Report on ‘Cooperation Measures with Outsiders’ in Maintaining Hilly and Mountainous Areas

Some Considerations on the Uneasiness Borne by the Local People

Abstract

How to conserve and maintain hilly and mountainous areas is one of the central issues the Japanese people and the government is now facing. Presently, several policy measures and programs are being elaborated, such as sending staff to local areas. There is certainly a belief that because persons sent to local areas are ‘outsiders’, they can necessarily provide some useful views of novelty toward the area’s future. But such measures have not always positive effects, but also negative ones brought to local people, which could be expressed as Uneasiness. This article analyzes the background of such policies, and then classifies the people’s uneasinesses into three levels; i) Individual level, ii) Knowledge level, iii) Power balance level.