The number of tourists visiting hot spring resorts in Japan has decreased in the 1990s after the collapse of the Japanese economy bubble. As a result, many businesses in the private tourism industry, including hotels, have gone bankrupt, with their buildings and properties left neglected. In some cases, private companies have purchased the controlling number of shares in the bankrupted businesses and revitalized their facilities; however, this was not common, because the overall number of visiting tourists was still going down. Hence, there remained many abandoned buildings across the popular tourist destinations of Japan. Nowadays, these buildings have a negative impact on the landscape of these places, as well as the safety of the people living there. These problems are ruinous for the tourism industry, but the solution to them is yet to be developed. The local governments also see this as a large problem, but interventions into privately owned properties are difficult to arrange within the public sector.

 This paper examines and describes the process of revitalizing the lands of bankrupted buildings in several hot spring resorts located in the city of Kaga. In Kaga, beginning from the year 2000, both the local government and the capitals outside the city have aggressively acquired these lands. The local government acquired 14 buildings in three hot spring resorts in Kaga. They are located in the central area of the hot spring resorts, which enhance the beauty of Kaga’s landscape, the safety of its citizens and its image as an attractive tourist destination; moreover, their location allows the city to avoid uncontrolled redevelopment. Most buildings were demolished to create squares. However, bankrupted property was acquired not only by the government, but also by various private companies, who have purchased 21 buildings. These enterprises bought out lands in the surrounding scenic areas, with most of them re-utilizing the buildings instead of tearing them down. Based on its analysis, this paper proposes an experimental planning methodology for revitalizing bankrupted facilities in tourist destinations.