Abstract
The main subject of this paper is the community governance in a Japanese gated community. Gated community is a residential area which has a gate and walls around the community, and goes on increasing in the United States since the 1980s. Many gated communities are CID (common interest development) that is governed by HOA (homeowners association) with use of CC&Rs (conditions, covenants, and restrictions). Recently there is the emergence of several gated communities in Japan. I have done the research on such gated communities about two years. In this paper, I picked up one of them where is located in West Japan, and it is the existing gated community which became American style CID through the resident movement. I submit the process of this movement and CID governance in detail on the basis of my field work. In this community the corporate HOA creates many community rules and manages road network, waterworks facilities and amenity facilities, and collects assessments and offers “public” services, for example water supply, garbage collection etc.. Such community governance is analyzed by the theory of commons, the theory of governance and the theory of social capitals, so it is presented that people get around “the tragedy of the commons” not in terms of “the common” but of “the private.” I account for additionally that the rules in the thin human relationship community play a role of bond which solidifies the community instead of bonding social capitals.
