In local areas of Japan, the decrease of the population has been a severe matter. Many municipalities have practical policies for that, but many of them have not gotten positive results, yet. In many local municipalities, “policy-transfer procedure” has one of main policy-making methods. If they think to introduce that method for demographic issues, it would be important to find appropriate cases for them. In this paper, as a case study, 51 municipalities in Hokuriku District are analyzed. The main results say that 1) because many municipalities in Hokuriku District have a matter of population decrease, cooperation among neighbor municipalities would make effect, 2) although some are different from the volume of population, the situation of demographic problems are similar, so they should cooperate about policies with each other, 3) the capital cities of each prefecture have similar features, so that they should cooperate with each other about this issue.

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本研究は、わが国の基礎自治体が直面する人口減少と高齢化問題に焦点を当て、特に生産年齢人口に対する負担について、老年人口指数と老年化指数を用いて検証している。人口規模別に基礎自治体を比較した結果、小規模な基礎自治体間で負担の大きさに差異が存在し、その差異は今後も拡大する傾向にあることが明らかになった。また、生産年齢人口に対する負担が将来的にも低くなる正のスパイラル状態にある基礎自治体について検証したところ、それらの基礎自治体では早期から地域の特性を活かした持続可能な発展戦略に基づいて取組が行われているという共通点が見られた。

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Currently in Japan, while the decline of rural areas is becoming more serious, there is a growing interest among young people in urban areas to migrate to and settle in rural areas. In rural areas, it will be important to build a co-creative relationship between migrants and locals that transcends their positions. In this study, we conducted a survey and analysis to clarify how co-creative relationships are established between migrants and locals in Ama Town, Oki, Shimane Prefecture, as a case study. As a result, it became clear that in building a co-creative relationship, (1) the change of locals is a more complex transition than migrants, (2) the function of the “mentors” that emerges spontaneously is important for migrants, and (3) a recomprehension of roles and characteristics occurs on both sides in the transformation process.

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The necessity for school consolidation is increasing due to the declining birthrate and, there has been considerable debate regarding the influence of municipal mergers on the consolidation of schools; however, its effects are not completely understood. Therefore, this study empirically analyzed the influence of municipal merger size on the school consolidation process. The estimation results revealed the following. (1) As the scale of the municipal merger increases, elementary schools are more consolidated but not junior high schools. (2) Elementary and junior high schools increased in municipalities that merged during the change in fiscal incentives. (3) Finally, the number of years passed since the municipal merger was not correlated with school consolidation.

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The arrival of a super-aged society has significantly exacerbated issues such as labor shortages and rising healthcare and nursing care costs. Furthermore, the maintenance of community cohesion and interpersonal connections is becoming increasingly difficult, hindering the formation of social capital. One potential solution to these societal challenges is the creation of tourism that contributes to the well-being of local residents, with a focus on the principles of health tourism. This study aims to clarify the theoretical framework through which health tourism can enhance well-being, specifically by structuring the components of happiness among local residents. Employing social management system theory, this research involved the development of a logic model for the well-being of local residents (particularly older adults) and the visualization of a cognitive map related to their interactions. The study also achieved results in classifying interaction patterns between visitors and local residents for the implementation of health tourism.

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Small and medium-sized companies in the region face a difficult environment for hiring new graduates, and even when they do hire them, challenges exist in evolving them into human resources who can take root, grow, and play an active role, and contribute to the creation of the company's business and internal reforms. Rather than regional companies working alone, various stakeholders are co-creating and beginning to develop “regional human resource department” initiatives to support companies on a regional basis. Therefore, this study focuses on the “regional HR department” initiatives of intermediary support organizations that implement approaches to human resource areas such as internships, recruitment, and human resource development. Specifically, the study will focus on the practices of NPO G-net and general incorporated association Wakuwaku Switch, which are engaged in the areas of internships, recruitment, and human resource development in the Tokai region. As a result of the examination of the practical cases, the coordinators were able to confirm the potential for recruitment, retention, success, and growth through co-creation internships conducted jointly by regional SMEs in the areas of recruitment and internships, joint training for young people after they join the company, and projects with external personnel.

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When inhabitants set their own goals and take the initiative in community development, problems often arise and activities stall after a few years. Since it is unclear what issues arise at each stage of local development and how to respond to them, inhabitants are often troubled. In this study, based on the developmental stage model, I used path analysis to clarify the correlation between the points of activities and systematically organized the series of activities and points involved in community development. The completed process diagram shows the overall flow of community development, the relationship between activity points, and the developmental stages of the organization. When a problem occurs, by tracing the correlation between activities, the cause of the problem can be identified and its impact can be estimated.

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This study is a practical research paper on “efforts to revitalize local regions,” which is one of the “policies to correct the concentration on Tokyo” for national land resilience. Specifically, I took up Kamishihoro Town in Hokkaido, as a case study, and analyzed the factors that enabled the town to create value through sustainable efforts and achieve certain results in addressing the problems of declining and aging population from the perspective of risk management theory, in order to find clues to the realization of regional development and, ultimately, national land resilience.

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As public transportation services continue to shrink due to deteriorating business conditions caused by a declining population and aging society with fewer children, evaluation based on “cross-sector effects,” which quantitatively captures the necessity and value of public transportation services in addition to business profitability, is advancing in practical terms. This paper focuses on public transportation services using automated driving systems, which are expected to provide a means of transportation for the elderly and others amid the recent driver shortage, and aims to capture the quantitative value of the introduction of such services through cross-sector effects, which have not yet been attempted. This paper analyzes a case study of the Ishiodai area of Kasugai City, Aichi Prefecture, where an automated driving service is in regular operation, and finds that the cross-sector effect is higher than when the automated driving service is not implemented or when it is replaced by a demand cab.

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In recent years, in the context of cross-border learning, there has been an increasing willingness among working pro bono professionals to participate in projects at local SMEs. In addition, local SMEs often lack sufficient know-how and management resources to promote new projects, as they face challenges in training successors and recruiting new human resources for business continuity. This study focuses on a case in which a local long-established SME in Tsu, Mie Prefecture, Yamani Zouzu Co., Ltd. created innovation by collaborating with external human resources during the period 2015-2023. The co-creation was realized by a long-established local SME and a working pro bono worker, with the third-party organization, Wakuwaku Switch General Incorporated Association, functioning as a coordinator.

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This paper aims to examine educational methods and their effectiveness in fostering generic skills and entrepreneurship through long-term internships at professional universities, with a particular focus on courses for first-year students. The results of the internships show that students enhanced their basic employability and entrepreneurship skills by participating in the business activities of their internship sites and learning proactively. Regarding the educational methods for long term internships, it is essential to convert fluctuations into energy within a dynamic collaboration involving students, companies, and university faculty, thereby connecting to the experiential knowledge of the students. Specifically, continuous dialogue between faculty, students, and companies is necessary. Long term internships suggest the potential for professional universities to strengthen collaborations with local communities and industries in the future, thereby enhancing the quality of higher vocational education.

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This study examined the potential for turning nature conservation activities in national parks into a tourism re-source through a questionnaire survey of mountaineers. The analysis revealed that a certain level of demand was expected for the conversion of nature conservation experiences into tourism, and that awareness of the location and past volunteer experience influenced interest in the experience plan. The analysis of internal reference prices also showed that awareness of the area increases the value of the experience plan. These results may contribute to the marketing of nature conservation activities for tourism, to securing financial resources by promoting tourism, and to sustainable revitalization through the revitalization of nature conservation in national parks.

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Although it’s been a long time since workcations have attracted attentions, until now, most studies have focused on workcation participants. This study was conducted on “executives in a position to let their staffs to participate,” and a comparative study was conducted to evaluate the current status of workcation by company size (more than 1,000 employees and less than 1,000). Although executives have some interests, the implementation rate is only about 10%, and about 70% do not expect it will spread in the future. When the executives were shown new purposes that differ from the vacation purpose, the “innovation type” of business creation in the region and the “education type” of cross-border learning were found to be of high interest. In addition, as a practical study, a trial project was conducted where the executives themselves participated in the new workcation program, and ascertained the level of interest in this new type of workation purpose.

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Nagasaki Prefecture ranks 4th in the country in terms of catch in 2021. Nagasaki City is promoting the establishment of 'sashimi' as one of its tourism contents starting in 2021 and is using the catchphrase 'Nagasaki = sashimi'. In this study, we conducted an empirical study and survey on visitors to Nagasaki area, focusing on the impact of 'fish' on travel satisfaction. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that receiving information about fish in advance had a statistically significant relationship with tourism satisfaction. Additionally, tourists with information about fish were more likely to eat fish dishes during their tour, which was statistically related to travel satisfaction and intention to revisit. In conclusion, suggestions were made regarding Nagasaki City's tourism industry.

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This study focuses on the evolution of work-study programs in Wakayama Prefecture to qualitatively understand their dynamics. Specifically, we will conduct an interview survey of municipalities in Wakayama Prefecture to clarify, in particular, how each municipality has diversified its work-study acceptance centers and how they have spread throughout the region. The results of the study revealed that in Wakayama Prefecture, the acceptance of work-study programs has spread throughout the region due to a combination of gradual introduction, scope and speed of spillover, regional characteristics, inter-regional cooperation and differentiation strategies, corporate and regional matching, collaboration between local residents and local governments, policy flexibility and regional development.

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In this paper, we introduce the classification for municipalities and municipal classification axes obtained from principal component analysis of government statistical data for FY2020. The classification axes is obtained to represent the structure of the city. Furthermore, by projecting the classification results onto coordinate planes and space, we can visualize the spread of each type and the location of each municipality and show how the classification results can be explicitly expressed.

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In this study, we focus on guide signs in Higashiyamate / Minamiyamate districts of Ngagasaki City, and measure how many pedestrians (tourists) stop and look at the guide signs. The measurements were taken on a Sunday in July, which is the summer vacation period for students and is considered to be the busiest day for tourists. We set four guide signs and measured the number of pedestrians from 10:00 to 17:00 and how many of them stopped and looked at the guide signs. As a result of the measurements, it was found that there was a guide sing with few pedestrians stopping to look at the guide sign, the ratio of the pedestrians stopping to look at the guide sings (the visibility rate) of the three guide signs was similar, and there were times when the visibility rate is high.

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In recent years, place branding has emerged as a strategic approach to regional revitalization. However, despite the involvement of various stakeholders in local branding initiatives, the role of residents has often been overlooked. In this paper, we analyze the Otaru City case study from the perspective of place branding, incorporating a geographic perspective, to extract factors that create residents' engagement for the local community and place. Our findings reveal that the unique history and culture of the area, involvement in community activities, value co-creation from multiple perspectives, and local government support are crucial for fostering engagement. Furthermore, the results also suggest that engagement for the local community and place. not only leads to behavioral changes, such as increased leadership behavior and organizational citizenship behavior, but also to psychological shifts, including enhanced positive emotions towards the community.

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[in Japanese]

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The contemporary art festival inspired the residents to work voluntarily through the project Mori Radio Station x Shinyukai, (1) Wide generalized trust was built among artists, residents, volunteers, and public officials through working together. (2) A loose code was created under the motto ‘energetic, no pressure, fun’. (3) A network was formed by briging together diverse people and organizations; (4) The establishment of trust and networks promoted voluntary cooperation; and (5) A ten-year consistency was secured. As a result, there is room to assume that bridging social capital was formed from the point of view of the community generated by the art activities. On the other hand, in terms of community activities, it cannot be said that that the same has been formed, as it did not extend over the whole district.

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The purpose of this report is to clarify the efforts being made to promote the sustainable development of the “manufacturing industry” through public-private partnerships in Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture. The “manufacturing industry” is implementing open factories and participating in social experiments. In Kadoma City's urban planning, an “industrial attraction zone” has been established within the “location optimization plan.” Kadoma City's industrial promotion measures include certifying technological capabilities and providing various subsidies. In March 2024, the “Kadoma City Manufacturing Industry Promotion Plan” is formulated. Based on this plan, it is expected that the public and private sectors will work together to further expand their efforts toward the sustainable development of the “manufacturing industry.”

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This paper reports the efforts of regional development making use of Cryptomeria japonica of Kanayama Town, Yamagata Prefecture and Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture. The regional Cryptomeria japonica in Kanayama Town is “kaneyamasugi”, and the regional Cryptomeria japonica in Nichinan City is “obisugi”. Kanayama Town and Nichinan City have been trying various efforts of regional development making use of “kaneyamasugi” and “obisugi”. This paper researches, marshals, describes, and studies the efforts of regional development making use of Cryptomeria Japonica of Kanayama Town and Nichinan City. Moreover, this paper adds the studies based on “Public Interest and Common Goods Studies” which is the new field of study. Finally, this paper studies future subjects of the efforts of them and further research subjects.

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At Abuyone corporation which operates a gas station in Ise City, it has become possible to secure meeting time as a place for internal opinion coordination through inner branding. This created a state in which it was possible to work on new businesses, and solidified its intention to continue the business in the future. By the way, there are two main types of problems, “Jigsaw puzzle type problems” and “Rubik's cube type problems”. We decided to take up a solution to the “Rubik's cube type problem”, which is considered to be a complex problem, and to confirm whether it can actually be applied. We devised the “e-Cycle Model” as a thinking system that involved trial and error, and worked on the planning of a new business at Abuyone corporation. After repeatedly revising and resubmitting the materials and application documents, we could finally start a new business.

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This study focuses on the Ehime Folk Crafts Museum, which has experienced an increase in the number of visitors since the COVID -19 pandemic. Through the cooperation of this museum, we were able to interview the people involved and view internal documents. Based on the discourse and document records obtained through these interviews, we organized information regarding the circumstances and historical background of the museum's establishment, its current operational reforms, and its efforts in new businesses. This museum was established approximately 50 years ago and had various management problems. However, by reforming its management and finances since 2020, it recovered the number of sponsors and visitors and achieved operational and financial stabilization. We reveal that the Ehime Folk Crafts Museum's strengthened ties with society and its efforts to revitalize the region resulted in understanding and support from the local community.

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[in Japanese]

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Depopulated rural areas are facing a shortage of community leaders due to population decline, and the proportion of elderly single-person households and elderly married couples are on the rise. This has created a need for a community in which a diverse range of people are involved to support each other. This case study examined two depopulated communities where women are proactively engaged in community building activities to identify common elements and how women are involved in community building. The author employed action research and interviews as a practitioner of community development himself, and analyzed the characteristics of community development activity organizations and the manner of women’s involvement. The author found that the resident-led support systems included human resources of community building organizations, activity process, and collaboration with women.

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In recent years, many local governments have been promoting support measures to promote migration. Prior studies have pointed out the importance of migrants' awareness and issues as well as the role of intermediary organizations in regional development; however, the extent to which local government migration support measures contribute to settling down and improving the lives of migrants has not been confirmed. Using Kimino Town, Wakayama Prefecture, as a case study, this study investigated the relationship between migrants and the local government and local residents, life in the mid-mountainous region, and challenges and difficulties faced after migration through interviews. The survey results suggest that the relationship between migrants and local residents is relatively good. It was revealed that communication with local residents has deepened through the accommodation business and community revitalization projects

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This study is a case study of the formulation of a regional development plan by a local community council in collaboration with a university and residents. We report on the collaborative process from the activities before and during the planning stage.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual state of overt gambling behavior among the elderly, focusing on gender differences, using a behavioral observation method. As a result of the study, gambling behavior has both ``everyday'' and ``extraordinary'' aspects, and is accompanied by the opportunity for visiting the venue/store, the gambling behavior/concomitant behavior, and the consequences. Furthermore, compared to pachinko, participating in publicly managed competitions involves a variety of activities and increases the likelihood of human interaction. In the case of elderly people, there was clearly a large number of male participants, and many labels (concepts) were generated for gambling behavior. It is considered difficult for women to participate in a real world dominated by men. Although the number of labels for women was limited, there was no difference in the number of categories generated, and it was thought that there were no significant gender differences, including potential participation.

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