Abstract
In this article the author tried to investigate the character of a recently semi-urbanized rural village in a paddy-cultivated area of Japan. For the purpose one rural village situated at the urban fringe, Matsuhashi (Tsubame-shi, Niigata Pref.), was selected. The village has recently taken on the characteristics of a dormitory village after rapid increase in population, although it belongs to the highest productivity area of paddy cultivation in Japan.
In order to understand the character of present-day Japanese villages it is important to investigate the degree of diversity of the residents' spatial behaviour and the social integration of the village community. Such investigation was conducted by the following procedure: The residents' spatial behaviour should be grasped on two significant dimensions of human spatial behaviour: spatial mobility and spatial directivity. Therefore, first the residents and their households were divided into several groups according to their working or shopping place as an indicator of mobility, and the organizations they joined as indicator of directivity. Secondly the relation between these groups and the attributes of their members were analyzed. Finally, in order to clarify the integrating functions of the community, the author investigated the community organizations and their functions by interviewing the residents.
The results are as follows: (see Fig. 5).
The spatial behaviour of individuals shows a high degree of diversity with different types of mobility and directivity owing to different types of attributes, i. e. sex, age and occupation. This diversity of individuals' behaviour is recognizable all over the village, both in the case of farming and non-farming families. On the other hand, although in terms of mobility the households are divided into many types, in terms of their directivity they are composed of only two types, that is one showing directivity to the community, and another not showing it. The former are the farming family type and the latter are non-farming families.
Both farming groups and non-farming groups form several neighborhoods as lower units of the village community. The neighborhoods of farmhouses are connected with the village community agriculturally, socially and administratively. However, those of non-farmers are only connected administratively. The two groups sometimes act against each others' interests. And the non-farming group seems to be excluded from the traditional functions of the community. In this case the only chance for the non-farming group to be connected with the community comes from taking part in the organizations of the territory of the former municipality, which is now the area for the elementary school and agricultural co-operative and includes the village of Matsuhashi as a component.
