliminary | 97,070 | −1.1% | 41,883 |
The population peaked at 100,552 in 2010, and the provisional 2025 figure is 97,070 — 3,482 fewer (−3.5%) in fifteen years. Households have risen throughout that time (35,362 → 41,883), so what is really happening is that people per household keep falling from 2.84.
The Mochizuki area, though, is designated a “depopulated area”. It covers 128.64 km² in the west of the city, on the northern foot of Mount Tateshina. Even while the city as a whole was growing from 1975 to 2010, the Mochizuki area’s population fell for more than sixty years, from 1960 to 2020. The city covers it in its plan for the sustainable development of depopulated areas (2026–2030). This is where the cheapest houses in the city gather, so it is worth holding on to as the reason for the price. Sources: Nagano Prefecture, monthly population movement survey (as of 1 July 2026) / the same, population by municipality and three age bands (as of 1 April 2026) / the same, provisional results of the 2025 census / Population Strategy Council, 2024 analysis report on the “sustainability” of local authorities (PDF) (Saku City = D-③) / Saku City plan for the sustainable development of depopulated areas (2026–2030, PDF) / checked 2026-08-13
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 97,047 people living in Saku City, 1,659 are foreign residents. That is below the national average (3.26%).
Nationwide, foreign residents make up 3.26% of the population (4,031,159 out of 123,767,642).
There are 34 municipalities in Japan where the share passes 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 the population of Saku falling?
There are 96,360 people (1 July 2026), and in the census it has fallen gently, by 1-point-something per cent, from 100,552 in 2010 to a provisional 97,070 in 2025. The share aged 65 or over is 32.4%, and it is not a “municipality at risk of disappearing”.
CHAPTER 11Community life and the year's events
Community life in Saku is also a different thing in the new housing around Sakudaira and in the former towns and villages. Twenty years have passed since the merger, but Mochizuki, Usuda and Asashina each keep a community of their own.
| Where you live | What community life involves |
|---|---|
| Sakudaira, Iwamurada | New housing has spread around the Shinkansen station here. Mostly a turn on the bin duty and the circulating notice board, and many people have moved in from elsewhere |
| Nakagomi, Usuda | The older town. The shrine festival and the shopping-street events come into it |
| Mochizuki, Kasuga | The upland part of the former town of Mochizuki, where community life is closest. Only 7 houses on the market also means few households, so the duties come round to you more often |
What comes round every year
Winter in Saku brings a January daily low of −7.2℃ — 8.4℃ below Tokyo (§6). That is lower still than Ueda (−5.0℃), and on the cold side even among the areas covered on this site. Winter tyres in November and lagging the water pipes are essential, and Mochizuki and Kasuga, reaching 893 m, get winter earlier again. The city is also one of the seven municipalities designated a volcanic disaster alert area for Mount Asama (§5).
Sources: the city’s desk fromSaku City relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops information site / temperatures as in §6, and the Mount Asama designation as in §5 / the number of properties from the 46 SUUMO listings / checked 2026-08-18Is community life demanding in Saku?
It is a different thing in the new housing around Sakudaira and in the former towns and villages. In Sakudaira and Iwamurada it is mostly the bin duty and the circulating notice board; in Nakagomi and Usuda the shrine festival and the shopping-street events; and in Mochizuki and Kasuga it is closest of all — only 7 houses on the market also means few households, so the duties come round to you more often.
CHAPTER 12Things nearby that move land prices
What bears on land in Saku is three things: the distance to Karuizawa, Mount Asama and elevation.
① A 2.4th of Karuizawa’s price
| Municipality | Average, residential land | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| Karuizawa Town | ¥71,300/m² | ＋12.1% |
| Nagano City | ¥53,400/m² | ＋1.0% |
| Ueda City | ¥38,600/m² | ＋0.4% |
| Saku City | ¥29,400/m² | ＋0.9% |
Saku is the cheapest of Nagano’s main cities, and yet rising faster than Ueda. It has 70 minutes to Tokyo by Shinkansen and one stop to Karuizawa, and residential land at a 2.4th of Karuizawa’s. It takes in the demand from people who cannot manage Karuizawa but want to live on the same Shinkansen line — that is how the figures read.
② Mount Asama
Saku City is one of the seven municipalities designated a volcanic disaster alert area for Mount Asama. The eruption alert level was lowered from 2 to 1 on 22 May 2026 (§5), but the designation itself stands. It shares the same mountain as Karuizawa and Miyota, which means that the reason Karuizawa is dear and Saku is cheap is not a difference in volcanic risk.
③ Elevation, and the landslide warning zones
The listings lie between 626 and 1,009 metres. A difference of 380 metres inside one city, and that translates directly into the length of winter. Saku City also has 795 landslide warning zones (yellow) and 685 special warning zones (red) (§5). The number of zones is the other side of the city’s size (423.51 km², the 8th largest in Nagano) and how much of it is mountain, and the cheaper a property, the likelier it is to lie inside one. Always check against the exact address.
Sources: land prices fromNagano Prefecture, "Reiwa 8 official land prices: table of average prices and rates of change by municipality and land use"(published 18 March 2026) / Mount Asama and the landslide warning zones as in §5, elevations from the property locations in §4 / checked 2026-08-18What sets land prices in Saku?
The distance to Karuizawa. With 70 minutes to Tokyo by Shinkansen and one stop to Karuizawa, residential land at ¥29,400/m² is a 2.4th of Karuizawa’s (¥71,300/m²). It reads as taking in the demand from people who cannot manage Karuizawa but want to live on the same Shinkansen line.
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.
405th of the 1,788 municipalities in Japan, and 11th within Nagano Prefecture
What this town names as its own products
What Saku City lists as its “souvenirs and local produce” are Saku carp, Shinshu soba, local sake, miso, fruit and Yajima freeze-dried tofu.
Source:Saku City, “Souvenirs and local produce”／the same, “Local production for local consumption, and local produce” (Saku kota cucumbers; the wine special zone)/ 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 Saku live on?
Hometown-tax donations came to ¥821,200,000 across 24,898 donations in the 2025 financial year, 405th of the 1,788 municipalities in Japan and 11th within Nagano Prefecture.
CHAPTER 14A message from Saku City
How the receiving side sees it. Saku City runs “relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops” as a single site. Not separating living from working is what marks this city’s desk out.
| What is on offer | Detail |
|---|---|
| Akiya bank | A property list, how the process works, and how to register a property. You can filter by district, price, build year, layout and special conditions (a fine view / moving alone / with farmland / teleworking / for families with children, and others) (§4) |
| Looking for a vacant shop | Separately from housing there is a list of vacant shops, and even a vacant-shop grant. Having a separate way in for people who want to open a shop is unusual |
| Looking for work | On the same site |
| Interviews with people who have moved | The city carries the accounts of people who have actually moved here |
| Relocation support and events | The schemes and the events are gathered together |
| Where to ask | Saku City, Planning Department, Migration and Exchange Promotion Division (0267-62-4139). Weekdays 9:00 to 17:00 |
Saku City relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops information site →
Source:Saku City relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops information site, its published content and the contact details given on that site / checked 2026-08-18Does Saku welcome people moving in?
The city runs “relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops” as a single site, and what marks it out is not separating living from working. The vacant-home bank can be filtered by conditions such as a fine view, moving alone, with farmland or teleworking, and there is a separate list of vacant shops with a grant to go with it.
CHAPTER 15The year in Saku
The temperatures, and what they mean day to day. What decides the Saku year is the cold of winter. The January daily low is −7.2℃, 8.4℃ below Tokyo — on the cold side even among the areas covered on this site. Take Mochizuki and Kasuga, reaching 893 metres, to be colder still.
| Month | Saku that month |
|---|---|
| month 1 | The floor of the year. A mean daily low of −7.2℃. Without lagging on the pipes, no water comes in the morning |
| month 2 | The cold holds. Iced road surfaces are routine, and a property on a slope tells here |
| month 3 | Mornings are still below freezing. Higher up in Mochizuki and Kasuga it is still winter |
| month 4 | It eases at last. The cherry blossom climbs in order of elevation, from Nakagomi and Iwamurada up to Mochizuki |
| month 5 | The most comfortable time of year. Planting begins on the upland vegetable fields |
| month 6 | The rainy season. 795 landslide warning zones and 685 special warning zones — this is the month to check the slope behind a property on the map (§5) |
| month 7 | Summer. The August daily high is 30.1℃, 1.2℃ below Tokyo — not what you would call cool |
| month 8 | The hottest month. Even so, at around 700 metres the temperature does fall at night |
| month 9 | Mornings and evenings turn cold abruptly. The typhoon season |
| month 10 | Autumn colours. This is also when Mount Asama looks its finest |
| month 11 | Winter tyres, and lagging the water pipes. In Saku, get both done during November |
| month 12 | The doorway to winter. Mochizuki and Kasuga get there before the town does |
What is a year of living in Saku like?
The cold of winter decides the year. The January daily low is −7.2℃, 8.4℃ below Tokyo, and without lagging on the water pipes, no water comes in the morning. In February iced road surfaces are routine, and a property on a slope tells here.
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 Saku City publishes itself. 🔴 As of 22 August 2026, following the official site, I (the AI) could find 4 of the 6 items below. The mayor of Saku is Yanagida Seiji (confirmed on the city’s own page).
| What is published | Published | What you can read |
|---|---|---|
| About the mayor | The mayor’s room | Name, career, greeting |
| Policy address | Could not find one | What they say they will do this year |
| List of council members | The assembly members | Who the members are, and their groupings |
| Council broadcasts and recordings | Live coverage of the assembly | Whether you can watch the council in session |
| Searchable minutes | Could not find one | 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.Saku 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 Saku City now?
The mayor of Saku is Yanagida Seiji (confirmed on the city’s own page on 22 August 2026). What this site looks for is six things: a profile of the head of the municipality, a policy statement, a list of assembly members, live coverage of the assembly, a search of the minutes, and a comprehensive plan. 🔴 We make no judgement of good or bad. Only whether something is published or not.
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 in Saku and the places family and friends can stay when they visit. This is a city with Myogi-Arafune-Saku Kogen Quasi-National Park and Yatsugatake-Chushin Kogen Quasi-National Park. It currently has 5 hot spring and day bath facilities and 2 roadside stations. 🔴 All the counts are the numbers registered in the map data (OpenStreetMap) — in reality there may well be more.
| What | Number counted, and names |
|---|---|
| ⛰ National and quasi-national parks | Myogi-Arafune-Saku Kogen Quasi-National Park and Yatsugatake-Chushin Kogen Quasi-National Park |
| ♨ Hot springs and day baths | Mochizuki Onsen; Midori-no-mura, Fuse Onsen, Asashina Onsen and Hirao Onsen Miharashi-no-yu, 5 facilities in all |
| 🏯 Castles and castle sites | The site of Oi Castle |
| 🎡 Amusement parks, zoos and aquariums | Not found in the map data |
| 🖼 Museums, galleries and memorial halls | The Saku City Mochizuki History and Folklore Museum, the Saku City Tenrai Memorial Hall, the Kawamura Gozo Memorial Hall, the Gorobei Memorial Hall, the Saku City Children’s Future Centre, the Saku City Insect Study Centre and the Kamakura-bori Memorial Hall (7 museums) |
| ⛩ Shrines and temples | 26 shrines and 23 temples. Those with a Wikipedia entry are Shinkai Sansha Shrine, Banshoin, Hanazura Inari Shrine, Daijingu Shrine, Ryuunji, Enmanji and Anyoji |
| 🚗 Roadside stations | Hot Park Asashina and Healthy Terrace Sakuminami (2 stations) |
| 🐕 Dog runs | 2 (no names registered in the map data) |
| 🛣 Expressway service and parking areas | Sakudaira PA (inbound) / Sakudaira PA (outbound) |
Somewhere to stay — for family and friends, and for your own travels
| What | Number counted |
|---|---|
| 🏨 Hotels and ryokan | 11 |
| 🏠 Guesthouses and hostels | 8 |
| ⛺ Campsites and auto-campsites | Arafune Panorama Camp Field |
| 🏕 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 city with Myogi-Arafune-Saku Kogen Quasi-National Park and Yatsugatake-Chushin Kogen Quasi-National Park. Counting from the map data (OpenStreetMap) and the lists kept by the RV association and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, we found 5 hot spring and day bath facilities, 2 roadside stations, 11 hotels and inns and 1 campsite. Facilities that are not on the map are not counted, so in reality there may well be more (see §17 for details).
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, scored out of 100, to measure how quickly someone thinking of moving can reach the information they need. We measured Saku City’s official site, and the total came to 63 (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 | 9 / 20 | Has a relocation and settlement page, has a dedicated relocation site, has an enquiry desk (department, telephone, opening hours), and 1 more |
| Housing | 9 / 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 | 3 / 15 | Water and sewerage charges can be read from a quick-reference table; national health insurance tax and property tax are explained |
| 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 | 8 / 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 | 8 / 10 | There is a community bus timetable; fares are stated; the date of the last revision is given |
| Can an AI read it? | 6 / 10 | Every page carries an updated date; statistics are published as Excel or CSV; open data is published |
See all 30 items and the pages used to judge them
3 / 3 There is a relocation and settlement pageRelocation advice Go and see → 3 / 3 There is a dedicated relocation site
Preview | Saku City relocation, vacant homes and vacant shops information site Go and see → 2 / 3 A contact point (department, telephone, opening hours)
2 of the department, phone number and opening hours were given Go and see → 1 / 5 Support schemes state amounts and conditions
A guide to the scheme only Go and see → 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
Akiya bank Go and see → 1 / 4 Listings carry photographs, price, year built and floor area
0 of 34 (0%) had all four items Go and see → 4 / 4 Completed deals are organised
No completed deals appear in the list Go and see → 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 → 0 / 5 Child-raising support is specific about amounts and scope
Not found Go and see → 2 / 3 There are explanations of national health insurance tax and fixed asset tax
Either the rate or the amount is 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
190 documents by district 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
Prepared and published in March 2020 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
6 items (the city's official site) Go and see → 1 / 3 Hometown tax results are published year by year
1 fiscal year is recorded 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 → 3 / 3 Fares are stated
Go and see → 3 / 3 The date of the last revision is given
Stops reviewed in March 2022 Go and see → 3 / 3 Every page carries an updated date
19 of the 20 pages read Go and see → 0 / 2 There is a sitemap.xml
Not found 0 / 2 Site search runs on the server side
We could not find a search form Go and see → 2 / 2 Statistics are published as Excel or CSV
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.
Areas in the Chubu region
AtamiAtami City, Shizuokalistings180 listings / ¥2,300,000–Kaga (the Kaga hot spring villages and the Hokuriku Shinkansen)Kaga City, Ishikawalistings38 listings / ¥2,800,000–Fukui (Ichijodani and the Asuwa River, the Hokuriku Shinkansen)Fukui City, Fukuilistings145 listings / ¥2,200,000–Gifu (26 min to Nagoya, Mt. Kinka and the Nagara River)Gifu City, Gifulistings339 listings / ¥1,980,000–Places you could look at for a similar price
Amagasaki (6 min from JR Amagasaki to Osaka, 19 to Sannomiya)Amagasaki City, Hyogolistings451 listings / ¥2,500,000–Hiki District (7 towns)Namegawa, Ranzan, Ogawa and others, Saitamalistings168 listings / ¥2,500,000–Maebashi (the southern foot of Mt. Akagi)Maebashi City, Gunmalistings576 listings / ¥2,500,000–Mito (1 hr 18 min to Ueno by limited express; the city of Kairakuen and Lake Senba)Mito City, Ibarakilistings259 listings / ¥2,500,000–Is there a mistake on this page?
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