平成29年4月のメッセージ（英語表記あり）

On March 4, the community cafe & pilot store "Cafe Haku & Shop" opened near Teramae Station, a new bustling place created together with the Kamin tourist information office. You can enjoy lunch, and buy specialty items, made from Kamikawa products. Why don’t you have a look sometime?

On March 11th and 12th, the Kamikawa Drone Movie Challenge 2016-2017 “Let's film Kamikawa by drone” video contest was held in Green Echo Kasagata. There were video applications from 9 teams and we have just finished judging them. Kamikawa has a lot of beautiful nature and we were able to see it from many different angles from above, which only confirmed its beauty. For the videos, you can see them on the town’s website.

On the 18th, the Kamikawa Old Silver Mine Carriage Road Festival was held. On that day, I think everyone was able to enjoy the rickshaws and take pictures with them. They reminded us of the Meiji Era, and took 2 years to repair and restore. We will continue promoting town planning that makes use of historic culture and events that lead to the registration of the “Old Silver Mine Carriage Road” and “Koseki-no-Michi” as a Japan Heritage site.

On the 19th, the "Kamin Spring Festival" was held in front of Teramae Station. I felt that everyone enjoyed gymnastics and dancing with Kamin, the sale of Kamikawa specialty products, and the sale of “Maru Shiitake” mushrooms from Kamikawa, which were written about in the Kobe newspaper. Many people came to the event, and had a good time.

Also, at the regular meeting of the Kamikawa Town Council which finished on the 24th, we made a total of 42 cases. Among them, a supplementary budget mainly for the Mineyama ski resort received the decision of the Regional Renewal Project from 2016. In addition, as priority measures for the fiscal year budget for 2017, we will continue to promote each village’s request, as well as cases (1) region renewal project, (2) reconstruction work on the North Building of the Public Kanzaki General Hospital, (3) Mineyama ski resort, and (4) Kanzaki area fiber cable internet. Only 1 case, about vacant housing, was rejected at the town council meeting.

The most important issue for Kamikawa is what we call the “Population Decrease Countermeasures,” because of the declining birthrate and aging population. Thanks to the partially provided school lunch fee, free medical care for children in middle school and under, childcare support measures including kindergarten and nursery school fee reductions, townhouse construction for young families, and assistance system for buying and remodeling houses, we saw great improvement. The number of births per year has increased to 70 for the last two years, compared to the 50 births a year from 3 years ago.

Together with the improvement of the number of births, steady progress is also seen in population decrease countermeasures due to the increase in the number of newcomers from the Single Mothers Migration Support Project of the National Regional Renewal Project, as well as with local vitalization cooperator.

Together, we are working to enrich regional medicine with the reconstruction of the north building of the Public Kanzaki General Hospital, opening up the Mineyama ski resort and using it throughout the year to increase the circulation of the regional economy. We will continue to improve the service area of high-speed internet, and continue to reach for the realization of “Kamikawa – a shining town in the middle of Hyogo” by further refining the local resources of Kamikawa.

So, the 2017 fiscal year has started. On the first of April is the cherry blossom festival of Kotton Tei held in the evening, and on the 2nd will be the send-off and welcome ceremony for the Kamikawa fire brigade. As well, entrance ceremonies are being held at the elementary and junior high schools, kindergartens, nursery schools, etc. New students wearing new uniforms and new school bags will go through new gates. We are glad to see so many fresh faces, and are inspired to start the second year of community renewal.

In addition, on April 8th there is the “Tonomine Hills Grass Burning festival”, the Cherry Blossom Festival at Sakura Koen, Oukaen on April 8th and 9th, and the "Story of Spring" at the Ochi River Waterway Road on the 23rd. We hope that you will visit Kamikawa’s events, such as the Spring Festival held at Shinden Furusato Village and Green Echo Kasagata. Please visit Kamikawa and discover its charm!

By the end of March, the staff that had been dispatched to Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture for disaster reconstruction assistance a second time, have returned to Kamikawa. Yamamoto is steadily recovering. Then, starting in April for 6 months, we will dispatch staff to Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, which is the area devastated by the Kumamoto earthquake. Again, to the staff who have engaged in the reconstruction assistance for one year, and to the staff who agreed to dispatch on the occasion of this Kumamoto disaster reconstruction assistance, we thank you for your understanding and cooperation. To their families, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you.

Although it has been 12 years since the town merger, and 8 years since I took office as mayor, Kamikawa has been raising awareness by receiving media cooperation efforts throughout the year. I think that it is steadily becoming a healthy and more popular town. In addition to this, I will express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart for the deep understanding and cooperation of the people of Kamikawa, including the Kamikawa Town Council, as well as the efforts of all the staff.
Population decline is a major issue for the whole country, but town planning is an issue to be addressed as a region. For that reason, rather than just coming to visit, we hope that people will come to stay here. The future of town development is a town where many people have gathered together. We believe that the stability and continuity of town administration is extremely important in order to help this trend and promote smooth and strong regional renewal in Kamikawa.

As for future goals, the Kamikawa area renewal comprehensive strategy which was created in October of two years ago, is based on "Kamikawa - the best place to live!"
The basic plan for our strategy is:

1. Creating stable work that takes advantage of the area’s rich nature
2. Enhancing the charm of the area, connecting from visit to settlement
3. Realizing a society where marriage, childbirth, and childcare can be achieved with hope
4. Creating a rich lifestyle that you can spend peacefully

We will steadily implement measures under this basic plan.

To conclude, there is still a lot of change in the temperature, so please take care and hope for a good spring that will get warmer from now on. Thank you for listening to my message for April. Thank you very much.