2013 Volume 11 Issue 4 Pages 126-133
Although zoning has been adopted in the National Park System in Japan, setting a vision and goals in the national park plan is not required. Moreover, neither residents nor even landowners are guaranteed the right to participate in the decision-making process of the national park plan. Private lands and ordinary zones each account for about one-quarter of the land area of all national parks on average under the present circumstances, though the particular situation of each park is quite different. As for Bandai Asahi National Park, private lands account for 12.4% and ordinary zones account for 7.6%. However, in just the Bandai Azuma Inawashiro District of the park covering the Urabandai area, the former occupies 24.2% and the latter occupies 15.7%. In order to continue to protect the natural scenery by the National Park System in the future, it is necessary to sustain the lives and livelihoods of the diverse land users of private lands in national parks, particularly in ordinary zones. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive and unitary land use planning and regulation system by restructuring the National Land Use Planning Act and its five related land use planning and regulation acts.
