See the World’s Smallest Park, a Teeny-Tiny Enclave in Japan That’s About the Size of Four Sheets of Paper

Parks come in all shapes and sizes, from humble city playgrounds to sprawling nature preserves and everything in between. But one park in Japan is so teeny-tiny that it recently set a new world record.

Located in the town of Nagaizumi roughly an hour from Tokyo, the park measures just 372 square inches, or 2.6 square feet—about the same size as four sheets of printer paper placed next to each other. Despite its diminutive size, the park is far from empty: It has some grass, a seat and a decorative stepping stone.

The park was constructed in 1988, not far from the Nagaizumi Town Hall, “to make best use of free space on the road,” according to an announcement from Guinness World Records.

City leaders were motivated to build it after they learned about the previous world record holder, Mill Ends Park in Portland, Oregon. They’ve been calling it the world’s smallest park for the past three decades but decided to finally make it official.

They hired a professional surveyor to take exact measurements of the park, then submitted an application to Guinness World Records. In late February, an official adjudicator visited the park and certified the record.

“We want to continue maintaining the park with the community, as well as creating a landscape that is more social media-friendly, so that even more people will find attractions of our town,” says Shuji Koyama, who leads the town’s construction management department, in the statement.

When news of the new world record reached officials in Portland, Oregon, they were understandably dismayed. Measuring just 452 square inches, or roughly 3.1 square feet, Mill Ends Park had held the record since 1971.

Locals like to joke that a family of leprechauns lives in Mill Ends Park. The little green men were “outraged” when they learned the park’s title had been taken away, says Mark Ross, a spokesperson for the Portland Parks & Recreation department, to the Oregonian’s Samantha Swindler.

“If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, we are most flattered indeed,” adds Ross. “It may no longer have the designation of world’s smallest park, but Mill Ends will always be the world’s most fun park, a title no one can ever take away.”

Mill Ends Park dates back to the mid-1950s, when a late Portland resident named Dick Fagan planted flowers on a traffic island in the middle of busy Naito Parkway. At the time, Fagan was a reporter and columnist for the Oregon Journal newspaper, which had offices overlooking Naito Parkway (then called Front Avenue). Every time he peered out his window, he looked at the traffic island.

On the traffic island, he saw an ugly concrete skirt around a hole that was full of weeds—a spot where a streetlight was supposed to have been installed.

During “Rose Planting Week” in 1954, Fagan decided to jokingly plant a rose bush in the concrete skirt. Fagan, who died in 1969, wrote about his prank repeatedly in his column, which was called Mill Ends—named for the bits and pieces of wood left over at a lumber mill.

“Many of his columns described the lives of a group of leprechauns, who established the ‘only leprechaun colony west of Ireland’ in the park,” according to the City of Portland. “Fagan claimed to be the only person who could see the head leprechaun, Patrick O’Toole.”

The Portland Parks & Recreation department officially adopted the park on St. Patrick’s Day in 1976. Today, it’s the site of several events, including annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities and “Portland’s shortest race,” a 0.15-kilometer route between the park and a nearby Irish pub.

Another petite park, a 374-square-inch pollinator garden in Talent, Oregon, nearly dethroned Mill Ends Park in 2022. But organizers in Talent didn’t go through the steps of getting their park certified by Guiness World Records.

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.