Abstract
This research identifies the present situation of Local Municipality Management of‘Application for selling farmland’ and‘Additional Designations’ within the 1991 amendment of Japan's‘Productive Open Spaces Act’ in the national capital region. The main findings are as follows. 1) 805.9ha of farmland in the Urban Promotion Areas were made into Productive Open Spaces after enforcing Productive Open Spaces Act and 545.2ha of Productive Open Spaces were removed. 2) A number of local municipalities have developed standards for designating new Productive Open Spaces, whereas few local municipalities have any standards for deciding on removing areas from Productive Open Spaces designation. 3) Some of the ideas contained in the standards of designating new Productive Open Spaces may be used for developing techniques to utilize the environmental functions of farmland (e.g. Recreational Areas, Refuge Areas and Flood prevention and control). Based on these findings, we propose a list of considerations for utilizing the Productive Open Spaces as part of developing a system for their management.
