Regional Development owing to the Commodification of Rural Spaces in Japan

抄録

This paper analyzes the possibility of regional development through the commodification of rural spaces by comparison of the Nasu region of Tochigi prefecture, the Joetsu region of Niigata prefecture, and the Kurobe alluvial fan of Toyama prefecture. In the Nasu region, individual tourism areas including Shiobara hot springs, Nasu Highland and the Nasu alluvial fan will be consolidated, and a broad based and multiple tourism area spreading dimensionally will be formed, and the possibility for the tourism area to contribute to the development of the entire Nasu region is very high owing to the commodification of rural spaces. The current issues in the Joetsu region are how to mutually connect various and small scale scattered tourism resources, what new tourism resources should be promoted, and how the viewpoints of studies and experience of tourisms should be introduced in order to create new tourism resources. Thus, the commodification of rural and urban spaces is essential. Compared to the above two mentioned regions, the Kurobe alluvial fan is a rural area with few famous tourism resources. Tourism development owing to rural commodification is limited here. Residents should evaluate familiar production activities, industries, landscape, lifestyle, and annual events and consider the direction for regional construction themselves through study and experience. The result will attract tourists from other regions and contribute to tourism development. The most significant factors of the differences among the three regions are the scale of the current and potential tourism resources and the difference in distances from major metropolitan areas.