Overview of Kanagawa Prefecture's Urban Parks
Number of parks, area, management structure. The three-tier structure of prefectural parks, designated cities, and smaller municipalities
Population of Yokohama City — Japan's largest designated city and the prefecture's Park-PFI frontrunner
3,754,840
2025 census preliminary count
Population of Manazuru Town — the prefecture's small-municipality pioneer for Small Concession × park activation
5,971
2025 census preliminary count
Kanagawa's park management structure: prefectural parks, designated-city parks, and municipal parks
3 tiers
Number selected for MLIT's FY2025 Small Concession Formation Promotion Project — Manazuru Town is the only Kanagawa municipality
7 municipalities
Kanagawa Prefecture is one of the prefectures with some of Japan's highest urban park development levels, with a layered landscape of parks managed by two designated cities (Yokohama and Kawasaki), one core city (Sagamihara), and individual municipalities. In terms of population, the prefecture spans from Yokohama City to Manazuru Town, creating a rare region where urban, peri-urban, and rural Park-PFI cases coexist within the same prefecture. The preliminary count of the 2025 census puts Yokohama City at 3,754,840 and Manazuru Town at 5,971.
Three-Tier Park Management Structure
Park management in Kanagawa is broadly organized across three tiers.
Tier 1: Prefectural Parks
The Kanagawa Park Association manages prefectural parks under designated manager agreements. These include broad natural parks and regional parks in areas such as Tanzawa, Oyama, and Shonan. The prefecture itself is the park manager for one Park-PFI site, Kannonzaki Park.
Tier 2: Urban Parks of Designated and Core Cities
Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Sagamihara each have their own park management systems. Kawasaki uses Park-PFI at four parks (Ikegami-shinmachi-minami Green Path, Fujimi Park, Tachibana Park, and Noborito Tsukurito Park) and Yokohama at three (Yokohama Zoological Gardens Park, Yamashita Park, and Odori Park); Sagamihara does not appear in the list. By count, Kawasaki has the most in the prefecture.
Tier 3: Municipal Parks of Cities and Towns
This tier ranges from general cities to small municipalities like Manazuru Town. While small municipalities face challenges of budget constraints and limited staffing, advanced cases have emerged that leverage support programs like Small Concession.
Yokohama City Cases
The three parks in the MLIT list for a city of about 3.75 million, and what to watch for in a major city
Yokohama City is one of Japan's largest designated cities, with roughly 2,700 parks large and small as of June 2021. As aging facilities and rising maintenance costs have become visible fiscal challenges, introducing private-sector energy through Park-PFI has become a critical policy instrument.
The Three Parks Yokohama Uses
Yokohama is the park manager for three Park-PFI sites in the MLIT list: Yokohama Zoological Gardens Park, Yamashita Park, and Odori Park. Three out of roughly 2,700 parks in the city.
What the three have in common, and what they do not:
- Yamashita Park and Odori Park: central parks with strong visitor draw, surrounded by a dense cluster of private dining and service businesses
- Yokohama Zoological Gardens Park: a large suburban park; the area includes Zoorasia
- Ward parks: none appear in the list. This source cannot confirm any Park-PFI project at a ward park
Which business type occupies each park is stated in Yokohama's solicitation guidelines and selection results. No nationwide tally by business type has been published.
Conditions and Considerations for Yokohama City
In a large city of Yokohama's scale, private-sector interest in Park-PFI is high, but several specific challenges exist.
Challenge 1: Competition with surrounding private operators
Major parks in Yokohama are surrounded by well-established private cafés, restaurants, and fitness facilities. Designing solicitation conditions that avoid the "crowding out private businesses" criticism requires careful differentiation of business types and thoughtful location planning.
Challenge 2: Compatibility with landscape and urban design
Yokohama has a strong civic identity around urban landscape, and construction in historically significant areas such as Yamashita Park and Minato-no-Mieru Oka Park must align with the Yokohama Landscape Plan. Higher design standards for building height, exterior design, and materials are required compared to typical Park-PFI projects.
Challenge 3: Building consensus with local residents
Yokohama's parks are heavily used by local residents in their daily lives, and voices calling for "preserving quiet parks" tend to emerge in response to revenue facility proposals. Prior resident briefings and park usage surveys are essential before market sounding begins.
Yokosuka City Initiatives
Park activation challenges and planning status in a city of about 365,000
Unit costs and amounts in financial examples without a cited source are illustrative assumptions, not statistically established market rates. Use estimates and comparable records appropriate to the target facility, location and business when preparing a project plan. Distinguish these assumptions from cited statistics and case expenditure.
Yokosuka City is a core city with a population of 364,978 in the preliminary count of the 2025 census, located on the Miura Peninsula, with terrain shaped by both coast and hills. The city manages numerous parks within its boundaries, and linking park activation to tourism and regional revitalization has emerged as an important policy agenda.
Potential and Challenges for Yokosuka City
Location advantage: The coastal and hillside natural resources of the Miura Peninsula have high affinity with revenue-generating facilities tied to tourism demand — glamping, seaside cafés, outdoor sports facilities. Access from the Tokyo metropolitan area (Yokosuka Line and Keikyu Line) is good, creating realistic expectations for day-trip visitor draw.
Challenge: Responding to population decline
Yokosuka City is one of the most notable examples of population decline among Metropolitan Tokyo-area cities. Setting a park activation concept that simultaneously serves local residents' convenience and attracts visitors from outside the city is a required design consideration.
Challenge: Proximity to the naval base
Areas adjacent to Yokosuka Naval Base are subject to land use restrictions and construction regulations, requiring verification of institutional constraints related to park development.
Already in use at three parks: Yokosuka is the park manager for three Park-PFI sites: Nagai Umi-no-te Park (Soleil Hill), Mikasa Park, and Oyabe Midori-no Park. That is on a par with Kawasaki's four and Yokohama's three. Kannonzaki Park appears in the same list, with the prefecture as its park manager.
→ For guidance on conducting market sounding, see Park-PFI Market Sounding.
Manazuru Town's Small Concession Case
A pioneering public facility activation initiative in a small town of about 6,000
Manazuru Town is a small municipality of approximately 6,000 residents located south of Odawara City in Kanagawa Prefecture. With a total area of approximately 7.03 km², it is an extremely compact municipality, but it is known for a distinctive approach to local development that leverages the rich natural environment, landscapes, and fishing culture of the Manazuru Peninsula.
Background of Manazuru Town's Small Concession Selection
In the MLIT's Small Concession Formation Promotion Project, Manazuru Town was selected as one of seven municipalities to receive support. Within Kanagawa Prefecture, Manazuru Town is the only selected municipality, and its population scale, location, and distinct challenges have attracted national attention.
Target Facilities and Challenges in Manazuru Town
Manazuru Town faces the challenge of activating former public facilities, including the site of the former Manazuru Town Municipal Middle School and related buildings. These post-school facilities are aging, but their location in the rare natural environment of the Manazuru Peninsula gives them potential as tourism accommodation, dining, and experiential destinations.
In combination with parks, integrated activation of the Manazuru Seaside Park area (sea swimming, tide-pool exploration, campsite) adjacent to Manazuru Port and the former public facilities is under consideration. If realized, the natural resources of the park (sea, rocky shores, sandy beach) and the functions of the former buildings (accommodation, dining) would complement each other, potentially accelerating the transformation of the entire Manazuru Peninsula into a tourism hub.
Characteristics and Challenges of the Manazuru Model
Feature 1: A model for small municipalities
The effort to combine Small Concession with park activation in a municipality of about 6,000 people is significant as a demonstration that "we can do this too" for similarly sized municipalities. By utilizing the support of Small Concession specialist dispatch, this case can serve as a precedent showing that project development is achievable even in small municipalities with limited staff capacity.
Feature 2: Leveraging the natural environment brand
The Manazuru Peninsula is designated as a "Preserved Forest" (Ohayashi) and a landscape formation zone under strict environmental protections. However, these very constraints simultaneously create brand value as "an experience within protected nature." Combinations with glamping, nature-based activities, and environmental education are highly appropriate.
Challenge: Finding operators and securing commercial viability
In a local market of only about 6,000 people, standalone revenue facility operation is difficult. Drawing visitors from core cities within Kanagawa (Yokohama, Kawasaki, Yokosuka, Odawara) and the broader Tokyo metropolitan area is a prerequisite for viability. This in turn requires improvements in transportation access and coordination with tourism promotion efforts.
→ For details on the specialist dispatch program for Small Concession, see Small Concession Expert Dispatch Guide.
Future Trends in the Prefecture
Direction of Park-PFI and Small Concession promotion across Kanagawa and anticipated developments
Kanagawa Prefecture's Broader Direction for Park-PFI and Small Concession
Kanagawa has 14 Park-PFI parks, behind Tokyo with 18 and Fukuoka with 17. What follows is this article's own reading. Three things will decide how far it goes from here.
First: whether the two designated cities become reference cases
As the two designated cities push forward with active Park-PFI promotion, spillover effects will reach smaller municipalities within the prefecture. Success cases and operational know-how accumulated in the major cities will serve as reference models for smaller municipalities.
Second: whether parks can be paired with tourism assets (Shonan, Miura, Hakone, Ashigara)
Kanagawa Prefecture has diverse tourism assets — Shonan, Enoshima, the Miura Peninsula, Hakone, and the Ashigara region. Linking park activation with these tourism resources generates visitor drawing power that no individual park could achieve on its own.
Third: whether it spreads to smaller municipalities
With the Manazuru Town case as a pioneer, it is hoped that Small Concession and Park-PFI adoption will spread to smaller and medium-sized municipalities such as Odawara City, Zushi City, Hayama Town, and Minamiashigara City.
Actions for Kanagawa-Based Practitioners to Take Now
- Information gathering: Study Yokohama City's cases as a model. Benchmark against similar parks in your municipality.
- Consider conducting market sounding: Start by assessing private-sector demand. Approach local tourism operators and restaurant businesses.
- Register with the Small Concession Platform: Consider registering your municipality with the Small Concession platform established by MLIT.
- Explore inter-municipal cooperation: Investigate the possibility of developing projects through information sharing and regional collaboration among Kanagawa municipalities.
Park-PFI Latest Cases and Statistics [2026 Edition]
Nationwide statistics across 203 parks, policy changes, and the outlook for the next three to five years
Park-PFI Strategy for Small Municipalities
Six success patterns applicable to municipalities of 20,000–50,000 — including the regional resource and glamping models relevant to Kanagawa's rural areas
What to do next
When considering Park-PFI, examine the park's conditions, use and operator interest.
| # | What to check or consider | Responsible team or contact |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Check the park's site area and the footprint of existing buildings, including rest and sports facilities, to establish current building coverage | Parks team |
| 2 | Check the building coverage limits and exceptions in the local ordinance. Compare them with existing building footprints to assess whether new facilities can be added | Parks team |
| 3 | Study visitor numbers and patterns of use, including weekday, weekend and seasonal differences, to assess likely demand | Site surveys and existing survey records |
| 4 | Check actual fees at comparable parks, taking account of differences in area, location and facility use | Other municipalities and published records |
| 5 | Present the survey results and proposed use to private operators. Ask about their interest and the conditions needed for a viable project | Market sounding |
Assess the scope for new buildings against existing building footprints and the local ordinance. If there is no room to add buildings, consider reuse of existing facilities and other project methods.
References
Park-PFI and Related Utilization — MLIT Urban Bureau, Park and Green Space Division (2025)
Notice: Beginning Public Solicitation of Experts to Support Municipalities Working on Small Concession — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2026)
How many parks does Yokohama have? — Yokohama City (2021)
