Q.What 'world's-firsts' can you find in Nara?

Published 2026-06-18

Answer

Nara has a surprising number of world-firsts. The world's largest MUJI (Kashihara) and mont-bell (Nara City), the world's oldest wooden buildings (Hōryū-ji) and star chart (Kitora tomb), and one of the world's largest wooden Buddha halls (Tōdai-ji). Local industry even has a company with the world's top share in precision balls — and the list grows further once you include national firsts.

Two of the world's largest stores — both in Nara

In March 2025, the world's largest MUJI (sales floor of 8,201 m²) opened at AEON Mall Kashihara. And since 2022, Nara City has been home to mont-bell's flagship "Outdoor Village Nara," the chain's largest sales floor worldwide, with around 25,000 items. Notably, both chose Nara rather than a big metropolis.

8,201m² — sales floor of the world's largest MUJI (Kashihara)

25,000products at mont-bell Nara (world's largest sales floor)

2'world's largest' stores in the prefecture

The real thing — world's oldest and largest: Hōryū-ji, Kitora, Tōdai-ji

Cultural properties hold world-firsts too. Hōryū-ji is the world's oldest group of surviving wooden buildings. The star chart in Asuka's Kitora tomb is the world's oldest surviving formal Chinese-style star map. Tōdai-ji's Great Buddha Hall is the world's largest wooden post-and-beam building (setting aside modern engineered-timber structures), and the Great Buddha is one of the world's largest cast bronze statues.

World first / largest	Place	What
World's oldest surviving wooden buildings	Hōryū-ji (Ikaruga)	7th-c. hall & pagoda
World's oldest surviving formal star chart	Kitora tomb (Asuka)	National-Treasure mural
World's largest wooden post-and-beam building	Tōdai-ji Great Buddha Hall (Nara City)	excl. modern engineered timber
One of the world's largest cast Buddhas	Tōdai-ji Great Buddha (Nara City)	Vairocana statue

Manufacturing has a world No. 1 too — Tsubaki Nakashima

Tsubaki Nakashima of Katsuragi City holds the world's top share in precision balls (steel spheres used in bearings and more). Its subsidiary makes about 90% of Japan's ballpoint-pen tips, and 100% of the tips for the erasable "Frixion" pen. Quietly, Nara's manufacturing underpins both the world and the nation.

No.1world share in precision balls (Tsubaki Nakashima)

90%domestic share of ballpoint-pen tips (subsidiary)

100%tips for the erasable 'Frixion' pen

[Tips] Plenty of national firsts and origins, too

It's not only world-firsts. Nara is full of national firsts and origins. Gose City, for example, set a Guinness World Record in 2016 for the longest nagashi-sōmen run at 3,317.7 m — but it was overtaken by Takamori (Nagano) in 2022 at 3,515.42 m, so it is now a "former" world record. These national firsts, however, still stand:

National first / origin	Place	Note
Tea whisks — 90%+ of Japan's output	Ikoma (Takayama)	Japan's only tea-whisk village
Ink — about 90% of Japan's output	Nara City	Most of Japan's solid ink is from Nara
Birthplace of sōmen noodles	Sakurai (Miwa)	Miwa sōmen
No. 1 in sock production	Kōryō	~40% of Japan's output
A major goldfish producer	Yamatokoriyama	~60 million fish a year
Japan's oldest temple bell & stone lantern	Katsuragi (Taima-dera)	Asuka–Nara period

Use 'world's-firsts' as a way into Nara — on foot and through data

These make great entry points — both for sightseeing and for understanding the local economy. The world's oldest architecture and star chart, the largest Buddha and stores, and globally and nationally leading local industries: use "world's-firsts" as a thread to explore Nara's cultural-property and tourism data and the related articles below.