Minamisanriku eco-festival featuring underwater wine and golden eagle release

Tourism Promotion Committee of the Minamisanriku Town Tourism Association will co-host “Satoumi Satoyama WEEKs2026” from 31 October to 8 November. The nine-day event takes place across Minamisanriku Town in Miyagi Prefecture.

Local businesses and civic groups operating across forestry, agriculture, and marine sectors will lead interactive sessions designed to connect participants with the town’s natural resources. The event will offer visitors hands-on educational tours and regional activities under the core vision of updating Minamisanriku through tourism and the environment.

Minamisanriku features coastal waters and forested hills in close proximity. The town has developed its local industries around these natural resources, but recent shifts in marine and terrestrial ecosystems have presented new environmental challenges. Established in 2021, the annual event provides a platform to re-examine the town’s movement towards a circular society, which began following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

The 2026 edition presents several specialised ecological and industrial programmes. On opening day, 31 October, the Minamisanriku Golden Eagle Rewilding Forum 2026 will examine nature-positive corporate strategies and present updates on the release of zoo-bred golden eagles into the wild, focusing on the theme of taking a future where golden eagles soar in Minamisanriku forward. On 8 November, a workshop titled “SEED TO TABLE: Anatomising Land-based Seaweed Aquaculture” will introduce land-based seaweed cultivation efforts launched in summer 2026, allowing participants to observe, handle, and taste cultivated seaweed while exploring differences between land and sea cultivation. On the same day, the Shizugawa Bay Underwater Wine Ageing Experience will enable participants to board fishing vessels, attach wine bottles to nets, and submerge them at oyster farms in Shizugawa Bay, followed by a meal and wine tasting at Minamisanriku Winery.

Additional events across the town cover satoyama autumn sweet potato harvests, open-fire rice ball cooking, fossil excavation, Tokura oyster processing tours, wood-splitting sauna sessions, and visits to local biogas facilities. Community-focused options also include disaster mitigation storytelling buses, children’s disaster preparedness activities, overnight stays at traditional indigo farmhouses, and the Kaminoyama Shiokaze Cultural Festival.

By integrating regional conservation with inquiry-based tourism, Minamisanriku demonstrates how rural communities can shift travel from passive consumption into active environmental stewardship. Connecting terrestrial satoyama management with coastal satoumi protection highlights the interdependence of land and ocean health, offering a practical reference for regional revitalisation grounded in ecological accountability.

More details can be found on the Satoumi Satoyama WEEKs2026 portal site.