{"id":2294,"date":"2025-09-28T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2294"},"modified":"2025-09-28T06:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T13:00:31","slug":"worlds-smallest-park-teaches-us-a-valuable-lesson-about-the-power-of-community-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2294","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s Smallest Park teaches us a valuable lesson about the power of community in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yes, the park is in this photo, and its impact is greater than its size.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for the World\u2019s Largest Park<\/strong>, you\u2019ll need to head up to Northeast Greenland National Park<\/strong>, which is located mostly in the Arctic Circle. Measuring approximately 972,000 square kilometres (375,000 square miles), the park is larger than most countries, including Japan.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for the World\u2019s Smallest Park<\/strong>, on the other hand, you\u2019ll find it in Japan<\/strong>, specifically Shizuoka Prefecture<\/strong>, which is also home to our very own reporter Maro. Having lived in the prefecture for 30 years, Maro herself had no idea such a place existed, but as it was only officially recognized by the Guinness World Records in December last year<\/strong>, a lot of people in Japan are yet to learn about it.<\/p>\n

\u25bc So Maro set out to find the special park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u25bc The park is located in Shizuoka\u2019s Nagaizumi.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Though many may not be familiar with Nagaizumi, it\u2019s actually held first spot in Japan\u2019s \u201cLivable Cities Ranking\u201d for seven consecutive years<\/strong>. With good access to the city centre and ample childcare support, it\u2019s a popular place to live, and its popularity is set to soar even further after receiving this big little accolade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The one challenge facing visitors who come to look for the park is actually the ability to find it, given its tiny size. As you make your way along the side of the road, there\u2019s very little green to be seen, but don\u2019t give up, because as you come to this section of the street, you\u2019ll see something unusual\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u25bc \u2026the<\/strong> World\u2019s Smallest Park<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sitting inside a brick enclosure you\u2019ll find the plants and stone features that make up the world\u2019s smallest park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The coloured stone acts as a monument, with an inscription that reads \u201c\u4e16\u754c\u4e00\u5c0f\u3055\u306a\u516c\u5712\u201d (\u201cWorld\u2019s Smallest Park\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u25bc Beside it is a flat, polished stone adorned with flowers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Standing beside the park will make you feel like a giant, as it\u2019s only around 50 centimetres square, with an area of 0.24 square metres.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As we all know, parks are meant to be enjoyed by visitors, and there is a special way you can stop and soak up the ambience, by taking a seat inside the park.<\/p>\n

\u25bc That\u2019s right \u2014 the stool acts as a park bench.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As you enjoy everything the little park has to offer, you might feel a little self-conscious by the passing cars, but you needn\u2019t be. The park is a local source of pride and joy, and they\u2019re happy to see the sense of delight it brings people who stop by to visit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In fact, as Maro was watching the world go by from the park, an election van slowly turned the corner in front of her and as it did, she heard an announcement blare from the speakers attached to the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI proposed that park!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement took Maro by surprise, and although she wasn\u2019t entirely sure what to make of it, she smiled and waved back at the passenger who was waving at her. As the van disappeared into the distance, Maro took out her phone and ran a search for the park, where she found that it had indeed been created in 1988 as a playful project by a local government employee named Kazunori Shimoyama<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Sure enough, the sign on the top of the campaign van read \u201c\u5c71\u4e0b\u304b\u305a\u306e\u308a\u201d (\u201cKazunori Shimoyama\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Election vehicles like these are used by candidates and their staff to broadcast greetings and messages to residents while driving through neighbourhoods, and Maro was floored by the coincidence of having the park\u2019s creator drive by during her brief visit.<\/p>\n

Looking into it further, she found that although the park had long been dubbed the world\u2019s smallest by people in the surrounding area, through the support of locals it was formally recognised by Guinness 36 years after its founding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You never know who you might meet at a park, and Maro felt a mysterious sense of destiny wash over her after her fateful encounter. Parks really do bring communities together in ways that we should never take for granted, and this tiny patch of nature is a testament to that.<\/p>\n

With parks needing to exist for over five years and be surveyed in the presence of witnesses in order to be recognised by Guinness, we hope that this little park will remain the world\u2019s number one for many years to come.<\/p>\n

Site information<\/strong><\/p>\n

The World\u2019s Smallest Park \/ \u4e16\u754c\u4e00\u5c0f\u3055\u306a\u516c\u5712
\nAddress: \u9759\u5ca1\u770c\u99ff\u6771\u90e1\u9577\u6cc9\u753a\u4e0b\u571f\u72e9760-7
\nShizuoka-ken, Sunto-gun, Nagaizumi, Shimotogari 760-7<\/p>\n

Photos\u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, the park is in this photo, and its impact is greater than its size. If you\u2019re looking for the World\u2019s Largest Park, you\u2019ll need to head up to Northeast…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}