Abstract
This essay tries to consider the relationship of market rule and life strategy, which the part-time farmers and rural people are facing with and tackling with in the present Japan, by referring to cases of East Asian countries broadly. This work is one phase of my efforts to synthesize my past academic works, mainly published as monographs of fieldwork experiences in Thailand, Japan and others. In doing this synthesizing work, I also try to check some discussions on such classic concept of ‘peasant differentiation’ （on the theoretical level） and ‘reformist subject’ （on the practical level）, and try to refine them to fit the present rural situation. In the present rural dynamism of diversity, those who would succeed the classical ‘reformist subjects’, as the result of ‘peasant differentiation’ process, might be the active persons and groups, who try to react to and negotiate with the state and market independently, and who try to share the interest and benefit fairly and equally among members. These kinds of active practice models can be shown among some cases of academic works, insisting the sustainability of resilient peasantry and community, who are actively tackling with such community development projects as rural eco-cultural tourism and communal base small farming. The rural studies researcher should pay attention to these models of actors, and should try to think over the structural relation between the objective ‘rural diversity’ processes and the practical movements and policies by these actors in the present Asian rural society including Japan. This kind of ‘practical level’ framework should be another task of rural studies.
