The self-organized criticality of all municipalities in Nagano Prefecture at four points of time (1991, 1997, 2002 and 2007) was analyzed based on the following data published as commerce establishment survey of Nagano: annual sales of wholesale and retail products in all municipalities, shop area, number of shops, number of employees and population, old-age ratio (65 years old and older), increase/decrease in population deriving from birth and death, and the increase/decrease in population deriving from moving ins and outs. As a result of the analysis, municipalities were categorized into 3 groups: Group A, in which self-organization was observed; Group B, in which self-organization was weak; and Group C, in which self-organization has reached a critical point and the municipality has become dissipative and has collapsed. This report is a discussion centering on municipalities designated as depopulated rural areas in the three groups.
