抄録
Comprehensive rural planning through inhabitants' own initiatives is an important subject for the study of rural planning. In this country, rural inhabitants tend to think that rural plans are to be made by the government. But they should take their own initiative when making a comprehensive district project plan for themselves so as to protect their own living environment and improve it.
When farmers want to improve their farmland, a land improvement district must first be established and organized as a cooperative venture. This is an important part of making comprehensive rural plans. The Land Improvement Act provides for farmers to ask the land improvement district to reflect their demands in the projects. While this is an important form of public participation, this function has not been fully used, for in Japan land improvement projects have been carried out mainly with central initiatives. The same has been true of the activities of civil engineering which has conducted environmental improvement projects as part of town planning, thus leaving the voice of urban inhabitants unreflected.
The role of government should be to help people who have initiative to make their own rural plans by giving technical advice or financial help, and not to enforce things from above. Therefore a feed-back system must be established to get messages from people. In my view, this is very much an issue which needs to be seen in the context of democratic development in this country.
