Abstract
Food and the environment support human life, but Japan's food self-sufficiency, based on the amount of calories consumed, was only 39% in 2010. The Japanese Government strived to raise food self-sufficiency in the rural setting to 50% by 2020, but so far the situation has only worsened, as compared with 2008. Aging and depopulation in the countryside and the devastation of rural communities are also in progress. Shimane University intends to develop knowledge centers in communities. We started community-based education and research programs in the fields of agriculture, industry, education and medicine. The Shimane Cohort Study, undertaken in collaboration with rural communities, revealed that the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases increased in proportion to aging and lifestyle urbanization. Ruralists took in less lipid and protein but do more exercise than urbanites. We began to develop a new community- and ICT-based program in 2010 with the central and local governments to solve problems posed to rural communities. We have new empirical evidence that social capital is a determinant of psychological stress and support community development by enhancing social capital.
