Tomioka Onsen Gunma

Tomioka, in the southern Gunma highlands along the Kabra River, is home to the Tomioka Silk Mill — Japan's first modern integrated silk reeling factory, built in 1872 under the Meiji government's industrial modernisation programme using French engineering expertise, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 as the centrepiece of the Silk Industry Legacy Sites of Japan. Tomioka Onsen Gunma draws on chloride-rich thermal waters from the geological resources of the southern Gunma basin, offering restorative baths in a UNESCO World Heritage city whose remarkable industrial heritage building — still intact after 150 years — preserves the architecture and machinery of the revolutionary moment when Japan adopted Western industrial technology to transform its economy. The Tomioka Silk Mill UNESCO site with its extraordinary French Renaissance industrial architecture, the Kurabuchi traditional silk weaving workshops, and the Gunma Prefectural Sericulture Technology Centre documenting the silk industry that transformed modern Japan create an industrially and historically exceptional spa destination in southern Gunma Prefecture.