| Japan's Long-Distance Nature Trail System |
| – By Wataru Suzuki and Yuki Mori, Biodiversity Policy Division, Nature Conservation Bureau, Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Tokyo |
Japan’s 16,286 mile Long-Distance Nature Trail System is designed by the Ministry of the Environment to encourage people to experience natural and historic sites on foot – including national parks, prefectural parks, temples, and shrines. The trails also offer opportunities to improve and maintain health by walking. Therefore, safety is an important aspect of designing the trails. The overall goal of the establishment of the trail system is to raise public awareness of the importance of conservation through peoples’ experience exploring these trails.
The development of this national trail system reached an important milestone in August 2003, when the plan for the Hokkaido Nature Trail was approved. Hokkaido’s 2,850-mile trail system is the largest in any one Japanese prefecture (the equivalent to a state in the U.S.). Japan’s national system of trails was started in 1970 and today consists of nine trails, or sub-systems, which cover Japan like a net, connecting 46 out of 47 prefectures (except for Okinawa which is an isolated island and not big enough to form an independent long-distance trail system).
The plan of the route for each of Japan’s sub-system trails is designated by the Minister of the Environment because they cross beyond jurisdictions of local governments. However, they are each constructed and maintained by the individual prefectures and municipalities (similar to states and counties in the U.S.). The Ministry of the Environment has a subsidy program called “Nature Trail Construction Program” for local governments, by which the Ministry encourages certain methods of trail construction and maintenance better suited to nature trails in vulnerable mountain ecosystems and rural landscapes. This subsidy program covers up to half of the initial cost of construction of trail structures and related facilities such as toilets, parking lots, and huts.
Origins
Japan has a centuries-long history of a walking path network that connected many places to Edo (today’s Tokyo), the nation’s capital. Most of these kaidos (main pathways) have become highways and railways by now. Scenic beauty along these routes depicted in the prints made by the Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai in the 1800s, known as the “53 Stations of the Tokaido Road” (Tokaido Gojusan-Tsugi) can still be seen today. Japan’s long-distance trail system is intended to provide opportunities for people to walk across the country and rediscover its scenic places.
The Trail System’s basic concept was first established when the Tokai Prefecture Nature Trail plan was discussed in the late 1960s. Several issues influenced this plan. Japan’s first bullet train, the Tokaido Shinkansen, began service in 1964. Japan was undergoing drastic economic growth which caused increasing and strong demand by city dwellers for recreational opportunities. People were getting wealthier, and population densities in growing urban areas were expanding from coastal lowlands up into forested hillsides and mountains. Establishment by the U.S. Congress of the U.S. National Trails System featuring the Appalachian Trail raised public interest in Japan for establishing national trails connecting Japan’s premier natural and cultural settings. The nature trails and a series of natural parks were expected to act as barriers to urban sprawl. However, most of the trails went through mountainous areas on remote, hard-to-access routes.
In 1969, the Japanese Ministry of Welfare (the Ministry of the Environment was not established until 1971) announced the Tokai Trail plan as the first attempt to establish a long-distance trail system in Japan. The Tokai Trail connects Tokyo to Osaka and was welcomed by the general public. The Tokai Trail was soon followed by prefectural trail systems in Kyushu, Shikoku, Shutoken, Tohoku, Chubu-Hokuriku, and Kinki. The design concept evolved as the trail system developed.
The idea of Japan’s Long-Distance Trail System was developed at the National Park Department of the Ministry of Welfare, which is now in the Ministry of the Environment. Human health and exercise were stressed at the beginning of this System because the Ministry’s overall goal was to maintain of the health of the Nation’s population.
The Trail System Today
Each sub-system has a committee for the maintenance and promotion of the trail, and all of the committees have their symbolic marks to identify their trails. As the committees are formed by prefectures, the key stakeholders would be decision makers of prefectures and local governments, and of course, local residents and users. It is also important that the nationwide user group, Japan Walkers Association, as well as local user groups, is taking initiative to promote the proper use of the long-distance trails. Most of the users of the trail system are middle-aged and elderly people. Baby Boomer retirements will enhance this trend further.
Use of the trails has grown from 45 million in 2000 to over 60 million in 2004. The use of the trails is promoted by the Ministry, the prefectural governments, local communities, and nonprofit groups, such as the Japan Walking Association. However, trail use is concentrated on certain popular sections; walking the entire system is not common.
Most trail maintenance work is done by local governments. They consider the trails as major visitor attractions for the public enjoyment of local cultural and natural resources. Thus the maintenance costs are usually borne by prefectural tourism divisions within the budget for promotion of tourism. However, in some sections of the trails, where most users are required to be prepared for extreme weather and mountaineering, the maintenance costs are expensive, making it difficult on the tourism budgets. In that case, funding is usually covered by the nature conservation account (usually very limited).
The recent boom of walking has considerably increased the number of visitors and makes some popular parts of the trails much more heavily used than before. At the same time, the number of accidents and injuries has been increasing. The numbers of visitors from Korea and other Asian countries has been increasing considerably. To ensure the safety of these visitors, trail managers urgently need to install and improve signs and maps with multilingual descriptions. Over the medium to long-term, however, the trend in the number of hikers is expected to decrease gradually.
Challenges for the Future
With the Hokkaido trails in place by 2012, we are now on the last stage of completion of our National Trail System. Although the system is not quite fully established, we are facing quite a few challenges already. It has been almost 40 years since the first designation of the Tokai Trail in 1970. Over that period, most of the trail- related structures have been deteriorating.
Trail structures, especially trail bed (treadway prism), steps, and signs are damaged by heavy use, water runoff, and weathering. The maintenance and renewal of the trails are getting more important. The subsidy program covers the cost of replacement and construction of structures, but not the cost of ongoing maintenance. However, ensuring the safety of trail users is an urgent requirement for trail managers. In August, 2003, a 20-foot long branch from an old growth Japanese beech tree fell 30 feet and hit a woman walking on the Oirase Nature Trail, one of the most popular trails in Towada-Hachimantai National Park in Aomori prefecture. (The trail is also designated as a part of Tohoku Long-Distance Trail.) She was severely injured and has been paralyzed on one side.
The National Long-Distance Trail plan is also getting “old” and needs updating. Japanese society is aging – most of the users are retired people who prefer flat trails. Although newly planned trails, such as Tohoku and Hokkaido Trail routes, are set on easy and flat ground, most of the existing previously planned trails contain long and remote routes on mountain ridges and steep hills. There is a strong demand by those aged users for easier, flatter “byways”.
Volunteerism could be one of the key elements to restore this trail system. Maintenance and modification of the 16,000 mile network can no longer be done just by the Ministry and local governments. As we face these challenges, we are interested and inspired by the active roles of volunteers in the operations of U.S. national trails such as the Appalachian Trail. In order to revitalize Japan’s national trail system, we would like to learn more about such efforts from the nonprofit volunteer-based trail organizations who are committed to sustaining America’s national trails.
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