Photo/Illutration The tourism guidebook, released by Shirakawa village, Gifu Prefecture, to balance tourism with villagers’ lives, is shown at the municipality’s office on March 18. (Yoshihiro Ogino)

SHIRAKAWA, Gifu Prefecture--Village officials have released an unusual tourism guidebook aimed at alleviating overtourism problems and concerns in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site here.

Titled “Reconnecting Shirakawago,” the pamphlet stresses that the townscape lined by traditional "gassho-style" houses with steep-thatched roofs is not a theme park but a residential area for locals.

The material traces the challenges facing the village with 1,500 residents along with suggestions for visitors as well as local sightseeing information.

“Villagers are too exhausted to roll out the red carpet for sightseers now,” said an official from the village’s tourism promotion department. “The guidebook was worked out because we want visitors to travel responsibly.”

The municipal representative went on, “Those arriving here with the intention of tending to their affairs in the village would find their visits even more enjoyable.”

Shirakawa village issued its first tourism guidebook as this year marks the 30th anniversary of the inscription of the historic district of Shirakawago, famed for its old-style homes in particular, on the World Heritage list.

Shirakawa village started in March to distribute the A5-size, 34-page leaflet to visitors who come to Gifu Prefecture’s office in Tokyo and a souvenir shop handling specialties from the prefecture in Nagoya.

The guidebook devotes only a few pages to the details of the high-profile World Heritage district, including an overnight stayer’s report. Instead, it prominently displays local "etiquette and rules" across facing pages.

“Responsibility and mutual cooperation are indispensable to balancing tourism with villagers’ lives,” the material notes.

Also included in the document are five basic rules, including “no sightseeing at night” and “a strict ban on street smoking, discarded cigarette butts, fireworks or any other use of fire.”

Visitors are advised to take home “your own trash and good memories.” Automobiles must be parked in a village-run car park and operating drones is prohibited.

The pamphlet similarly features a four-frame comic strip where residents are startled by a non-Japanese trespasser who, without permission, puts the palms together in prayer in front of a home Buddhist altar.

A two-dimensional code is part of the material so readers can refer to an “etiquette video.”

The "official" guidebook advises visitors to exercise significant caution, as the tiny village is struggling to implement countermeasures against overtourism.

The number of tourists rose to 2.15 million in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, up from 770,000 in 1995, three decades earlier. No fewer than 2.08 million sightseers showed up in 2024 amid recovering inbound demand.

Heavy traffic jams occur as motorists try to reach a parking lot along a national road packed with tourists near the World Heritage site during the year-end holidays and other holiday seasons.

These traffic tie-ups reportedly negatively impact villagers’ daily lives.

The guidebook aims to disperse crowds of visitors. It provides the detailed descriptions of the Former Toyama House, a gassho-style important cultural property 20 minutes away by car, alongside Miboro Dam and an onsen area.

The municipal government expects sightseers to tour the destinations outside the World Heritage zone, since the Shirakawago district traditionally encompasses a larger area than commonly assumed, including these spots.

Readers are encouraged to make a detour from the Shokawa Interchange in the prefecture’s Takayama, south of the Shirakawago Interchange along the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway near the World Heritage site, before arriving in the popular area, to deter congestion.

The leaflet can be downloaded from Shirakawa village’s website. The local government is considering making it available in other languages as well.

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