1996 年 69 巻 1 号 p. 60-69
This paper reviews the development of postwar mountain village studies in Japan with particular reference to the questions of depopulation, peripheralization, and village revitalization, and clarifies their achievements and directions for the future. Hitherto in geography the concept of mountain villages has often been determined in terms of location, natural features and cultural characteristics. This concept led geographers to focus their research only at the village level, even in the study of depopulation. In recent years, researchers have begun to look directly at depopulation as a regional problem and to do macro research on a national scale. After the rapid economic growth period, new structures for survival created by economic restructuring appeared in mountain villages. It became necessary to tackle mountain village research within a framework based on the theory of peripheralization. It is also important that mountain villages do not generally vanish in Peripheralization, but that attention is given to local measures for self-sufficiency referred to as village renaissance. This paper attempts to highlight these points and to take a fresh look at mountain village studies in Japan.
