Since the early 2000s, 5,783 regional management organizations (RMOs) have been established in Japan. We conducted two RMO case studies to analyze the process of RMO organizational and functional restructuring. The first case was an RMO in the Sanze district, Tsuruoka City, established in the early 1970s during the first community boom. The second case was an RMO in the Nikko district, Sakata City, established in the 2000s during the second community boom following discussions on how to deal with regional issues caused by the merger of municipalities. The case studies clarified that the functions of RMOs reflected current societal expectations and that the organizations were restructured accordingly.

The purpose of this study was to clarify regional differences in the characteristics of business cooperatives for the creation of specific regions. In the town of Nanbu, Aomori prefecture, and the village of Higashinaruse, Akita prefecture, it was difficult for businesses within the region alone to establish an operational system or create a website in compliance with the Worker Dispatching Law. Therefore, business cooperatives were established in both areas with the help of outside actors. In addition, the recruitment of multi-workers is conducted through an Internet job service in Nanbu and through a local employment agency in Higashinaruse. As a result, multi-workers in Nanbu are mainly prospective new farmers from outside the region, while those in Higashinaruse are mainly residents of the region. Because of these differences in the attributes of multi-workers, Nanbu provides more educational opportunities in agricultural skill to multi-workers, while Higashinaruse provides more benefits to them. Thus, the cooperatives function as a learning system for new farmers in Nanbu, while Higashinaruse provides stable employment for residents in the area.

This study presents students' and teachers' views on competitions and students' trends in observational continuity through comments at the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) national competition on observing familiar natural environments. Both students' and teachers' views on competitions include student participation and presentations. The diversity of competitions is recognized by students. Their perspectives on competitions recognize natural environments familiar to students from other schools. Therefore, such competitions help students understand the diversity of natural environments on a nationwide scale; moreover, these competitions pique students' interest in activities and observational continuity across multiple school years. Furthermore, teachers have opportunities to reconsider their schools' observations during competitions. Teachers' reconsideration of observational activities is critical for students' continuity of observations. That continuity is reinforced by the acquisition of observation results and the formation of human relationships. Thus, teachers' reconsideration during competitions and students' reflections on human relationships are critical for the continuity of observations.

This paper reports the results of a nationwide high school curriculum survey conducted from October 2021 to February 2022, just before the new national curriculum prescribing Geography as a compulsory high school subject was implemented. The main findings are as follows. 1) The percentage of compulsory subjects in the first grade tends to be higher in History than in Geography, particularly in Hyogo prefecture and private schools. 2) By school type, the elective subject of Advanced Geography is not available in vocational high schools, meaning that school geography learning ends with compulsory Geography for those students. 3) In schools from which the majority of students attend universities, there is a tendency for Advanced Geography not to be offered in humanities courses, but rather in science courses. 4) As the background to these findings, it is speculated that there are high school teaching strategies geared towards university entrance examinations, a shortage of teachers who specialize in geography, and difficulties in changing the previous curriculum framework.

Preceding research pointed out that regional geography learning has the danger of making children uncritically accept “regional characteristics” set arbitrarily and subjectively by curriculum creators and teachers. In this paper, we consider a region as a social product, examine and critique it, and clarify the lesson structure of the geography learning approach aiming at the reconstruction of regional representation and creation of new regional representation. The results of geographic education research in England and the GeoCapabilities project suggest that geography learning based not only on a social constructivist approach but also on a social realist approach emphasizing the reality of knowledge is required. As a result of this study, we propose a lesson process model of “social construction-reconstructive regional geography learning.” The purpose of the model we developed is to connect academic knowledge based on the results of research and everyday knowledge based on children’s life experiences through questions in order to acquire and develop geographic concepts.

This study aimed to shed light on how Japanese geoparks contribute to sustainable tourism by comparing the items in the Japanese Sustainable Tourism Standard for Destinations guidelines and one of the self-validation lists created by the Japanese Geoparks Committee. The results showed that Japanese geoparks tended to emphasize management and operation systems, protection and conservation planning, educational activities, advertising, interpretation, and listing of natural heritage sites. This characteristic is a good practice for improving the sustainability of tourist destinations. Meanwhile, Japanese geoparks tended to give less importance to grasp the current situation using objective data and surveys. Therefore, collecting objective data, creating a helpful index, and conducting surveys on sustainable tourism are urgently needed. In addition, geoparks showed weakness in terms of awareness of rights relationships, understanding of natural environments as related to their geology and terrain, and implementation of counterplans for tourism.

With the aim of promoting geopark activities in the magnificent natural landscape of Mt. Asama, and the natural and cultural resources in its vicinity, local residents and nature lovers developed systematic guide activities in the northern foothills of the mountain. To be certified as a Japanese domestic geopark, guides working in the area initiated a movement that led to the creation of the Mt. Asama Geoguide Association. The local and villa residents in the village of Tsumagoi and town of Naganohara, who were involved in guide activities as separate groups or individuals and promoted geopark activities are now affiliated with the Geoguide Association. Subsequently, several initiatives were taken under the geopark concept, and further efforts were made to improve the guiding ability of the organization. Such initiatives included organizing various guide activities, lecture programs featuring invited external speakers, and workshops in which all participants collaborated in the creation of a guide text. Additionally, a guide training course was conducted to increase the number of geoguides.

The Tsugaru-Juniko site was formed by a landslide due to an earthquake that occurred roughly 300 years ago. This study aimed to clarify the geomorphological and geoecological characteristics of the landslide area and to survey the movements and needs of tourists at the site. The findings revealed that most visitors, as recommended in tourism guide maps, spent 1–4 hours on the walking route, enjoying the natural scenery of the lakes and Siebold’s beech forest. While visitors had immense interest in topics such as the landslide-related origin of the lakes, and the relationship between topography and vegetation, no successful efforts had been made to spark their interest in the geoscientific aspects of the site. The currently visible topography resulting from the landslide includes remnants of hummocks, lobate ridges, boulders, and lake clusters. In addition, variations in plant species community compositions are due to landslide topography, with species common to the beech forest and to Japanese wingnut forests found, respectively, on the upper convex and lower concave slopes of a displaced block. A tour guide map including landslide-related information is also proposed as a result of this study.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between developmental environments and health status among immigrant children living in areas of low immigrant ethnic density. As the number of immigrant workers increases, improving their living situations, which are often considered to be socially excluded, has become urgent. In particular, compared with ethnic enclaves, areas with low immigrant ethnic density are often characterized by more difficulty obtaining sufficient support from compatriots and the government. Thus, it is likely that the developmental environments of immigrant children living in these areas are also impoverished. We obtained and analyzed health checkup data, including health status and developmental environment factors, for all 3-year-old children living in an area of low immigrant ethnic density. The results showed that an impoverished environment is associated with health sequelae such as tooth decay. In particular, the occurrence of caries was significant among children living in low-income, socially isolated immigrant households. In contrast, this association was not observed in immigrant households with a high degree of social integration. Thus, immigrant households that are socially excluded are less likely to receive adequate family and social support. This context may worsen the developmental environment and lead to child health problems.