Abstract
The aims of this paper are to overview the developing process of rural policies in Japan and provide an insight into the essence of their new phase. Rural areas have come to crises of community and economy since the 1990s. The depopulation in rural areas has had an impact on weekend community cohesion and economic performance. Under this situation, grassroots movements have occurred that provide a framework for rural regeneration. Some local governments have tried to promote them through drastic steps.
In contrast, countermeasures by the central government were lagging behind owing to various reasons such as reforms of decentralization.
Various kinds of new policies have been gradually developed under political tension on rural issues since the late 2000s. We can see the emergence of a new phase of rural policies in Japan. Nevertheless the power of local government, which should have a close connection with the central government for rural regeneration, is weakening because of local government amalgamations. Therefore this new phase seems to be a fragile structure.
