The Process of Developing Norms to Support Revitalizing a Rural Community

Thirteen Years of the Revitalization Movement in Chizu, Tottori Prefecture

Abstract

The present study described the progress toward revitalizing a rural, underpopulated community in Chizu, Tottori Prefecture in Japan. The process was examined using the sociological theory of norm development proposed by Masachi Osawa. The theory suggests that norm development is paralleled by inter-bodily construction of transcendentality. In the Chizu case, an innovative norm was created by just two residents. Its influence expanded (the number of people who obeyed the norm) and gradually changed the normative premises on which the vast majority of ordinary residents grasp their community.