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Hida Discovered by the World
Walk Takayama's old town and you will hear languages from many countries. A town of about 80,000 people hosts about 980,000 overnight foreign guests a year, the largest share of them travellers from Taiwan. Why has this castle town deep in the mountains come to attract travellers from around the world?
Labels: Factdocumented Likelysupported by most sources Legendoral tradition Urban legendlocal lore and rumour
A mountain land opened by the railway
FactFor a long time Hida was a mountain land that could be reached only by crossing passes. In 1934, when the Takayama Main Line linking Gifu and Toyama opened along its full length, Hida was at last connected to the outside world by rail.
FactAfter the war, the old townscape and the festivals drew attention as a "hometown of Japan", and in the 1970s large numbers of visitors, young travellers in particular, came to Takayama from all over the country.
1986: declared an international tourism city
FactIn 1986, after being designated an International Tourism Model Area by the national government, Takayama City declared itself an "international tourism city". At a time when foreign travellers were still few, it led other regions in providing multilingual signs, maps and leaflets, and also worked to make the town barrier-free by removing steps.
FactAs a result of these steady efforts, Takayama became a town popular with foreign travellers. According to Takayama City's statistics, about 980,000 foreign guests stayed overnight in the city in 2025. By country and region, the largest number came from Taiwan, at some 120,000.
Japan's largest city
FactIn 2005 Takayama City merged with nine surrounding towns and villages to become, at about 2,178 square kilometres, the largest city in Japan by area. That is almost the same size as Tokyo Metropolis. The city takes in everything from the old town to the Okuhida hot-spring villages, Mt Norikura and the lake at Shokawa (the Mountains room, the Shokawa room).
LikelyAmong travellers from Taiwan, trips combining snowy Shirakawa-go and its gassho-zukuri houses (with steep thatched roofs shaped like hands joined in prayer) with Takayama's townscape and Hida beef are said to be popular. For people from regions without snow, Hida in winter is a special sight (the Shirakawa-go room).
Look here: multilingual information
Around Takayama, at the station, tourist information centres and many restaurants, you will see information in English, Chinese (traditional and simplified characters), Korean and other languages. The attitude of a town that began welcoming foreign visitors early on shows in its small details.
Main sources: Takayama City, "Statistics on Overnight Foreign Visitors" (Reiwa 7) / Takayama City, "History of Takayama" / Yamatogokoro.jp, "The Inbound Strategy of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture" / Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, "Areas of Prefectures and Municipalities"