Minobu town 

The town of Minobu is located in the south of Yamanashi. The Fuji River, one of the three big fast-flowing rivers in Japan, runs through the middle of the town in a north-south direction. The Fuji River has as its tributaries the Hayakawa River and some other rivers of various sizes. A plain stretches along the Fuji River from the central basin of its tributaries to the point where they merge at their lower reaches. The Japan Railways Minobu line runs along the east bank of the Fuji River. On the west side, Route 52 crosses the plain in a north-south direction and Route 300 passes the town of Shincho in an east-west course. The Fuji River is sandwiched between a steep range of mountains to the east and the west. The town of Nakatomi, renowned as the home of Japanese paper, is located to the north of Shincho. To the south we can find Minobusan Kuonji (Mount Minobu Kuon Temple) and to the east the hot spring town of Shimobe and Motosuko (Lake Motosu), one of the Fuji Five Lakes.

The area of the town of Minobu is 304.83km² (Former Shimobe town: 130.34km², former Nakatomi town: 43.37km², former Minobu town: 131.12km²). Minobu occupies 6.8% of the area of Yamanashi Prefecture. As regards land usage, 3.49km² is for housing C9(1.1%), 5.78km for farming (1.9％) and 243.39km is taken up by woodlands (79.8%). The housing and farming areas are relatively small, but the woodlands are fairly extensive.

According to the National Census conducted in the year 2000, the population of Shincho, the recently created new town, was 18,021. Over a forty- year period, from 1960 to 2000, the population decreased by 49.4%, which is a considerable drop.. Recently though, the pace of the decrease has slowed down somewhat. The population was 22,327 in 1985. It decreased to 19,570 in 1995 and dropped further to 18,021 in 2000. It continues to decrease. The age component ratio is 12.2% for the 0 to 14 year-old bracket, 54.6% for 15 to 64 year-old bracket and 33.2% for 65 year-old and older bracket. Compared with the age component ratio for Yamanashi as a whole (15.5% for 0 to 14 years old, 64.9% for 15 to 64 years old, and 19.5% for 65 years old and older) it is clear that the population is aging. The number of households was 6,382 in 2000 according to the National Census. The average number of family members for each household is 2.82 people, lower than the average for the whole of Yamanashi (2.88 people).

Yuba, bamboo charcoal, Nishijima Washi (Japanese paper), home-made miso, shiitake mushrooms, green tea, and yamame (a kind of trout).