Shingo Is Its Own Village, and It Keeps an Empty-House Bank
Shingo Village, Sannohe District, listed 1,911 people on August 31, 2026. The village runs its own akiya bank. It is not a ward of Ninohe.
Shingo is a village. The address line on its own website says so: 〒039-1801 青森県三戸郡新郷村大字戸来字風呂前10. Sannohe District, Aomori Prefecture. Ninohe is a different city, in Iwate, across the prefectural line. Anyone who writes that Shingo has been absorbed into Ninohe is misreading the map.
The count
On October 15, 2026, the village homepage listed 956 men, 955 women, 1,911 people in all, and 863 households, dated 令和8年8月31日 — August 31, 2026. At least one other page on the same site, with the same date, listed 1,913. Use the homepage figure, about 1,911, and look again if you need the count for a form. Do not use a number from memory, and do not use a mid-century peak this article has not verified.
The office is open 8:15–17:00, Monday to Friday, closed on holidays and from December 29 through January 3. The published telephone is 0178-78-2111.
The empty-house bank
The village runs 新郷村空き家バンク. The page states the purpose in plain language: owners in the village register vacant houses, and people who want to use one can read that information, so that exchange with the city and people actually settling might give the place some life.
Owners who have the right to sell or rent can apply. Houses at risk of collapse, or houses that cannot function as a place to live, are not accepted. A registration lasts two years. People who want a house apply as prospective users. The village says it will register someone who would live there, or stay regularly, and contribute through work in the economy, education, culture, or the arts — or someone who would live there, or stay regularly, and get along with residents while learning the village's environment and daily culture. That registration also lasts two years. Negotiating for a listed house requires a further form and a written pledge.
The village is explicit about what it will not do. It does not join the negotiation, the sale, or the lease. Disputes are for the parties. An owner may ask the Aomori association of licensed real-estate agents to mediate, where the village has an agreement, but that is an option on the page, not a promise that a particular house will be handled for you.
Some listings are also pointed at the national vacant-house banks the page names: at home and LIFULL HOME'S. This article does not count the listings. The page did not, and a count copied from a third-party site would be stale the week it was typed.
There is a separate subsidy for reuse of vacant houses, under the village's own grant outline. The amounts live in that outline and in the budget, not in this essay. Inquiries go to the Planning, Commerce, Industry, and Tourism Division at 0178-78-2111, fax 0178-78-2118, kikaku@vill.shingo.lg.jp.
The tomb is a different desk
The empty-house bank is a settlement program. The Tomb of Christ is a sightseeing site the village publishes on its own, with an address in Herai, Nozuki, a museum, and a stated distance of 3 kilometers from the village office. Moving into a vacant house is not a pilgrimage, and visiting the tomb is not an application for a key. Both are real. They are administered as different things.
Sources
- 新郷村 — population and household count as of August 31, 2026, and the office address.
- 新郷村空き家バンク制度 — rules, term, national bank links, and the limit on the village's role in a contract.
- 新郷村アクセスマップ — 3 kilometers from the office to the tomb.