Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, is a castle town surrounded by mountains in the central part of Honshu, and is rich in history. It has developed into three "city capitals" - the "city of mountains," the "city of music," and the "city of learning." Matsumoto Castle, a national treasure registered as a three-star tourist destination in the Michelin Green Guide, is the oldest five-story, six-storey castle tower in Japan. The tower is a national treasure and the castle ruins are designated as a national historic site. The castle tower, which has withstood 400 years of wind and snow, conveys the excellent castle-building techniques of the Warring States period to the present day. The city is also home to mountain resorts where mountains, greenery, and waterscapes are woven together, such as Kamikochi, one of Japan's leading mountain scenic spots and designated as a "Special Place of Scenic Beauty and Special Natural Monument," also known as "the place where the gods descend," Mt. Norikura, with its chain of 3,000m-class peaks of the Northern Alps, and Utsukushigahara Plateau, which offers a 360-degree panoramic view from an altitude of 2,000m. And Shinshu Matsumoto Airport, the only air gateway in Shinshu, is known as the airport closest to the sky in Japan, and operates three routes (Sapporo, Kobe, and Fukuoka).
Aiming to be a "town you'll want to visit again and again," we are focusing on disseminating information and further unearthing and refining our resources so that tourists can relax and feel satisfied.