Ask, and it will be given to you: Universal Access to Yokohama Citizen Forests, Kami-Sugetacho Citizen Forest I 上菅田町市民の森 I

 

The number of forests where wheelchair people can visit is limited around here. So far in this series, such forests I told you are Koishikawa Botanical Garden (; my post on February 25, 2024) and Wild Bird Park (; my post on last month, April 12, 19, 26). Both are in Tokyo and heavily landscaped places. When we talked about Yokohama’s Citizen Forest, there were none with such facilities. For the sake of argument, Yokohama Nature Sanctuary may have some degree of universal access, to the admin office perhaps. But the large part of its courses are steep slopes and steps. It will not be feasible in the end for people with wheelchairs to have a relaxing experience in forest. Yokohama is a port city. Our city is inevitably very hilly. Flat walking road in nature becomes difficult to find. That’s pity. We people of Yokohama know the issue. People in this case include planners for the Town Hall of Yokohama, who oversee establishing new citizen forests.

A road in Wild Bird Park.
Well, this place is in the end completely man-made.

Steps in Yokohama Nature Sanctuary.
This is a well-managed trekking road,
but for wheelchairs …

Yokohama’s system for Citizen Forests is a unique arrangement nationwide. Landlords with forests are offered options. They can continue having their forest with a reduced tax rate AS LONG AS it is a part of productive farmland. Familiar story in this case is “Who’s continuing the ag business in this society of rapid aging and shrinking population.?” Or they can sell the property to developers for housing, shopping centres, etc. if they want. Unlike ordinary rural areas of Japan, such opportunity is abundant here since Yokohama is a VERY large city with lots of business, and we’re a neighbor to the capital city Tokyo. When the landlord chooses this selling option,

1. They lose their title of landlords often inherited for centuries from the ancestors. Normally they also abandon family business of agriculture which too is hereditary for generations. This is a serious issue for the psyche of landlord’s entire family.

2. Sure, they receive a nice sum of money from their ancestral land which happens to be in rich Yokohama. But, they have to pay rather hefty taxes of many kinds, for land transaction, new usage of land for commercial and/or residential purposes, inheritance, etc. 

3. There is a reputational issue. Their neighbors who can be their neighbors for centuries would say anything they want, if they want, you know?

 A few days ago,
in a farmland adjacent to Niiharu Forest.
The landlord of this place is Non-profit Org
serving for people with disabilities.
They often lend their property NHK
to program production for allotment how-to.
Could you find people in the left of this photo?
They are now filming the spring farm work.

So, the Citizen Forest System offers another option to landlords. They can choose to keep their ancestral forest including farmland with impressively reduced tax rates. When an inheritance incident occurs, the City provides very preferential treatment too. The condition of this favored handling is, the landlord has to allow public to stroll in their land. When they choose this option, development of trekking roads and, when the forest is large enough, providing resting facilities for visitors such as toilets are built by the City. The private property is now Yokohama’s Citizen Forest. After the forest becomes Citizen Forest, the maintenance of landlord’s property is in the hands of Lovers Association. Often the association is formulated by family members and close friends of landlords. But if the area is very wide with many landlords who made a consortium to make the area Citizen Forest, such as Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 with more than 90 landlords, the Lovers Association could welcome complete strangers as volunteer members who love and maintain landlords’ property. The Lovers Association contracted with the landlords via the City and receive municipal grants to run forest management activities. All these processes are funded by municipal Green Tax. A landlord may lose exclusive right for his/her ancestral land, but the ownership remains in the hands of his/her family. This could be a not-so-bad deal. Have you noticed something here? In the entire process, the idea for universal access did not enter unless somebody during the negotiation, like city officers, landlords, or neighbors of the forest, requested the needs for possible wheelchair strollers in the forest.

Spring in Niiharu Citizen Forest.
Basically Niiharu’s trekking roads were once
commuter roads for locals before gasoline cars came.
They are narrow, hilly, and of course not paved.
i.e. Difficult for wheelchair users to come in.

Well, to be fair for the people of mountainous Yokohama creating Citizen Forest, I must say it WAS so. I mean, a “past tense.” Last February, it was opened the very first Yokohama’s Citizen Forest where the development of the Citizen Forest was intentionally designed for the Universal Access. It is Kami-Sugetacho Citizen Forest上菅田町市民の森 , opened on February 27, 2026. The forest is located right next to the Kami-Sugeta Special Support School. Special support school system of Japan is educational arrangement for kids who need particular procedure, such as continuous medical care, to attend for school diplomas starting from kindergarten to high school. Yokohama has 13 such municipal schools, among which 6 schools are for kids requiring wheelchairs or stretchers. Kami-Sugeta School is one of them. For the development of a Citizen Forest right next to their campus, the school advised the landlord and the people from the City Hall. The product is this newly opened Citizen Forest. Next week, let’s visit the place with wheelchair access in bumpy Yokohama. The forest has a viewpoint for Mt. Fuji. 😊

Kami-Sugeta Special Support School

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712
FAX: 045-550-4093

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp