Hachioji-Minamino (Minamino City) about 60 years ago and today

History of Hachioji-Minamino (Minamino City)

In the southern part of the City of Hachioji, there is an area where 394.3 hectares of hills were remade at once by a single land readjustment project. The City of Hachioji calls this project the Hachioji New Town Project, and the area also goes by the name Hachioji Minamino City. The roads, parks and residential land were prepared by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, and the work passed through the later Urban Development Corporation to the Urban Renaissance Agency. The planned scale is 8,650 dwellings and a population of 28,000. The center of the location is in a valley between the hills, at an elevation of 120.9 m; the west is 133.7 m and the north 131.2 m, both more than 10 m higher than the center. The east is 124.5 m and the south 120.2 m, staying close to the height of the center. The share of built-up area is 10.5% in 1976 and 72% in 2021.

The road along the valley and the wooded ridges

The 1961-69 photograph is black and white, and a white road descends from the upper right through the center to the lower left, curving gently. Small groups of a few houses sit on both sides of the road, forming a line of villages that threads along the valley floor. The upper side of the frame looks different: small lots of fields are laid out over a flat surface, and along the upper edge you can see rows of houses lined up in a grid and an oval-shaped site. On the border between the flat land and the hills, several bands of dense woods run diagonally from the upper left to the right, and below them ridges and valleys interlock in fine detail. Apart from the bright streaks of the valley floors, most of the hills are dark woods. From slightly right of the center, one smooth thin line with no houses along it descends south in an arc.

In the 1974-78 photograph, the right edge of the frame has changed first. From the middle of the right to the lower right, the hills have been cut, and curving streets have been laid out on the flat ground. In the lower right, surfaces only divided into lots and small roofs that have begun to go up line up. On the upper side, the rows of houses on the flat land have spread, and a thick road runs east-west in an arc south of them. Slightly to the lower right of the center there is a site opened up in white, and several buildings stand on it. The tone divides clearly, pale pink on the lower side of the frame and green on the upper side. The road along the valley and the line of houses, and the layout of the woods and fields in the west, have hardly changed from 1961-69.

Rows of roofs advancing from the east

In the 1979-83 photograph, the residential area on the right extends south, and small roofs line up with no gaps along curving streets. On its western edge, slightly to the lower right of the center, there are a white sports ground and a building with a red roof, and in the lower right corner you can see a wide straight road with a green band in between. The color of the soil of the land grading remains only a little in the middle of the right side. The area west of the road along the valley is still woods and fields, and in the middle of the left side small fields of many colors are grouped together. Toward the left of the center, one white, long, narrow streak runs along the valley floor.

The 1984-86 photograph was taken in October 1984. A wide, bright straight line cuts through the hills from north to south along the right edge and reaches the bottom edge of the frame. Below the center, the hill south of the sports ground has been cut on a large scale, and pale ocher bare ground spreads with intricate edges. In the middle of the left side, too, one small patch of reddish-brown bare ground has opened. Even so, woods and fields still take up most of the area from the center to the left, and the road along the valley follows the same line as before. The city plan for the land readjustment project of the Minami-Hachioji District was decided in December 1985.

The western slopes turned brown

The 1987-90 photograph was taken in October 1989, and it shows the greatest change from the previous photograph. From the left edge to the left of the center, cut ridges and filled valleys continue as brown bands. A white road is drawn from the upper center to the lower left, and terraced flat areas are cut along it. The project plan was approved in October 1988, and the photograph shows the scene about one year after the approval. Below the center, where there was bare ground in 1984-86, large white buildings gather facing the same way, and a sports ground with a reddish-brown track has been made. The straight road at the right edge has a finished road surface, and in the upper right the soil of the land grading extends thinly south of the rows of houses on the flat land.

In March 1997 the town opened and residents began moving in, and Hachioji-Minamino Station on the JR Yokohama Line opened on April 1, the following month. Minamino Elementary School and Minamino Junior High School also opened on the same day. The district plan set in August 1993 listed, as one of its aims, an urban environment linked to the establishment of a new JR station. The station plaza came into use in May 2000; Nanakuni Elementary School and Nanakuni Junior High School opened in April 2003, and Minamino Kimita Elementary School in April 2007. The project ended with the public notice of replotting disposition on March 28, 2008.

A new residential area that kept islands of woods

The left half, brown in 1989, has changed into a residential area of fine streets in today's photograph. Amid densely packed small roofs, there is a corner in the middle of the left side where mid-rise buildings and buildings with large single roofs gather. A wide road runs diagonally from the upper right to the left, and the straight road at the right edge and the residential area on the right dating from the 1970s keep the same shape as in the previous era. From the center downward, groups of woods remain like islands, and to their southeast a cluster of white buildings and a sports ground with a reddish-brown track appear in the same layout as in 1987-90. In the upper middle and in the valley in the upper left, many lots of fields remain, and near the upper edge a wide road runs across from left to right in a gentle arc. In the middle of the cluster of white buildings to the southeast, you can see an open space shaped like combined circles. To its west, in the middle of the bottom edge, several large buildings with flat roofs stand beside a wide parking lot.

According to the statistics of the City of Hachioji, in the Basic Resident Register as of January 1, 2026, 9,943 people live in Minamino 1-chome to 6-chome and 10,811 in Nanakuni 1-chome to 6-chome.

At the standard site in Minamino 3-chome, 560 m from the center of the location, in the records up to the 2026 official land prices (Chika Koji), the lowest value, 180,000 yen per square meter, continued from 2015 to 2021, and from 2022 the value rose every year to reach the highest, 210,000 yen, in 2026.