Abstract
Concepts and methods of “Landschaftsplanung (landscape planning)” were introduced to Japan from Germany in the 1960s and subsequently applied to many rural areas. While an influential source of planning ideas and practices, the original Landschaftsplanung was limited in two key respects. First, since existing land use and conditions were characterized as natural and static conditions to be maintained indefinitely, the importance and inevitability of dynamic land use transformation, as evidenced in continually evolving landscapes such as satoyama, was overlooked. Second, owing to the considerably different riskscapes of Japan and central Europe, the importance of vulnerability and resilience to natural disasters was also underemphasized. Essential to fulfilling contemporary demands on ecological landscape/land-use planning in Japan is the task of remaking “Landschaftsplanung” by incorporating considerations of dynamic human interventions and resilience to natural disasters.
