Kamiyama's Population and Migration
Population, in- and out-migration, and the years in which in-migration exceeded out-migration, from the town's table
Population of Kamiyama
4,542
As of 1 September 2026, including 84 foreign residents
Excess of in-migration over out-migration in FY2011
12
151 moved in and 139 moved out; the first excess since FY1970, when the town's table begins to show migration
Satellite offices in the town
11
As of 28 October 2014, with 29 local employees
Kamiyama's population was 4,542 on 1 September 2026, including 84 foreign residents, in 2,443 households. In the town's table the population was 20,502 in FY1955 and 4,529 in FY2025 (both as of 31 March at the end of the fiscal year).
The in- and out-migration figures for FY2010 to FY2025 from that table are below. A minus sign marks a year in which more people moved out than in.
| Fiscal year | Moved in | Moved out | In minus out | Population (31 March) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2010 | 127 | 151 | −24 | 6,465 |
| FY2011 | 151 | 139 | 12 | 6,350 |
| FY2012 | 139 | 167 | −28 | 6,239 |
| FY2013 | 159 | 182 | −23 | 6,088 |
| FY2014 | 111 | 147 | −36 | 5,927 |
| FY2015 | 109 | 174 | −65 | 5,737 |
| FY2016 | 140 | 171 | −31 | 5,577 |
| FY2017 | 107 | 157 | −50 | 5,399 |
| FY2018 | 109 | 135 | −26 | 5,271 |
| FY2019 | 150 | 146 | 4 | 5,173 |
| FY2020 | 126 | 99 | 27 | 5,097 |
| FY2021 | 116 | 145 | −29 | 4,933 |
| FY2022 | 163 | 151 | 12 | 4,815 |
| FY2023 | 178 | 125 | 53 | 4,735 |
| FY2024 | 142 | 151 | −9 | 4,594 |
| FY2025 | 169 | 128 | 41 | 4,529 |
More than 100 people moved in every year from FY1970, when the table begins to show migration, to FY2025 (the lowest was 105 in FY2007). In-migration first exceeded out-migration in FY2011, by 12, and did so again in FY2019 (4), FY2020 (27), FY2022 (12), FY2023 (53) and FY2025 (41). Since FY2010 deaths have exceeded births by more than 100 every year, and the population has fallen every year.
Green Valley's document describes the net migration gain in fiscal 2011 as the first in the town's history, and gives the people who moved in through the relocation support centre in FY2010 to FY2013 as 58 households and 105 people (27 children), with an average age of around 30.
The History of Green Valley
The timeline in the document published by the ministry, the Kamiyama Artist in Residence, creative depopulation and work-in-residence, and the training school
A document by the chair of the NPO Green Valley sets out the history of satellite offices in Kamiyama and Tokushima Prefecture in the timeline below.
| Date | Timeline in the document |
|---|---|
| March 1992 | Kamiyama international exchange association founded |
| February 1997 | Tokushima Prefecture announces a new long-term plan, the Tokushima international culture village project |
| April 1997 | International culture village committee set up |
| October 1999 | Kamiyama Artist in Residence (artist invitation programme) |
| January 2002 | Tokushima Prefecture announces a prefecture-wide CATV network plan |
| December 2004 | NPO Green Valley founded |
| December 2005 | High-speed internet lines installed in Kamiyama (the ministry's subscriber fiber optic network project) |
| October 2007 | Commissioned to run the Kamiyama relocation and exchange support centre |
| June 2008 | In-Kamiyama website completed (the ministry's regional ICT use model project); work-in-residence begins |
| October 2010 | First satellite office opens (Sansan's Kamiyama lab) |
| December 2010 | Kamiyama training school (the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's job seeker support training) |
| January 2012 | First net migration gain in the town's history (12 people) |
Another Green Valley document gives September 2005 as the date the fiber network was completed. Green Valley's page says it was incorporated in 2004 and became a certified NPO in 2017, and lists among its activities the Kamiyama Artist in Residence (since 1999), running the Kamiyama relocation and exchange support centre (since 2007), running the Kamiyama Valley Satellite Office Complex (since 2013), acting as designated manager of the town's rural environment improvement centre and a junior high school gymnasium, and preparing the establishment of the college described below (2017 to 2023).
Kamiyama Artist in Residence
The Kamiyama Artist in Residence (KAIR) is an international art project that began in 1999. Each year, for a little over two months from late August, three to five artists from Japan and abroad stay in Kamiyama to make work, and an exhibition opens in late October.
Creative Depopulation and Work-in-Residence
The document defines creative depopulation as accepting the reality of depopulation, attracting young and creative people from outside to make the population structure healthier, raising the town's value as a place of business where diverse ways of working are possible, and aiming for a balanced, sustainable community that does not rely only on farming and forestry. The Kamiyama project has three parts: satellite offices (attracting companies whose work can be done anywhere), work-in-residence (attracting people who bring their work with them) and a training school (actively developing successors through vocational training). Work-in-residence names the workers and entrepreneurs thought necessary for the town's future and invites them to move in.
The training school is six months of job seeker support training under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. It began in December 2010, and 77 people completed six rounds. The document lists its results as moving to the town (about 50%) and employment at satellite offices (10 people).
The Buildings Used for Satellite Offices
The number of satellite offices as of October 2014, and the buildings of the offices and trial facilities in the documents
As of 28 October 2014, the numbers of satellite offices and local employees in Tokushima Prefecture were 11 companies and 29 people in Kamiyama, 6 and 6 in Minami, 5 and 7 in Miyoshi, and 1 and 5 in Tokushima City, for a prefectural total of 23 companies and 47 people. Another Green Valley document says twelve companies, mostly IT ventures, opened satellite offices, moved their headquarters or founded new companies, and that 7% of the town's corporate tax revenue in FY2014 was related to satellite offices.
The buildings of the offices, trial facilities and work-in-residence shops described in the two documents are as follows.
| Building | Use | Document |
|---|---|---|
| Vacant house | オフィス・イン神山 (Office in Kamiyama), a vacant house renovation project: a trial house where creators can work, paid for with a grant from the 地域活性化センター (a regional development centre) and Green Valley's own funds | Points of the Kamiyama Project |
| Old house, storehouse | An archive building and a storehouse office for a company that distributes programme information (metadata) to broadcasters, employing 20 people from the town and prefecture | Both documents |
| A former post office built in the early Meiji era | A trial facility for satellite offices, used for a few days to a few months | Changes in Work Styles (Telework) and Regional Revitalization |
| A 150-year-old liquor shop, a former barber's and a former electrical shop | A French bistro, a delicatessen and a made-to-order shoe shop brought in through work-in-residence | Points of the Kamiyama Project |
| Old house | The dining building of Week神山; the lodging building was newly built of cedar and cypress | Points of the Kamiyama Project |
For the Kamiyama Valley Satellite Office Complex, the document lists the start of satellite work by a patent firm, an approach from a law firm about working together, and the opening of a trial lodging facility. It does not say what the building was originally used for. Neither document mentions a closed school turned into a satellite office.
The College and the Former Kamiyama Junior High School
Opening date and intake, school building and dormitory, fees and scholarships, and hometown tax donations
The private college of technology 神山まるごと高専 (神山まるごと高等専門学校, 学校法人神山学園) opened on 2 April 2023. It takes 40 students a year, all students board, and its department is design and engineering.
The school building OFFICE is a single-storey timber building made with local Kamiyama cedar on land that was once terraced rice fields, with a site area of 8,193 m² and a total floor area of 1,955 m². The dormitory HOME is a renovation of the former Kamiyama Junior High School, a four-storey reinforced concrete building received from Kamiyama town. It has student rooms for three years' worth of students, a dining hall, a library and special classrooms such as art and science rooms, and an elevator wing was added for accessibility. Its site area is 15,671 m² and its total floor area 3,879 m², and it houses first- to third-year students. Kamiyama has one junior high school, Kamiyama Junior High School, whose new building was completed in 2022.
The fee list gives an entrance fee of ¥230,000, tuition of ¥2,000,000 and dormitory fees of ¥1,200,000 (tuition and dormitory fees are per year, including tax). The college gives every student who applies a scholarship equal to the ¥2,000,000 tuition for five years, offers dormitory scholarships based on household income, and says that, combined with public support, it aims to make tuition effectively free.
The college's history records a press conference on the school plan at the town office in June 2019, followed by a visit to the Kamiyama Junior High School building; ¥77 million in hometown tax donations from individuals by the end of 2020; the decision in January 2021 that the CEO of Sansan would become chair of the board; and the start of accepting corporate hometown tax donations in March 2021. The college says the corporate version of the hometown tax donation scheme was applied to it, making it the first school in Japan to be established with hometown tax donations.
The procedure for transferring or lending a former school building to a private school or business is covered in the following article.
Property Disposal of Closed Schools: When No Procedure Is Needed, Disposals Settled by Report, Treasury Payments and Funds, and Documents and Filing Times
When no procedure is needed, disposals settled by report and those needing approval, how the treasury payment is calculated and when a fund replaces it, and the documents and filing times
What to do next
When developing a school reuse plan and renovation budget, check the following matters.
| # | What to check or consider | Responsible team or contact |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Find operators interested in using the building. Ask about their intended uses and requirements, and use the responses to develop the reuse plan | Market sounding and local operators |
| 2 | Check the seismic assessment and asbestos survey results. If surveys have not been conducted, determine their scope and how to commission them | Facilities team |
| 3 | Estimate renovation costs from the survey results and compare them with demolition costs | Design office |
| 4 | Check the property disposal procedures. For subsidized school buildings, check MEXT approval or reporting requirements against the intended use and disposal restriction period | Board of education and MEXT |
| 5 | Explain the proposed reuse to alumni and community groups and hear their views before announcing the use | Alumni and neighbourhood associations |
Check operator interest and requirements before finalizing the use, and take prospective demand into account when developing the reuse plan.
References
人口と世帯数 (Population and Households) — Kamiyama Town (2026)
働き方の変化(テレワーク)を活用した地方創生 (Changes in Work Styles (Telework) and Regional Revitalization) — Chair of the NPO Green Valley (published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
神山プロジェクトのポイント (Points of the Kamiyama Project) — Green Valley (published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) (2016)
NPO法人グリーンバレーとは？ (What Is the NPO Green Valley?) — In-Kamiyama
「神山アーティスト・イン・レジデンス」とは (About the Kamiyama Artist in Residence) — In-Kamiyama
学校概要 (School Overview) — 神山まるごと高専
神山まるごと高専が校舎「OFFICE」・寮「HOME」を竣工 (The college completes its school building OFFICE and dormitory HOME) — 神山まるごと高専 (2023)
学費・奨学金 (Fees and Scholarships) — 神山まるごと高専
学校創りの歩み (History of Creating the School) — 神山まるごと高専
まちの中学校について (About the Town's Junior High School) — Kamiyama Town
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