今井村長（Mayor Imai）

Higashi Shirakawa Village, located in the eastern part of Gifu Prefecture, is a village with a population of just under 2,000, with 90% of the village area covered by forests. It is a typical mountainous area, and depopulation is also progressing.
Mayor Imai Toshiro said, “The biggest issue is population decline. The number of vacant houses is also increasing. We once had a population of 3,000 and provided various administrative services, but now the population has decreased by about 1,000. A population decrease of 1,000 is a big deal for a municipality of our size. In this situation, how can we create a village where people can live safely and securely? To that end, the Sixth Comprehensive Plan promotes municipal digital transformation. We are working to improve convenience for residents, with the goal of using digital technology to make administrative work more efficient and productive.”
The village plans to use digital transformation to make up for the labor shortage while making core municipal work such as welfare, medical care, and education sustainable, and to provide administrative services appropriate to the aging environment with a population of 2,000.
Higashi Shirakawa’s strength is that it has an established optical broadband infrastructure. It will use this infrastructure to develop digital transformation.
Nobukazu Imai, head of the regional development division, explains, “We are promoting relocation and settlement policies, including measures to deal with vacant houses, but we are seeing an increase in corporate people, such as web designers who work remotely, who are attracted by the environment where they can easily use 1 gigabit/second optical fiber services. Recently, we have also seen cases of YouTubers settling here. The optical fiber broadband infrastructure is an asset to Higashi Shirakawa Village.”

Mayor Imai says, “Because we have an optical fiber broadband infrastructure, we can smoothly implement remote medical treatments, electronic medical records, and link with large hospitals. In the future, as the aging population progresses and the shortage of doctors becomes more apparent, this kind of digital transformation will become necessary.”

However, he also says, “It costs a lot of money to build a system, and in some cases it is not suitable for a municipality of our size. In a village of this size, it is cheaper and faster to use Excel or other programs rather than introducing a system. It may be better for the national government to create a system and then customize it for each municipality.”

The main industry of Higashi Shirakawa Village is agriculture. They produce livestock, green tea, rice, and horticultural crops.
As for livestock, the area is a major source of income because it is a production area for Hida beef. It is also a hidden rice-producing area, and has won top prizes in the Rice Taste Analysis and Appraisal Contest. Taking advantage of the temperature difference in the mountainous area and the clean water, they produce some of the best quality rice in the country, but because it is a mountainous area, the cultivated area is small. Currently, it is about 70 hectares. As a result, they can only produce rice for a few thousand people, and they do not focus on general sales. They only use it as a return gift for hometown tax donations.

Shirakawa tea is famous for its tea. However, the industry is in a critical situation.

Section chief Imai folds his arms and says, “One of the reasons for this is that more people are drinking tea from plastic bottles and fewer people are drinking it from a teapot. Shirakawa tea is made from high-quality tea leaves and is really delicious when drunk, but it is being pushed out by bottled tea and is being devastated.”

Currently, they are focusing on developing application recipes, such as using tea as an ingredient in pudding.
As the village is surrounded by mountains, forestry was once a thriving industry. The economy was booming when cedar and cypress were traded at high prices, but the prices of these trees have fallen and the economy is currently sluggish.
“That’s why we are now focusing on businesses that utilize forests,” says Imai.
Specifically, they offer a service called “forenta,” which rents forest land for camping enthusiasts on an annual contract. The service was launched by Yamakyo, a company that specializes in forest management, and has attracted attention nationwide.
In addition, “CROCE & Co. Season 2,” a terrace cafe with a spectacular view located in the mountains, is popular and attracts around 60,000 visitors a year.
“The good thing about Higashi Shirakawa is that there are no special tourist spots. You can spend time surrounded by natural scenery with few man-made objects,” says Imai.
Higashi Shirakawa is famous for the frequent sightings of the mysterious unidentified animal, the Tsuchinoko. In recent years, there have been sightings in 2017.
The whole village is promoting the legend of Tsuchinoko, and the Shirakawa Highway along the Shirakawa River is called the “Tsuchinoko Highway.”
The Tsuchinoko search event “Tsuchinoko Festa” is also popular, and at its peak, 4,000 volunteers from all over the country gathered. Currently, the search event is held by reservation only, with a limit of 2,500 people.

Japan’s only “Tsuchinoko Museum”

目撃情報を元に再現されたツチノコ（Tsuchinoko recreated based on sightings）

Higashi Shirakawa Village, which has the highest number of Tsuchinoko sightings in Japan, is home to Japan’s only museum, the “Tsuchinoko Museum.” It is a hub for Tsuchinoko information and has a wealth of historical materials related to Tsuchinoko.
Tsuchinoko are generally thought of as brown, but in fact, there are many sightings of them being gray.
Many witnesses say that they “jumped off the mountain” or “rolled down the mountain.”
There are also theories flying around, such as “Maybe they misidentified a mountain slug,” “Maybe a snake swallowed something and fell down the mountain,” or “It is an endangered species and may be almost extinct.” The ever-popular legend of Tsuchinoko has certainly played a part in revitalizing the village.
The villagers call Tsuchinoko “Tsuchinobi.” Tsuchiinobi is a mysterious snake that has been passed down since ancient times and was once feared as a messenger of the gods.

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