Mr. Ryoichi Iinuma (right) and the Kashiwa City Mayor (left)

A farmer in Kashiwa City, Chiba, has donated a 5350sqm block of land to the city to be used for a children’s playground and as an emergency evacuation site.

The land has a market value of approximately 640 million Yen (8.3 million USD). It is 700 meters from JR Minami Kashiwa Station and is adjacent to the Shintomicho residential neighborhood.

Mr. Ryoichi Iinuma’s request is that the land is used for the benefit of the community and is not subdivided. The block adjoins Mr. Iinuma’s home and is currently planted with chestnut trees.

During the Meiji Period, the area was once made up of many large privately owned blocks of land. Mr. Iinuma is the fourth generation of one of the many farming families that originally settled in the area. However, as residential development began to grow, the large blocks were subdivided, and very few large blocks of land remain.

The donated land

Sources:
The Mainichi Shimbun, February 4, 2012.
The Tokyo Shimbun, February 6, 2012.

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