NAGOYA (Kyodo) -- A small oceanside city in Aichi Prefecture is selling the dream of a life by the beach in hopes of attracting new residents who want access to sea, surf and sun.

The central Japan city of Tahara is marketing a housing development that offers potential buyers access to some of the country's best waves, suitable for all levels of surfer.

In 2016, Tahara first came up with its plan to build a "surf town" in an area five minutes' walk from the Atsumi Peninsula's Taiheiyo Long Beach.

The city's plan is simple: draw surf lovers from across Japan to live locally, bolstering a population that had shrunk to just under 59,000 as of the end of 2023.

At the time, the planner's architectural renderings of the completed project showed palm tree-lined roads with white houses nestled among lush greenery resembling an overseas resort. "We imagined a townscape that surfers will find appealing," said the contractor.

In addition to pitching single-family homes, the city office made other promotional efforts, including offering subsidies and other incentives to potential home buyers.

And the early results have been good, with all three homes up for sale in the first phase in April quickly finding buyers.

This initial success did not come without difficulties, however, as there was some local opposition born from past incidents in which surfers had damaged crops and gardens near the beach.

The locals feared more surfers in the area would create more "surfing nuisance."

Masataka Kato, 71, who operates a surf shop in Tahara, helped bridge the divide between the two sides by organizing events that brought the surfing community to help collect trash around the beach among other goodwill gestures, paving the way for better relations and more trust.

"We went through a lot of hardships, but now even the local government is very supportive of the project. There is no other beach with such good facilities," said Kato, who moved to Tahara from another city in Aichi Prefecture 15 years ago.

Takashi Matsuhashi, a professor at Takushoku University and an expert on municipal government sports policy, pointed out, "It's important to establish a community where newcomers and locals can fit in together." Tahara is a case where it has worked, he says.

Strong cooperation between the city authorities and local citizens in Tahara bore fruit in successfully hosting the International Surfing Association's World Surfing Games in 2018.

Matsuhashi predicts there will be "more and more examples of regional development focused on single sports in the future."

Now, Tahara residents can look forward to its beach hosting the surfing competition at the 2026 Asian Games, to be held in Aichi Prefecture.

"We want to further strengthen our image as a surf town," Tomonobu Matsumoto, a senior official in the construction department of the municipal government, said.

If all goes smoothly, new owners are expected to move next spring to a hilltop development site with picturesque views, where 25 residential lots have been built as part of the city's wider plan to boost its population to 60,000 by 2040.