Beaches in east Japan’s Kamakura take on new appeal as visitor numbers drop

KAMAKURA, Kanagawa — At around noon on Aug. 20, a beautiful blue sky spread over Yuigahama Beach in this east Japan city. As the sun shone down, people could be seen swimming and strolling along the sand.

But despite it being in the middle of the summer holidays, there were no big crowds. Perhaps it was because the Bon holidays had ended and it was a weekday, but it seemed a bit underwhelming. At the same time, since there were so few people, there was no litter on the beach, where a pleasant breeze was blowing.

But Yuigahama — and other beaches in the region — were not like this in the past. It used to be packed with people, and if you felt hungry and went to a beach house to buy something, you would be greeted by a long line, making it difficult to get a meal. On the way home, the roads would always be jammed with traffic. That’s what I had assumed summer at the beach was always like.

Such scenes, however, are becoming a thing of the past.

The Kamakura Municipal Government has been compiling statistics on the annual numbers of people visiting beaches in the city including Yuigahama and Zaimokuza since 1963. The figure peaked in 1995 at about 1.755 million. Over the 20 years thereafter, while there were fluctuations due to typhoons and other factors, the numbers remained at around 900,000 to 1.1 million annually.

But in 2015, the number of beachgoers sank to about 656,000 — down by around 270,000 compared to the previous year. By 2019, the number had fallen to roughly 355,000.

In 2020 and 2021, beaches couldn’t be opened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and even when they began welcoming people again in 2022, the number of visitors was down even further, dropping to about 277,000. The figure further went down to roughly 246,000 the following year.

“We had hoped that when COVID ended, people would come back to the sea,” said a Kamakura city tourism division official, looking at the data. “Before, summer leisure meant a trip to the beach, but now there are various ways for people to enjoy their time. It’s not easy to lure people back.”

Of course, this is not limited to Kamakura. According to the Japan Productivity Center’s “White Paper on Leisure,” while about 37.90 million people visited beaches in Japan in 1985, in 2022 the count stood at about 3.6 million.

Bathing beaches themselves are decreasing in number. According to the Japan Travel and Tourism Association, there were 1,379 such beaches in 1990 but by 2024 the number had dropped to 970.

Nevertheless, some see these figures in a different light.

“I don’t think visitor numbers are everything,” said Taichi Noda, 52, head of the Kamakura seaside association’s liaison council, formed by beach house operators. He says people’s expectations for beaches have changed significantly in recent years.

“In the past, it was normal for people to remain at the beach from the morning until evening and then go home, but now the time they’re arriving has changed. These days with the continuing scorching weather, the peak is probably around 3 p.m. And the way they enjoy their time varies. Some remain on the beach the whole time, and then there are people who come to the beach houses in their normal clothes in the evening to cool down and go home without getting into the water. I think it’s important to be able to meet all these needs,” he said.

Noda says he aims to provide a beach that everyone can enjoy with peace of mind.

Under a revised ordinance, the city of Kamakura in 2015 banned people from drinking alcohol on beaches, and playing music through speakers and other amplifying devices. The bans stemmed from concerns over the “clubification” of beach houses playing loud music.

Since the revision, the clubification problem has settled down, and if people bring alcohol onto the beach, they are warned by security guards who patrol the area.

Such measures have been praised for helping to clean up beaches, but at the same time it has been pointed out that this has resulted in lower visitor numbers.

“From 2015, the number of visitors to bathing beaches has indeed declined,” Noda said. “But the atmosphere at the beach is certainly getting better. If the atmosphere worsens, families won’t come here. It’s not simply a case of increasing the number of visitors.”

This summer, the Kamakura Fireworks Festival was held for the first time in five years, and about 160,000 people turned up. And last month, in cooperation with residents, a Bon odori dance festival was held for the first time in Yuigahama.

“We won’t get anywhere by talking about the time when a million people used to visit (the beaches of) Kamakura. I want to gradually build up events that everyone can enjoy, like fireworks and Bon odori dancing,” Noda said.

Although beaches’ popularity is said to be declining, this reporter finds the sea more appealing now than the time when the sand was packed with people. There are various ways to enjoy the sea, and I look forward to seeing bathing beaches’ new form.

(Japanese original by Akihiro Kawakami, Tokyo City News Department)