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Ise-Shima NP, Mie
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Goza’s summer calendar once included a sazae scramble: local ama supplied fresh turban snails, then beachgoers rushed into the shallows to grab them. The event appears in records from 2014 and 2019.
Goza’s ama can locate hidden abalone by reading shoreline landmarks against underwater rocks. Kyoto researchers filming 2 veteran divers also found they use one kick to descend quickly and another to hold steady on the seabed.
A beach candle night grew from one resident’s idea and about 100 lights in 2014 to 1,000 candles along nearly 1 km of sand in 2015; local children helped prepare the paper-bag candle holders.
In a 2014 sand treasure hunt, organizers buried 50 prize cards. Winners could trade them for an Ago Bay cruise or freshly grilled batagai—hiougigai, a Shima specialty.
The Environment Ministry’s profile notes fish visible to swimmers beneath the clear water, and says household wastewater was fully treated, so its effect on this bathing area was very small.
Goza Shirahama was selected for Japan’s 2006 “100 Best Beaches for Bathing,” one of 100 chosen from 191 nominees. The ministry’s judging also considered safety, access, environmental care and people’s connection to water.
Neighboring Goza Port was known as a bait-supply base for pole-and-line skipjack boats, and far-ranging fishing vessels called there often. Research links this role to sardines entering the local waters.
Goza’s beach tourism grew beside its fishing life: tourism took off around the 1965 paving of the coastal road, and at its peak the village had more than 30 minshuku—small inns—serving summer visitors.
A 2006 Environment Ministry profile recorded a locally organized cleanup: Goza’s fisheries cooperative and volunteers cleaned the whole beach 2–3 times each summer, while bins were kept at shops rather than on the sand.
