Kim Kyung-il, Mayor of Paju, Officially Visits Kitahiroshima City, Japan

Exploring the Secret Behind Attracting 3.7 Million Annual Visitors with the Retractable Dome Stadium Escon Field
Benchmarking Proactive Administration That Transformed a 57,000-Population Bed Town into a Sports and Cultural Complex City

Kim Kyung-il, Mayor of Paju City, is taking a commemorative photo after officially visiting Kitahiroshima City, a small town in Hokkaido, Japan, on the 24th.

Kim Kyung-il, mayor of Paju City, officially visited the small city of Kitahiroshima in Hokkaido, Japan, on the 24th. The Paju City inspection team led by Mayor Kim Kyung-il is conducting benchmarking to explore the secrets and implications of Kitahiroshima City's innovative administration, which transformed the city into a sports and cultural complex city by leveraging the attraction of the state-of-the-art retractable dome stadium, Escon Field.

Kitahiroshima City is a small city with a population of 57,000 located about 20 km from Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. It was typically one of the bedroom towns surrounding a large city, but with the opening of Escon Field in the spring of 2023, it has made a remarkable transformation into a sports and cultural complex city overnight, attracting attention as a successful case of proactive administration that opened a new path for the local economy.

The Paju City inspection team plans to tour major facilities of Escon Field stadium and urban infrastructure such as Odori Park located in the city center during a one-night, two-day schedule starting on the 24th. The team will especially listen to in-depth explanations about the city's strategy and success factors for attracting Escon Field, as well as the ripple effects on regional development, and will carefully examine the stadium facilities and even the facility operation and marketing methods.

In 2016, Kitahiroshima City proposed to the Nippon-Ham Fighters, a Japanese professional baseball team searching for a new stadium within Sapporo City at the time, that the city would provide a construction site. This led to the team's sudden decision to relocate, which required them to accept unfavorable conditions to remain in Sapporo City.

Escon Field is Japan's first natural grass stadium with a retractable roof and attracted significant attention both inside and outside Japan from its opening year. Moreover, the stadium, which can accommodate 35,000 people, is equipped with various convenience facilities such as hot spring saunas, hotels, shopping facilities, and restaurants, attracting visitors even on days without baseball games. According to the city, Escon Field welcomed 3.7 million visitors annually in 2023, including 2 million baseball spectators. One stadium supports the entire city with a population of 57,000.

The Paju City inspection team expects this official visit to be a valuable opportunity to directly witness the remarkable achievements brought about by Kitahiroshima City's bold and challenging strategy to attract Escon Field.

Mayor Kim Kyung-il of Paju City said, "The bold administration of Kitahiroshima City that attracted Escon Field and the achievements gained through it have great implications for Paju City, which dreams of an era of 10 million tourists. It is also noteworthy that a small city, which was merely a bedroom town adjacent to a large city, has transformed into a sports and cultural complex city, securing future growth engines for the city." He added, "We expect that this visit will be a great help in devising new development methods that can improve the quality of life for Paju citizens and secure future growth engines for Paju City, which dreams of becoming a self-sufficient city of one million people."