Abstract
Given the recent increase in tourism to Ishigaki Island, it has become increasingly important to maintain a balance between economic, environmental and social concerns in order to ensure sustainable development. However, it is difficult to capture the feature of local community and reflect it on plans. It has been found that part of characteristics of local community is represented by spatial perception. The purpose of this paper is to clarify how people of Ishigaki Island perceive their local area, in particular living spaces, especially focusing on their perception of the boundaries and centers of their villages, which are considered the basic elements of spatial perception. As villages on Ishigaki Island have various characteristics, we selected 7 villages with different features from approximately 40 villages in existence and considered how factors such as history, major means of livelihood or community events influenced spatial perception. As a result, we identified two key phenomena: (1) The elements which effect spatial perception of an area can be classified into 5 types (topography, residential area, land usage, religion and the relationship with surrounding villages). (2) People tend to recognize the place where residents gather or manage community events as the center of their village.
