News / World
Oze Becomes Japan's 29th National Park
The Oze area, spanning across Fukushima, Gunma, Niigata and Tochigi prefectures, has become Japan's 29th national park.
Oze, formerly part of Nikko National Park, is now an independent national park, including the Aizukomagatake Mountain and the surrounding land in Fukushima Prefecture. It will be the first park to be celebrated and established since the Kushiro marshland in Hokkaido in 1987.
On Thursday approximately 200 residents, park visitors and enthusiasts participated in a ceremony to mark the elevation of the park’s status. As of 2007, August 30 the “Oze Day” has been declared to be the day to "conserve, love and hand down to future generations" Oze's natural beauty.
The Oze Preservation Foundation will hold an "Oze Summit" in Katashinamura this Friday, with participation from the Gunma, Fukushima and Niigata governors, who will adopt the "Oze National Park Declaration" on local participation in park management, declaring to make the area a model national park for the 21st century.
