Kaneyama, Fukushima

Kaneyama is a town in the mountainous northwest of the Aizu region of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, bordering Niigata Prefecture to the west and noted for its scenery. As of 1 March 2020 it had an estimated population of 1,972 in 1,037 households over 293.92 square kilometres. It has no town center, being instead a set of small villages scattered along the Tadami River, and it has many hot springs, including Numazawa Onsen and Oshio Onsen, as well as Lake Numazawa and Mount Mikagura. The climate is humid continental (Köppen Dfa) with warm summers and cold, heavily snowy winters. The area was part of ancient Mutsu Province and of the Aizu Domain; the villages of Yokota, Kawaguchi, Numazawa and Honna merged on 1 July 1955 to form the village of Kaneyama, which became a town on 31 March 1958. The hamlet of Mifuke on the banks of the Tadami was abandoned after a landslide in April 1964 and is now a ghost town. Hydroelectric power from many dams on the Tadami is the main source of revenue, and the JR East Tadami Line serves the town. Its population peaked in the 1950s and is now about a quarter of what it was a century ago.