Naganuma 長沼町

• Naganuma (長沼, "long marsh"): Near today's Nishi 1-sen Kita 15-banchi there was once a marsh called Tanne-tō (タンネトー) in Ainu. The name means "long, narrow lake", and its Japanese translation became the town's name⁶.
• Maoi (馬追): The name used for the eastern hills, the canal and many local businesses comes from the Ainu mau-o-i (マウ・オ・イ), "place where there are rose-hips (hamanasu fruit)"¹⁶. The kanji 馬追 ("horse-driving") only represent the sounds.
• Chōkan-yama (長官山): This peak in the Maoi Hills is named after Watanabe Chiaki (渡辺千秋), the third Director of the Hokkaido Government Office, who climbed it to inspect the area¹⁷.
• The sources consulted give no competing theory for Tanne-tō.

• Prehistory: Pottery from sites in the town shows people lived here long before settlement. Finds include a late-Jōmon ring-shaped vessel coloured with cinnabar (水銀朱) from the 12-ku B site, and final-Jōmon jars influenced by the Tōhoku Kamegaoka culture from the Horonai-Nishimura and 17-ku G sites. The 17-ku G jar is about 2,000 years old¹⁸.
• 1871: The town's official chronology begins with 36 households of Mizusawa-domain (Iwate) retainers and other migrants leaving as settlers recruited by the Hokkaido Development Commission (開拓使)³.
• May 1887 – founding: The "first hoe-men" Yoshikawa Tetsunosuke (吉川鉄之助) and Watanabe Denji (渡辺伝二) travelled via Chitose, Mikawa and Yuni and settled on the Maoi Plain beside the Yubari River³. Yoshikawa came from Mizusawa, which is why Naganuma later chose it as a sister city¹⁷. Settlers from Himi in Toyama Prefecture brought the town's lion dance with them¹⁸.
• 1892–1911: Naganuma Village opened on 4 February 1892. A great flood struck in 1898. The village adopted the second-class village system in 1902 and the first-class system in 1907. Its population passed 10,000 in 1911³.
• Floods and rice (1910s–1940s): The Yubari and Chitose rivers flooded again and again. In 1922 a ferry capsized in a Yubari River flood and eight people drowned¹⁹. Irrigation works created 1,840 chō of new paddy by 1929²⁰. The New Yubari River diversion (新夕張川) opened in 1936. Rice output passed 100,000 koku in 1938, and paddy reached 6,000 chō in 1940²¹.
• Railway: The Yubari Railway reached the town in November 1930, and a new northern town district grew around Naganuma Station²⁰. Passenger service on the Nopporo–Kuriyama section, which ran through Naganuma, was suspended on 1 April 1974. The line closed completely on 1 April 1975²².
• Post-war: In 1948 Naganuma ranked first in Japan for rice delivered to the government⁴. It became a town on 1 January 1952⁴. The Hokkaido Central Agricultural Experiment Station building was completed here in 1966, and the 1967 rice crop of more than 600,000 bales was the biggest in the town's history²³.
• The Nike base and lawsuit: On 31 May 1968 the Defense Agency announced it would deploy Nike surface-to-air missiles on Mt. Maoi²³. In July 1969 the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry lifted a protected-forest designation to make way for the base. On 7 September 1973 Judge Fukushima Shigeo of the Sapporo District Court ruled the Self-Defense Forces unconstitutional under Article 9. The Sapporo High Court reversed that ruling in 1976, and the Supreme Court dismissed the case on standing in 1982¹⁵. A JASDF air-defense unit of about 200 people moved to Maoidai in December 1971²³, and Patriot missiles followed in 1994¹⁷.
• Onsen: Drilling after surveys that began in 1983 hit a self-flowing hot spring at 1,500 m. It was designated a National Health Resort Hot Spring in 1988⁵.
• 1971 onward – decline and revitalization: Naganuma was designated a depopulated municipality in 1971²³. The Michi-no-Eki was registered in 1996²⁴, and the Maizuru Retarding Basin was completed in 2015¹⁴. In April 2020 five elementary schools merged into a single Naganuma Elementary School, and on 24 May 2020 a tancho chick was confirmed at the Maizuru basin²⁵. Since April 2021, Camel Maoi Co. (株式会社キャメルマオイ) has managed both the Michi-no-Eki and Naganuma Onsen²⁶. Former pro pitcher Saito Yuki built a youth baseball ground, Harappa Stadium, in Maizuru Sports Park; it pre-opened on 5 May 2025²⁷. The population fell from 13,797 in 1975 to 10,289 in 2020, and the 2025 Census preliminary count was 9,479¹.

• Landforms: About 80% of the town, the western part, is flat plain around 10 m above sea level. The other 20%, to the east, is the Maoi range (馬追山系), with a highest point of 294.2 m according to the town's hot-spring plan⁵. Wikipedia gives 287.1 m as the highest point of the whole Maoi Hills¹⁶. Those hills run about 50 km south from eastern Naganuma to north-western Atsuma¹⁶. On clear days the Sea of Japan is visible from the top of Mt. Maoi⁵.
• Land use: Rice paddies cover 54% of the town. Upland fields and forest each cover 10%, and ponds and marshes about 2% (as of 1 January 2026)¹.
• Rivers: The Yubari River and the old Yubari River (旧夕張川) form the north-western boundary, and the Chitose River forms the southern one⁵. The Maoi Canal (馬追運河) and its pumping station, one of the inland-drainage works that were nearly finished by 1969, protect the low paddies²³¹⁷. The Maizuru Retarding Basin (舞鶴遊水地), a flood-control basin completed in 2015, has become a wetland habitat for cranes¹⁴.
• Nature: Wikipedia lists 25 orchid species and 202 bird species for the Maoi Hills. Todo fir, Mongolian oak and Japanese bigleaf magnolia grow on Chōkan-yama¹⁶.
• Climate (Naganuma AMeDAS, 1991–2020 normals): The annual mean is 7.5 °C. The average January low is −11.7 °C and the average August high is 25.5 °C. Annual precipitation is 1,003.9 mm, with 1,647.7 hours of sunshine²⁸. The record low is −28.7 °C (17 February 1978) and the record high is 36.3 °C (12 August 2024)²⁹. This station does not measure snow depth²⁸.

• Agriculture: Farming is the core of the economy. In 2020, 1,658 of the 5,252 employed residents (about 32%) worked in primary industry¹.
  • The 2025 Agricultural Census counted 547 farm households. The 484 commercial farms worked 9,352 ha, an average of 19.32 ha each, up from 13.16 ha in 2010⁹.
  • Main crops in 2025 were wheat (3,500 ha), soybeans (1,960 ha) and rice (1,610 ha). In 2024 the town also grew onions (281 ha), potatoes (94 ha) and long green onions (27 ha). Rice shipments were 8,590 t in FY2025⁹.
  • Livestock in 2020 included 698 dairy cattle, 2,021 beef cattle and 4,665 pigs⁹.
  • The town's 2017 hot-spring plan said Naganuma led Japan in soybean shipments, though few people knew it because Hokkaido soybeans are usually linked with Tokachi⁵. Current rankings could not be confirmed.
• Research and industry: Wikipedia lists the Hokkaido Central Agricultural Experiment Station, a DHC factory, the Hokuren Agricultural Research Institute, a Takii Seed research farm, a Snow Brand Seed research farm, and the meat processors MAOI, Naganuma Jingisukan and Kanehiro¹⁷. In 2020 the town had 11 manufacturers with four or more employees. Together they employed 215 people and shipped about ¥3.10 billion of goods⁹.
• Tourism: The town counted 2,088,973 visitors in FY2025 (Reiwa 7). That is below the FY2024 peak of 2,187,128 but more than double the 975,104 recorded in FY2020⁹. Green tourism covers 88 registered host farms. In FY2025 they hosted 303 guests from seven school and other groups on overnight farm stays⁹.
• Demographics: About 39% of residents were 65 or older in the 2020 Census (calculated from the town's age-group table)¹. Revitalization work includes crane-themed children's exchange tours run with Tsurui and Bibai³⁰, the Michi-no-Eki hotel³¹ and new wine ventures³².

• Performing arts: The Naganuma Isami Shishimai lion dance (長沼町勇獅子舞) has been a town-designated intangible cultural property since 1992. Two settlers from Kuzuba and Furezaka in Himi, Toyama, brought it here¹⁸. Other preserved folk arts are the Naganuma Hyakunen Taiko drums (長沼百年太鼓) and a rice-planting song dance (田植歌おどり)⁴³.
• Shrine: Naganuma Shrine (長沼神社) began as a small hall in the town centre in 1900. It moved to its present site in 1913 with a spirit divided from Sapporo Shrine, and its shinmei-style hall dates from 1937⁴⁴. The grounds cover 4,480 tsubo, with a 200 m approach through natural forest⁴⁵.
• Literature: Tsujimura Motoko's novel Maoi Genya (馬追原野, 1942) tells the story of the pioneer era. It won the first and only Higuchi Ichiyō Prize in 1944⁴⁶. A literary monument stands at the Bungakudai lookout⁴⁷.
• Local history: The town runs an online Digital Local History Museum (長沼町デジタル郷土資料館) with maps of monuments and archaeological sites⁴⁸.

The town has few documented Ainu sites or traditions. Its Ainu legacy survives mainly in place names. Tanne-tō ("long lake") gave Naganuma its name⁶, and mau-o-i ("place of rose-hips") gave the Maoi Hills theirs¹⁶. The crane-watching station at the Maizuru Retarding Basin is called Maoitō (マオイトー)⁴⁹. The town notes that its marshes and wetlands were once crane breeding grounds, and that the cranes vanished during Meiji-era development and hunting¹⁴. The sources consulted did not document any kotan (village) sites or an Ainu cultural facility in the town. The nearest major facility is Upopoy (National Ainu Museum and Park) in Shiraoi.

• Ōshū, Iwate Prefecture (奥州市; formerly Mizusawa, 水沢市): Sister city since 9 May 1973, chosen because founder Yoshikawa Tetsunosuke was born there²³¹⁷.
• Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture (須賀川市): Friendship agreement signed 28 August 1997 with the former Naganuma Town (長沼町) of Fukushima, chosen because it shared the town's name. That town is now part of Sukagawa¹⁷.

• Noro Eitarō (野呂栄太郎, 1900–1934): Born and raised in Naganuma. A Marxist economist, he edited the series Nihon Shihonshugi Hattatsu-shi Kōza (日本資本主義発達史講座) and led the Japanese Communist Party before dying in police custody⁶⁴.