YOKOHAMA--The district around Yokohama Station remains the king of the hill for the most desirable train station neighborhood to live in in the greater Tokyo area, according to an annual survey. 

For the seventh consecutive year, the Yokohama Station area in the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture earned the top spot in the 2024 greater Tokyo edition of the rankings.

The survey results were released Feb. 28 by Recruit Co., a Tokyo-based provider of human resources and sales promotion services.

It remains to be seen how long into the future the Yokohama Station district can keep all rival neighborhoods at bay.

Yokohama Station, located in Yokohama’s Nishi Ward, scored 1,683 points in the latest survey, up 123 points from the year before.

In particular, a significant surge in popularity came from households of a couple and their child(ren).

“That’s because of the recently closing gap with Tokyo in child care assistance measures, which came on top of the high marks that (the Yokohama Station area) has always received on the ‘working’ and ‘entertainment, shopping and eating fronts,’” said Yoichi Ikemoto, editor-in-chief of the Suumo real estate information website, which analyzed the survey results.

The Yokohama city government waived all fees for children’s medical care, without any restrictions on household incomes, in August last year. The municipal government also plans to start providing school lunches to all junior high school students in fiscal 2026.

CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE MEASURES INCREASING

The approval of similar measures for families with small children by the local government partly accounts for Yokohama’s popularity as the most desirable place to live in, Ikemoto said.

“The city of Yokohama used to lag far behind Tokyo in child care assistance measures,” the Suumo editor-in-chief said. “Dual-income households with small children, who weren’t pleased with that, have probably come to think that things have improved.”

Redevelopment in progress of an area extending from Yokohama Station to the Minato Mirai 21 Bayside district likely also helped attract families raising small children.

The Minato Mirai district, in particular, is the seat of many corporate head offices and research facilities.

And many of these corporations operate museums open to the public, such as the Keikyu Museum housed in the head office building of the Keikyu Group, a railroad network operator, and the Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery, offered by the auto giant.

“The proximity to similar facilities, where families with small children have opportunities to have fun and learn about things, is a strength of the Yokohama Station area that is not available for rival neighborhoods,” Ikemoto said.

The other entrants into the top 30 from elsewhere in Kanagawa Prefecture were Kamakura Station in Kamakura, at 12th place, down from eighth last year; Musashi-Kosugi Station in Kawasaki’s Nakahara Ward, at 14th, unchanged; Sakuragicho Station in Yokohama’s Naka Ward, at 19th, up from 20th; and Minato Mirai Station in Yokohama’s Nishi Ward, at 24th, up from 26th.

Three train station neighborhoods in Yokohama’s Bayside area, including Yokohama Station, thus made it into the 30 most preferred in the latest rankings, whereas other communities elsewhere in the prefecture struggled.

YOKOHAMA’S ‘UNRIVALED STATUS’

Ikemoto said he believes all the acclaim is due to an “unrivaled status” acquired by Yokohama, which he said is now an “invincible community.”

But the question is how long things will remain like that, and what will be the key for allowing Yokohama to remain the public’s choice as the preferred community of residence.

“The key lies in whether it can turn into a more friendly community for two-income couples with small children,” Ikemoto said.

He said he believes that would require more than just child care assistance measures provided by the public administration.

“It is essential for the entire community to work as one, for example, on education for developing personnel who will be playing active roles in the future,” Ikemoto said. “No other community would be a match for Yokohama any longer if that were to become a reality.”

RESPONDENTS ASKED TO PICK 3

The survey for the latest greater Tokyo area edition of the rankings of most desirable train station districts was conducted online of male and female residents of Tokyo and four neighboring prefectures--Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba and Ibaraki--aged between 20 and 49.

The respondents were asked to choose up to three top train station neighborhoods or up to three top municipalities they wished to reside in.

The answers they selected were allotted points according to their order of preference, which were totaled to compile the rankings.

After Yokohama Station, the runner-up was Omiya Station in Saitama’s Omiya Ward, and third place went to Kichijoji Station in Musashino, western Tokyo.

The most common response for the appeal of the Yokohama Station area, or the reason for wanting to live there, was the “availability of attractive workplaces and businesses.”

Also among the top 10 reasons for wanting to live in the Yokohama Station district were the “availability of an extensive lineup of cultural and amusement facilities,” the “availability of large-scale shopping complexes including shopping malls and department stores,” and the “availability of restaurants and other shops with a likable atmosphere and good taste.”