抄録
Activities which take place in rural areas have changed remarkably over the past years. It is very difficult to give a concise definition of rural planning today. The objective of this paper is to provide a realistic interpretation of how rural areas in Japan are changing in order to begin clarifying the future of rural planning.
Japan is one of the most densely inhabited countries in the world. The country is mountainous and covered with forested areas which are too steep to develop. Relatively flat lands have been used for agriculture intensively. Japanese agricultural history is very long: rice cultivation started about two thousand years ago.
In order to understand rural areas today, the changes which have taken place in farm populations and rural communities need careful attention. Persons engaged in farming have decreased in number drastically since the late 1950s. In rural communities, the share of non-farm households has increased, especially in the vicinity of big cities, although the pace of rural outmigration was slowed down at the national level in the 1970s.
Several functions of rural areas are summarized: 1) agricultural production, 2) industrial development, 3) human habitation, 4) environmental management, and 5) outdoor recreation.
