Current Conditions and Problems of Industrial Museums in Ehime Prefecture

Abstract

Since 2003 the Japanese government has been enhancing tourism-related measures in order to increase Japan's national tourism industry. In this situation industrial tourism is greatly expected to develop as a new type of tourism in which people can learn and enjoy local culture and history from different angles. Industrial museums play an important role as core facilities for this industrial tourism. But unfortunately there is not enough data about industrial museums in Japan, because major surveys don't treat them as an independent category. For this reason we started original research on them in 2005. In this paper, based on the results of our research, we clarify current conditions and problems of industrial museums in Ehime Prefecture.