Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the depopulation issue in intermediate and mountainous areas from the perspectives of 1) the status and history of emigration of farming households, and 2) the management status of vacant houses and farm fields and the attributes of managers. The main results were as follows: 1) Since family members, including descendent and emigrated households, wanted to manage their vacant houses even if they live far away, the level of management tended to decline over successive generations. 2) There was a tendency to consign the management of, or to even sell off, farm fields to people other than close blood relatives. 3) The typical attributes of a manager were as follows: i) a relative or neighbor residing in the settlement (including unrelated persons), and ii) an emigrated, descendent, or related household residing typically in the same or adjacent municipality (mainly blood relatives). The study confirmed that the latter was important in vacant house management, and the former was important in farm field management.
The results suggest that some form of support is desirable, such as the networking of people involved in the management of vacant houses and farm fields.
