The Bureau of Planning and Co-ordination of the National Land Agency recently published its report of the survey for the long-term perspective of the country's development. The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan is now in its preparatory stage in the National Land Agency, and the survey results will be an important contribution to the drafting of the final plan.
The report conveys a stimulating notion for those who are concerned with rural planning. That is expressed by a phrase “town and country in a harmonious and complementary relationship. ” The survey shows that by the year of 2025, the total area of urbanized land will increase by 50 to 100 per cent and that a new category will emerge for areas around city fringes which are neither urban nor rural. In such an area, living conditions will continue to be urbanized, and more and more people will be engaged in industry and the service sectors.
The above picture certainly excites urban planners who are anxious to expand their field of operation. However, there are three points which I would like to emphasize in pondering the future of our countryside. Firstly, the agricultural land uses, including forestry, will continue to dominate other uses. To conserve natural resources, to provide clean water and air, and to sustain fauna and flora are important functions of agricultural land. Secondly, there will be fewer and fewer people engaged in agriculture and forestry. We need to ask ourselves who will take care of the majority of the nation's land. Thirdly, the environmental function of agricultural land is essentially operated outside of the market mechanism. In planning rural areas with due consideration to environmental aspects, special attention must be paid tothese external economies. A system of public support should be devised.
Looking forward over the country's long-term development will certainly stimulate professional argument for both urban and rural planners. A new stage of planning will be opened, when both sides identify those aspects of their problems and objectives that they have in common and those which differ.

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Planning in the suburbs of metropolitan areas is not dealt with sufficiently by either city planning or rural planning in Japan. Studies, plans and institutions of city planning and rural planning have not been effective there. Therefore, in this study, we examine the effectiveness against sprawl of the zoning system, senbiki-seido. The object of this investigation is the ten cities of the Tokatsu and Katsunan region in the North-west of Chiba prefecture, that were zoned in 1970. We examine effectiveness from population and land-use points of view.
The results of this investigation are:
1) Comparing the ten cities for population increase and population density, three groups emerged: ‘stable stage of urbanization (G1)’. ‘highest stage of urbanization (G2)’ and ‘early stage of urbanization (G3)’.
2) 90% of population increase is in shigaika-kuiki, and the zoning system is thought to be effective as a method of population control.
84 Journal of Rural Planning Association Vol. 3, No . 4, 1985. 3
3) Proportion of agricultural land area in chosei-kuiki is lower where the rate of urbanization was relatively slow when zoning took place.
4) Forestry land changes to building land faster than agricultural land. So, forestry land should be preserved in its own way. In chosei-kuiki, forestry land vanishes rapidly in ‘early stage of urbanization’.
5) Agricultural land has been changed into building land in shigaika-kuiki and into public facility land in chosei-kuiki. Though the zoning system is thought to be effective as a means to prevent population sprawl, it is not necessarily thought to be effective as a means to prevent land development.
6) Agricultural land in shigaika-kuiki will vanish after about 20 years. 23% of chosei-kuiki is not in noshin-chiiki and 78% of chosei-kuiki is not in noyochi-kuiki.
7) The above-mentioned can be summarised as follows: (1) The zoning system is not so effective as a means to prevent land development. This indicates a defect of the system: it cannot control land value. (2) The zoning system only divides the suburbs of metropolitan areas into two kinds of zones. Plans of the suburbs should be comprehensive, indicating the preservation of agricultural land, and equipment of building land and public facility land. (3) A plan for agricultural promotion should be clearly shown in this plan.

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Research was carried out on agricultural villages and residences in the Ningsho Plain of Zhejiang Sheng, China, obtaining co-operation from the Chinese Architecture Society and Zhejiang Sheng Architecture Society. This paper is one of the reports of the joint research done by Japan and China. The present report follows that of 1983, which looked at the case ofYantai, Shangdong. As the first part of a report of Zhejiang Sheng, in this paper we will show some of the characteristics and structures of the investigated agricultural villages, in addition to an outlineof farming products and local industries. In addition, the findings concerning the present situation insix agricultural villages in a riverside district are also included.
With regard to facilities in local communities, the relative position of the facilities, their quality and quantity, users' behaviour within and outside the community were investigated. As a result the following points are clarified.
There are great differences in the degree of the improvement of facilities in respective local areas, because of the differences of opinion on the priority of the items requiring improvement. In addition, increasing relations and interchanges between villagers andurbanites is another cause of the differences.
We also found that some service systems, etc., as well as somearrangements of facilities, which have been established step by step, are now not necessarily functioning well.
We have come to realize that in the development of agricultural village facilities emphasis is still placed mainly on the quantity, rather than on the quality of facilities. Besides these problems we have discussed, we found many other problems concerning the planning of facilities

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In the agricultural villages of the Province of Zhejiang, China, a very positive improvement can be seen. In this study, the detailed process of the housing improvement which has been carried out so far is analyzed, and from this analysis, the authors try to plot the future direction of housing improvement.
As a result of the investigation, the following aspects become clear. Under the housing improvement, the area of the houses is enlarged and great progress can be seen in the condition of the dwellings. But problems persist concerning the layout and use of the available space. For example, in a house, living space and working space are not separated, neither are public space and private space. The space “dÔya” has to serve many functions.
In addition to these points, it becomes clear that the improvement of the toilet, bath room, kitchen, and so on, has been delayed in spite of the enlargement of housing areas. Also it seems that in future useful improvements could be the separation of the dining area from the “dÔya” and that the“dÔya” cease to be a thoroughfare .

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In the last 30 years the structural policy led by the idea of the “bäuerlich” family farm has had a remarkable success, with the help of market and price policy, and under the guidance of effective regional policy. In this continuous process, small farms without development potential have been turned into part-time farms, owing to economic growth in rural areas, whereas the economy of farms with development potential was strengthened essentially by the structural policy measures.
Within the framework of this policy, the socio-economic differentiation of all the farms gave a basis for a satisfactory family income, being equivalent to that of industrial workers in rural areas. But further decrease of part-time farms is not supposed to improve the agricultural structure any more. Moreover, the structural policy failed just because of its success; the improved agricultural and farm structure led to overproduction in the EC countries, which can be controlled only by setting a limit to their production capacity.
Thus, German agriculture has to make its land use and cattle breeding extensive . This extensification can be held up under the orientation of “bäuerlich” family farming as an agricultural policy idea only by direct income transfers to the family farms or reorganization into part-time farms. The latter seems to be very difficult, in view of the approximately 2 million unemployed persons and the very high unemployment rate in rural areas. Any other solutions of this agro-political dilemma damage the basic ideas of the social market economy and shake the foundations of a free democracy .

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In this report the author analyses the state of European planning in rural areas from the viewpoint of the changing socio-economic situation and presents some problems.
Planning for rural areas has so far been mainly composed of economic factors which have been imposed from outside. It could also be within the scope of 'physical planning'. But in a period of economic stagnation it becomes hard to achieve the physical planning targets, so that planning in rural areas needs to adapt toward comprehensive development planning.
Rural planning should be based on a clear understanding of rural problems so as to avoid it becoming a measure to encourage the subordinate position of rural areas to urban ones.

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Most of the rural districts in Japan have experienced rapid structural changes in both agriculture and rural life over the last two decades, since the period of high economic growth. Consequently, on the one hand, movement of farm population to cities or to other industries has produced problems of depopulation in many rural districts. On the other hand, the growth of extensive mechanization of farms with excessive use of chemical fertilizers and medicines under the name of the modernization of farming, have conduced an unbalanced development of agriculture.
Such problems lead to the destruction of agriculture and the rural environment. Thus, the contemporary problems that rural planning in Japan has to deal with, inevitably include at the same time both farm production and rural life. From this point of view the rural improvement subjects can be summarized as follows:
1. Synthetic arrangement of environments,
2. Creation of chances for work on and off the farm,
3. Conditional arrangement of regional agriculture promotion,
4. Maintenance of traditional culture in the region,
5. Promotion of the interaction between urban and rural inhabitants.

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[in Japanese]

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