This article was originally published in Housing Japan Magazine, Spring 2020 edition.
In 2016, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE) announced plans to boost awareness of, and inbound visitor numbers to, Japan’s national parks. They specifically targeted eight of the country’s national parks in the National Park Step-up Program 2020, namely Akan-Mashu, Towada-Hachimantai, Nikko, Ise-Shima, Daisen-Oki, Aso-Kuju, Kirishima-Kinkowan and Keramashoto.
In 2017 and 2018, British freelance photographer and Housing Japan magazine Assistant Editor Alfie Goodrich visited seven of these eight national parks as part of an initial fact-finding and consultation process carried out on behalf of the MOE by the JTB and National Parks Authority.
Japan has 34 national parks ranging from mountains to islands to beach paradises
“Japan has 34 national parks,” says Goodrich, “and I’ve always been a little surprised at the number of people I meet, both Japanese and foreign, who know very little about them. Having the opportunity to visit and photograph the frontline parks in the MOE’s step-up programme was, frankly, a job from heaven.
“In the course of my living and working in Japan, I’d visited many of its 47 prefectures and my work for this project meant I could finally tick them all off the list. Some of the parks I’d visited before but, in most cases, without knowing it.
“Japan has an extraordinarily diverse range of natural habitats. The national parks of Japan have highland; lowland; marine, temperate and tropical climates; marshland; volcanoes: you name it, they’ve got it. The eight parks that the MOE chose to be part of this project, To Fully Enjoy National Parks, represent a complete cross-section of those climatic zones and flora and fauna, from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
“I hope these pictures, just a few from the many thousands I shot during my visits to seven of the parks, help get the message out about what a wonderful natural and human resource the national parks of Japan represent.
“In 2021, Japan’s national parks will be celebrating their 80th anniversary. Now is as good a time as ever to start exploring them … and don’t forget to take your camera !”
Find out more about the National Parks of Japan on the official Japan government tourism site here
