SHIMABARA, Nagasaki Prefecture—This seaside city has grown in popularity as an on-location site for TV shows and commercials, thanks largely to an unmanned train station.

Omisaki Station, managed by Shimabara Railway Co., is located on a train line that runs along the coast of the Shimabara Peninsula facing the Sea of Ariake.

The station became famous nationwide when it was used in a commercial for the Kirin Lemon soda brand that aired in 2021.

In it, actress-singer Moka Kamishiraishi sings against the backdrop of a yellow train parked at a tiny platform on one side and a beautiful blue ocean on the other.

City officials and Shimabara Station workers have received many inquiries about Omisaki Station since then.

And they have made considerable efforts to bring other film crews to this city of 42,000.

However, locals have long known another side of the station. It is considered “the station closest to the sea in Japan.”

Shimabara Railway devised ways to make the station a pilgrimage site for train fans, including painting footprints on the spot where Kamishiraishi stood during filming and installing a Kirin Lemon vending machine.

PROMOTING ON-LOCATION SHOOTS

Omisaki Station is too small for a parking space. So sightseers usually take a train or a taxi from nearby Shimabara Station to visit Omisaki Station.

Mild traffic jams can form on holidays.

On one evening in early September, a 67-year-old self-employed man from the Kansai region aimed his telephoto lens at the station. He said he wanted to visit the station after watching the commercial and TV shows about railroads.

To save money, the railway buff took multiple trains to arrive at the station while enjoying the scenery along the way.

“It looks good as a photo spot, and it’s a ‘holy place’ for die-hard fans,” he said.

According to Masatoshi Sato, an official of the city’s promotion division in charge of public relations and local revitalization, the number of people interested in Shimabara is growing.

Sato also heads the city’s location-induced tourism section.

The city government started making efforts to bring TV crews to Shimabara in 2018.

The tourism division was initially in charge of the program. But the nine-member city promotion division was founded in 2021, and two officials worked exclusively for the location-induced tourism section.

The team also joined the Location Tourism Council, a general incorporated association affiliated with municipalities and other entities that aim to attract location shooting projects.

The officials attend business matching events to promote Shimabara to film production crews. They sometimes visit broadcasters to market the city.

While dealing with production crews, Sato said, “I learned that even though (Shimabara’s) landscapes look nothing special for us, they may appear striking to others.”

The city’s publicity materials contain information not only on Shimabara Castle, Omisaki Station and other popular sightseeing spots but also on elementary and junior high schools available for filming, rural roads where traffic can be regulated, and fire stations for volunteer firefighters.

Their efforts bore fruit.

The number of on-location shoots in the city rose from 20 in fiscal 2021 to 32 in fiscal 2022 and to 41 in fiscal 2023.

In fiscal 2023, Shimabara served as the locale for 16 information programs, seven travel shows, four variety shows and four TV ads.

Based on production costs and the time allotted to Shimabara-related topics, the section estimates the advertising effect of hosting on-location shoots was about 1.2 billion yen ($7.7 million) in fiscal 2023.

Following last year’s example, the section published 30,000 pamphlets in September this year to introduce on-location sites featured in TV programs and commercials.

The pamphlet is distributed at Nihonbashi Nagasakikan, a specialty shop operated by the Nagasaki prefectural government in Tokyo, and sightseeing facilities in Shimabara.

A growing number of people are also moving into Shimabara. Forty-seven people relocated there in fiscal 2020, before the city promotion division was set up.

The number rose to 78 in fiscal 2022 and to a record high of 86 in fiscal 2023.

The city also raised 816.38 million yen from 50,270 donors in fiscal 2020 under the “furusato nozei” hometown tax payment system, which allows people to pay a portion of their taxes to the municipality of their choice.

The amount increased to 997 million yen from 59,307 donors in fiscal 2023.

Although the city hosts many shoots for TV programs and ads, their advertising effects are not necessarily long-lived, according to Sato.

“To increase the number of fans, we want to attract productions of movies and TV dramas that can make the city their holy spot for a long time to come,” he said.