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Oze NP, Fukushima / Gunma / Niigata
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Before boardwalks, hikers could wade knee-deep through water and come back coated in peat mud. About 3 km of log walkway was laid across Ozegahara in 1958.
Early boardwalks were just one plank wide. Hikers reportedly played rock-paper-scissors to decide who would step down into the marsh to let the other pass—even while crossing Ozegahara.
At first, the boards were mainly meant to make the muddy marsh easier to cross. People still wandered off them, trampling plants, so the walkways gradually became essential protection for the wetland.
Ozegahara’s peat builds up at only about 0.7–0.8 mm a year. Fukushima Prefecture notes that even a 1 cm footprint can take more than 10 years to recover.
Oze’s boardwalks are also working routes: local porters, called bokka, carry food and supplies to mountain huts on their backs, sometimes weighing 70–100 kg.
During a 2019 typhoon, floodwater lifted and shifted a section of Ozegahara boardwalk despite its stakes; another piece washed away. The marsh’s paths face real river-flood forces.
Oze’s roughly 65 km of boardwalk uses locally sourced larch. With no road access, replacement materials are brought in mainly by helicopter, then installed by hand.
After rain, Japanese fire-bellied newts sometimes appear on the wet boardwalks. Their bright red undersides explain the Japanese name akahara-imori—literally, “red-bellied newt.”
