OVERVIEW

The area of Minami Arima is poor in flat land, therefore rock walls and paddy fields have been constructed in order to use the narrow valley efficiently. In 1991 these terraced rice fields in the Shirakino-Tanimizu area were nominated by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as one of the 100 best terraced rice fields in Japan and in 1996 they have been awarded by the same Minister a prize at the 5th competition for Japanese beautiful villages.