The purpose of this study was to clarify the characteristics and expectations of municipalities cooperating with universities on a regional scale in agriculture-related fields. Analysis was performed using the results of a postal questionnaire survey sent to 721 municipalities (response rate: 68.9%). A binary logistic regression model was applied to clarify the characteristics of municipalities currently cooperating with universities. In addition, an ordered logistic regression model was applied to clarify the characteristics of municipalities expressing willingness to cooperate in the future. Approximately 30% of respondents were found to be cooperating with universities in agriculture-related fields, while approximately 50% expressed willingness to cooperate in the future. Municipalities expressing willingness to cooperate tended to express a desire to utilize universities’ specialized knowledge and personnel. These municipalities also recognized the necessity of addressing issues such as daily communication to promote cooperation. Furthermore, the results of the binary logistic regression model and ordered logistic regression model showed that several factors characterized municipalities currently cooperating with or expressing willingness to cooperate with universities in agriculture-related fields. These factors included the location of the university, the existence of a cooperative agreement, implementation of measures aimed at promoting cooperation, and the presence of staff specifically linked to agriculture-related fields.

This study aimed for evaluation of biodiversity conservation function of tea tree fields using organic low-pesticide farming method from the viewpoint of arthropod community structures. I selected tea tree fields owned by a farmer with organic low-pesticide farming at two sites on Waduka Town, Kyoto Prefecture. I selected 10 ridges in each tea tree fields and collected arthropods of tea crown by sweeping method. Results indicated arthropod community structures varied depending on locations and farming methods. Briefly, number of species in tea tree fields that used organic low-pesticide farming method were higher than in those that used conventional method. In tea tree fields using organic low-pesticide farming method, the population density of insect pests of tea tree was not necessarily high, with the population density of spiders, which are the natural enemy of insect pests of tea tree, being high, suggesting that such tea tree fields provide habitats for various arthropods.

This paper aims to examine how rural communities in mountainous areas can sustainably manage their community’s traditional cultural events by overcoming difficulties arising from aging and depopulation. The result of surveys conducted in the Takachihogo-shiibayama area shows that a management system that enables the participation of all community households, whether old or the young, women or men, has been established in the area. In addition, in order to overcome the problem of shrinking communities, the management structure has been rearranged in three ways: 1) sub-groups of the community take turns to organize festivals, allowing these sub-groups to be merged to complement the shortage of participants from aged/depopulated groups, 2) representatives of several communities assist a community without enough capacity to organize its own festival, and 3) all shrine parishioners (called Ujiko), with participation not on a household basis but on an individual basis, are involved in the festival management. The study points out that a community in the most remote area has the least difficulty in sustaining the event by themselves independently, while a community with improved accessibility has more difficulty in uniting community members to ensure more participation. Also, in the community which has the least difficulty in sustaining the traditional culture, there exists a system to transfer roles and responsibilities to younger generations, ensuring that those who are brought up in the communities will recognize themselves as successors of the community in future.

Although the program for water environment improvement has been practiced since the 1990s for maintaining multifunctionality of agricultural watercourses such as providing water amenity, declining waterfront play remains as one of major concern. From this aspect, we investigated environmental characteristics of irrigation canals for ensuring children's waterfront play. First, actual play activities and locations were described using the workshop survey, second, the environmental characteristics of canals used by children were examined by survey of physical, chemical, biological and structural variables of canals. As a result, it was found that children played in the canals located within their resident areas. The characteristics of the canal used by children included 1) wider channel width, 2) more diverse flow (greater coefficient of variation in water velocity), 3) lower water temperature, 4) greater number of crab abundance, 5) greater number of fish abundance, 6) banked by mortar masonry, compared to canals where children did not use. Considered with the numbers of children, the results emphasized importance of biological conditions such as abundance of fish and crab. Other extracted environmental characteristics likely support distributions of these organisms as habitat conditions. Therefore our findings suggest not only accessibility, but also habitat conservation of agricultural watercourses is the key for sustainable use for children’s waterfront play.

In recent years, the number of young farmers who are aware of the health and environmental impacts of farming practices on their natural surroundings is increasing. As a result, more farmers are practicing sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture such as organic farming. The success of new farmers practicing these techniques depends on the readily availability of these technologies along with the ability to sustain a stable income. Many farmers wish to practice organic and sustainable farming methods, however the systems necessary to support these efforts have not been implemented by the government or the JA Agriculture Cooperative yet. In addition, agriculture farmers who are environmentally friendly face isolation in many communities because of their differences in farming philosophy and lifestyle. Farmers markets where farmers sell organic produce directly to consumers in urban areas are called Marché. These Marché provide the opportunity for farmers to interact with each other and with consumers, even though they are not yet a major economic activity. By promoting sustainable and organic farm products, Marché not only increase the number of consumers, but also have economic benefits such as direct restaurant and distribution contracts. An important indirect benefi t is the connection between farmers that result in information and knowledge sharing about agriculture. Marché are a platform for building connections, knowledge exchange and a place of learning. Marché bring not only economic benefits but also mental and moral satisfaction to farmers. And by participating in Marché, it is believed that the motivation for agriculture will be maintained.

Business venturing in a farm is an important factor that fosters the farm succession and motivates a new farmer. In urban areas, marketing management is required for the customer-oriented business venturing run by new farmers. However, acquiring marketing skill is such difficult for them that the policy support is needed. Using the data from interviews to new farmers in suburban areas in Tokyo, this study investigates a role of the public support service to lower entry barriers for new farmers in Tokyo. As a result, a network with public institutes was essential for them to recognize the existence of the service and business venturing by themselves makes them strongly notice the necessity of marketing management for their farm development. Moreover, because of the usefulness of the whole system of this service such as a advice from designer and a subsidy for farm investments, new farmers repeatedly use it over the years. While the direct effects of this service are their usage of marketing tools like web pages, social network service and farm logo, the indirect effects that provide new farmers with opportunities to enlarge their personal network are also important.

This paper presents a review and clarifi cation of the research trends on urban farming in Tokyo and promotes a perspective on the future direction of that study. We focused on the following three points from the overview of urban farming in Tokyo: public benefits based on the agriculture and farmland in Tokyo, the agricultural business management in Tokyo, effect of the urban farmland policies such as Amendment of Productive Green Land Act. This research uncovered the necessity of sustainable research from academic points of view adequate to objects, improvement of the database for quantitative analysis, economic evaluation of intensive agricultural production technology.

The purpose of this report is to present a method of subjective evaluation of local natural resources with the concept of Ecosystem Services among high school students. In this report, we take a closer look at 1) differences in students' evaluations of local natural resources based on personal experiences of conservation of resources and environmental education, and 2) whether or not students also show interest in local historical disasters. A workshop was held for high school students in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, who received Environmental Education on local water environment. The workshop aimed to find out how the high school students perceive functions and services of ecosystems by making a matrix to categorize the services and functions of ecosystems based on their learning experiences. The participating students consist of the 1st and 2nd grade of a high school students in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The workshop contents are lectures, a group work to make a matrix, a group presentation, and discussion based on those group presentations. The results of the workshop made it clear that students' perception of ecosystem functions shares a similarity to the findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports, that is, some functions of provisioning service used or needed in their daily lives are regarded as more important and close to them; whereas, regulating services, especially functions related to disaster risk mitigation, and cultural services are perceived as rather less important and not-close to the individual student as the scale of those functions are too large to see. Students learned that people have different views and place different values on local natural resources through peer-discussion. Such methods can contribute to helping younger generations think more deeply about local natural resource conservation and the relationship between those resources and their lives as well as a sound manner to understand different views regarding their conservation for local sustainability. Also, using the concept of ecosystem services could guide their attention to disaster risk reduction through the characteristics and functions of local natural ecosystems.