Musubu town page · Ōita Prefecture
豊後高田市 · on the Suo-nada sea · 2 hours from Fukuoka, 45 minutes from Ōita City
A river town where the paddy meets the sea, with a Shōwa-era shopping street that never got rebuilt and is now the reason people visit. We have been losing about 1.5% of our population every year since 2005. In 2027 we started doing something about it differently — not advertising for individuals, but coordinating arrivals so that people land together.
What we are asking for
Decided by the town assembly in April and reviewed every six months. If what you do is on this list, we will help with housing and the paperwork, and you will not be the only one arriving.
This is what the town is short of. It is not a list of who is welcome. Anyone may move to Bungotakada, and anyone may join the programme — nothing here is a condition of entry. These are the gaps we can actively help you fill, because we hold housing and posts against them. If what you do is not on this list, you are no less welcome; you will just be arranging more of it yourself.
Who is here, and who is coming
The solid bar is people already living here who arrived through the programme. The dashed bar is people who have committed and have not moved yet. Everyone else — the great majority of this town — is not on this chart, because they were here first.
By life stage
households here now · households committed, not yet moved
What people do
adults who arrived through the programme, by main occupation
Nine nationalities among arrivals since 2027. The largest groups after Japanese are Vietnamese and Filipino, mostly in care work.
What a week actually looks like
The hardest thing to show about a place is time. Money is easy to compare and time is not, so we asked people to write down both weeks — the one they left and the one they have now.
“I didn’t leave Tokyo because I hated it. I left because I was awake for sixteen hours and about ninety minutes of that was mine.”
Where the thirty hours went
He earns about ¥2.1M less a year than he did in Tokyo, and his housing costs went down by more than that. He says the “nothing in particular” column is the one he would defend hardest.
Four other residents have published their two weeks. None of them look the same — one works more here than she did before, by choice, because the work is hers now.
The community hall this week
Central Community Hall, by the river. This is the actual calendar, posted by residents and by the hall steward — not a programme of events written for visitors.
Coming up
14–15 October. The shrine procession, and the first year the apprentices are building the float themselves.
Coming up
2 November. Started by a resident who moved here in 2030 and missed playing. Now sixty people come.
Coming up
Late May. Anyone can join. It is hard and everyone eats afterwards.
Being built now
Each of these has a threshold and a deadline. If it does not fill, deposits are returned and it stays on this page as unbuilt — we would rather show you that than pretend.
West bank, flat, everything within a ten minute cycle. The only part of town that does not need a car. Completion spring 2033.
Unit and ovens are in place. Which bakery opens is being decided below.
Six adjacent houses, ¥1.4–4.8M each, restored by the apprenticeship programme. Two remaining.
Deposits returned. The land is still paddy and still listed. It can be proposed again.
Open to a vote right now
Three people want the bakery unit on the Shōwa street. Rather than a landlord picking, the people who will actually be the customers are choosing — including the ones who have not arrived yet.
3 Shinmachi · closes 14 September · advisory to the assembly
84 people have weighed in — 61 residents and 23 committed arrivals. The vote advises; the assembly and the property owner decide, because they carry the risk.
Next decision
Proposals open until December. Current suggestions: workshop annexe, indoor sports space, or housing. Anyone in the network may propose.
Planned, not yet funded
Costed at ¥4.1M a year. The assembly will fund it at 40 more households, because that is where the numbers work.
People who live here
Each of these people has agreed to be contacted. Nothing is passed through us — you get what they chose to share, and they answer or they do not.
Moved 2029 · from Setagaya, Tokyo · logistics → carpentry
“The first winter was harder than anyone told me. The second one I knew forty people and it was the best year of my life.”
Teaches the framing module. Happy to talk to anyone thinking about the apprenticeship.
Moved 2030 · from Cebu · care worker
“I came for the job. I stayed because my daughter has a school where the teachers know her name.”
Runs the Wednesday Japanese class now. Will answer questions in English or Tagalog.
Here all along · third generation · farms 2.1 hectares
“I was against it at the assembly. I said so loudly. I was wrong about the young ones and I have said that too.”
Will tell you honestly what has been difficult about the arrivals.
Moved 2031 · from Osaka · remote, left after 14 months
“It wasn’t for me. Too quiet, and I missed being anonymous. No hard feelings in either direction.”
Agreed to stay listed. If you want to know why people leave, ask this one first.
Come and see first
Friday to Sunday. A room at the hall annexe, dinner on Friday, the market on Saturday. You will meet thirty people whether you plan to or not.
Free · 4 rooms a monthA house of your own, a bicycle, and someone whose job is to introduce you. Work remotely if you need to — the fibre is good.
¥18,000 · returned if you commitPaid work on the restoration crew, a room included, and a decision point at month seven. Come for the job, decide about the life later.
¥295,000/mo · housing includedThe honest numbers
Three businesses opened through the programme and closed again. Twelve percent of the people who arrived have left. One housing cluster never filled. We publish these because a town page with no failures on it is an advertisement, and you would be right not to trust it.
There is no application. Tell us where you are in your life and what is stopping you, and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right town — including when it is not.