Abstract
The Community Stores which exist even now in Okinawa have been established by the residents in the rural community（buraku）. But, because of the development and the subsequent changes in the community, a lot of Community Stores have been closed during the last 20 years. At present, there are some Community Stores whose management is stable, but many others with the difficulties in management.
It is thought that the rural community can be well understood by studying Community Stores.
How the rural communities have been able to continue to manage these stores in spite of the difficulties in management is the question to be raised in this paper. My argument is that by addressing this question 1） we can understand how the Okinawan communities are wavering between the urbanization of their life and their consciousness of maintaining the spirit of community, and 2） we can develop a new theory of policies matching to the circumstances.
