For the 19th year in a row, Nagano Prefecture has ranked No. 1 by monthly magazine Inaka Gurashi no Hon (Country life book) as the best prefecture to relocate to for people seeking a better quality of life. Do you agree?

Nice area but you have to have a fetish for shovelling snow for 3 months every year.

Nice area but you have to have a fetish for shovelling snow for 3 months every year.

It hardly snows in most of Nagano. It rarely snows in Matsumoto or Nagano City, and only 10-15cm when it does. Even spots 30km or so from the ski resorts will be mostly snow free. Nagano is Japan's third driest prefecture, with all the snow in the north.

19 years ago, you could live in many parts of Nagano without air con. We built our place in 2007 but it had to be retrofitted.

We left Nagano in 2002 because my back could no longer deal with the winter snow removal which was always more than one meter deep. Beautiful place to live otherwise.

Spring/summer/autumn must be beautiful but winter probably too cold for me.

t hardly snows in most of Nagano. It rarely snows in Matsumoto or Nagano City, and only 10-15cm when it does. Even spots 30km or so from the ski resorts will be mostly snow free.

Didn't know that, thought there is more snow than that.

Moved to Nagano from Tokyo at the end of December. We had to dig our way to the door. Following March was my birthday and for the first time I had snow for it. That year the winter was long and cold.

Didn't know that, thought there is more snow than that.

Just an example but here a roadside camera next to Matsukawa Michi-no-eki on the road to Hakuba from the south. Its 35km from Hakuba Goryu ski resort. Hakuba is having a once-in-fifty-years level of snow this winter. Happo One has 6m at the top.

http://www.avis.ne.jp/cgi-usr/chouken_gazou.cgi?tiiki=012

Nagano Prefecture continues south for at least another hour and a half from Matsukawa until you cross the border with Gifu in the Enakyo Tunnel. Almost all of it will be snow free. If all of Nagano got as much snow as Nozawa Onsen, there would be no Nagano apples or grapes because the trees and vines would get smashed to bits.

Nagano certainly deserves to be up towards the top. The fact that it is close to Tokyo and Tokyo retirees who want to be able to get back to Tokyo for a good number of reasons skew the numbers.

For the shoveling snow comments, if that's a big concern choose the eastern side of the prefecture.

I don't know about living there but Nagano is by far my favorite prefecture for hiking, seeing nature, etc. If I move, it would have to be to a much warmer place with a lower cost of living.

Lived there for a brief period, out in the sticks a bit. The nature was nice, with an honorable exemption for the mukades, and overall there was nothing to complain about apart from the possibility of your water pipes freezing overnight.

Nagano city itself it a bit meh for me, but I suppose living in Tokyo sort of spoils you in that way.

There's a ginormous difference between winter and summer temperatures,much like neighbouring Gifu,but it's easy to escape the heat by heading up to the high mountains,such as Utsukushigahara.

fwiw, Inaka Gurashi no Hon, which hosted this poll, will not be read by many hikers or skiers who have their own magazines. This begs the question of why people wanting a country life would choose Nagano. To live like Thoreau, there are better places than Nagano. Places that are warmer with much longer growing seasons and more inaka charm. Nagano is more "oshare" (posh, well appointed, etc.) for people who cannot let go of the city or or do outdoor sports, which themselves are "oshare".

I have a classmate living there and says there's no place she'd rather be. Life there is slow, peaceful and there's lots of nature. Jobs are relatively easier to find as despite being a countryside due to population centers and resorts.

19 years in a row can be no accident, considering there are 47 prefectures, even twice in a row would be a fluke!

Life there is slow, peaceful and there's lots of nature. Jobs are relatively easier to find as despite being a countryside due to population centers and resorts.

Above thus seems likely, great life balance and nature, probably attracts like-minded folks who are healthy, active and positive, those less vigorous simply don't stick around long, while those that remain are truly committed!

Would expect general health of their population to equally superior, probably far lower rates of cancer, heart disease and cognitive decline than overall population.

Far easier to be happy when you're healthy!