The former railway land at Kofu Station North Exit: before and during land readjustment in photographs from 3 eras

Published: November 5, 2026 / About 8 min read

Plazas and public buildings came to line the north exit of Kofu Station only after a land readjustment using former railway land began in fiscal 1991. Of the photographs from 3 eras that can be opened at Kofu Station North Exit, 1961-69 and 1974-78 come before the project started and FY2007 comes in the middle of it, so you can set the former railway land before and during its rearrangement side by side at one location.

This article sets the years and months of the land readjustment and of the improvements around the station in the City of Kofu's materials beside the times the photographs were taken, and checks in figures how the use of the land in the project area was rearranged.

Two photographs before the land readjustment and one during it

The 1961-69 photograph of this location was taken in May 1962, and the 1974-78 photograph in 1975. Both come before the land readjustment started in fiscal 1991, and from the 1975 photograph to the start there are 16 years. The FY2007 photograph comes at a point a little past one third of the 49 fiscal years of the project period.

The end of the project period, fiscal 2039, is the value on the City of Kofu's page updated in July 2026. The same page also carries a public notice, announced in July 2026, about notifications of provisional replotting in this project, so the land readjustment was still going on as of 2026.

The photograph eras and the improvements at the north exit

The years and months of the improvements in the City of Kofu's materials are set here beside the times the photographs of this location were taken. The month of the FY2007 photograph is unknown, so events within fiscal 2007 are marked "Same fiscal year" without deciding which came first.

February and March 2007 fall at the end of fiscal 2006, so the FY2007 photograph was taken after the fire station and the historical park were finished and before the North Exit station plaza and Yocchabare Plaza were. Of the 7 facilities in the table, 2 were finished before the photograph, 1 in the same fiscal year, and 4 after it, so the peak of the improvements comes after the FY2007 photograph.

1961-69 and 1974-78: the north exit while the station grounds kept their width

The commentary on the Kofu Station North Exit location page sums up how the 2 photographs of May 1962 and 1975 show the bundle of tracks swelling west of the station and the houses spreading north, together with the route the tracks took when the line opened in 1903.

FY2007: a photograph in the middle of the land readjustment

The FY2007 photograph was taken while the land left by the station grounds was being rearranged, and it falls in the 5th fiscal year of the hub development project of fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2010.

A land readjustment that reduced building lots and increased public land

According to the City of Kofu's materials, the Kofu Station Area Land Readjustment Project rebuilds the land base using large vacant areas such as former railway land. The project area is 21.9 hectares, the total project cost is 45.85 billion yen, and the average land reduction ratio is 18.63%.

Building lots shrink by 4.8 hectares, and public land grows by the same 4.8 hectares to a little over 2.8 times its size. Public land goes from a little over 10% of the area before the project to a third of it after the project. In the zoning, 20.7 hectares is a commercial district and 1.2 hectares a Category II residential district, so a little over 90% of the area is commercial district.

Facilities built at the north exit by the hub development project

Separately from the land readjustment, the City of Kofu carried out the Kofu Station Area Hub Development Project over 25.5 hectares from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2010. The project cost was 2.4 billion yen.

The city's materials describe Koshu Yumekoji as a facility run by a private business.

The 8.1 hectares of the Civic Core District

In the Kofu City Civic Core District Development Plan (8.1 hectares), to which the national government agreed in March 2004, the arrangement of facilities and functions has 11 items, and 2 of them, Yamanashi Bunka Kaikan and Bell Classic Kofu, are included as buildings that existed before the plan. A new joint government building gathering 9 offices of national administrative agencies, NHK Kofu Station, and the prefectural library are also among the items.

Check with the share of built-up area and official land prices

In the land use data of the National Land Numerical Information, the share of built-up area within a 500 m radius of this location fell by 9 points, from 100% in 1976 to 91% in 2021. 1976 is the year after the 1975 photograph and 15 years before the land readjustment started, and at that time the whole 500 m radius was built-up.

The standard site of the official land prices (Chika Koji) is a residential lot in Takeda 3-chome, Kofu, 1,060 m from the center, and it is not a value for the commercial district that makes up a little over 90% of the project area. The highest up to the 2026 publication is 83,900 yen in 2004, and the lowest up to the 2026 publication is 61,000 yen in both 2024 and 2026.

The official prices are values as of January 1 of each year, so the 66,700 yen of 2010 is a value from before the North Exit station plaza was completed in July 2010, and the 63,000 yen of 2013 is also from before Koshu Yumekoji opened in March 2013.

Comparison with other station areas, including prefectural capitals

The photograph eras and the shares of built-up area at 4 other locations whose station-area photographs start from 1961-69 are shown in the table below, and the article that compares the former sites at Hamamatsu Station and Toyama Station sums up how to compare land next to stations.

The article that reads former rail yard sites sums up other cases in which former railway land turned into towns.

Step through the eras to check

If you switch back and forth between 1974-78 and FY2007 on the Kofu Station North Exit location page, you can compare the land north of the station before and during the land readjustment.

The prices in this article are actual examples at each point in time and do not reflect market prices after the article was written.