Traveler Attraction Initiative for Nishikawa Town, Yamagata Prefecture, Combining “Sauna” with Local Tourism Resources
Our Role
- Served as the single point of contact for overall project management, stakeholder coordination, and on-site liaison, ensuring smooth project execution
- Produced a mobile sauna unit, creating a design with strong visual appeal that also prioritized safety and portability
- Built a brand website to communicate the project's concept and vision, handling everything from planning and structure to design and implementation in-house
- Partnered with the local municipality to conduct a monitor tour as part of a regional event, overseeing on-site operations on the day and validating the project's reach and experiential value
Project Overview
To create new tourism assets for Nishikawa Town, we planned and produced a mobile sauna called "DOKOSA" as an experiential content offering in harmony with the region's nature and culture. The sauna was mounted on the bed of a light truck, enabling flexible deployment across various locations throughout the town—from scenic spots to event venues.
Multiple experience events were held, with the aim of creating and communicating "a one-of-a-kind experience" by combining the region's celebrated bathing culture, magnificent natural scenery, and human connection.
Background
As sauna culture grows in popularity across Japan, demand is rising for experiential content that encourages extended stays and exploration of local areas. At the same time, many regions have remained limited to existing bathing facilities, leaving a gap when it comes to creating distinctive tourism experiences.
This project focused on Nishikawa Town in Yamagata Prefecture, which had already been actively pursuing "sauna-based community revitalization." By leveraging local assets such as the natural scenery of Mt. Gassan and the town's hot spring culture, we worked to create a mobile sauna experience that truly could not be found anywhere else.
By adopting a vehicle-mounted sauna format rather than a fixed facility, the project could be linked to seasonal conditions, scenic landscapes, and local events—making it possible to deploy anywhere, amplifying its promotional power, and opening up new possibilities for the region as a tourism content offering with real experiential value.
Effectiveness
A total of 10 monitor tours were conducted, with 40 participants experiencing the mobile sauna. Feedback from attendees was highly positive, with comments such as "You could see the scenery outside from inside the sauna—it felt so open and freeing" and "Being able to jump into the snow after the sauna was absolutely incredible." The combination of the region's unique locations and the sauna experience was very well received.
The sauna continues to be used at town-organized events and other occasions, playing an ongoing role as a tool for communicating the appeal of the local community.
