Many recreational facilities and community centers have been built to revitalize rural communities in Japan by utilizing various government subsidies for the past forty years. Most of the rural communities, however, have not been revitalized despite of the huge investment. In fact, those rural communities have faced issues such as aging and depopulation more than ever under globalization. As a result, the gap in the size of population, unemployment rate, and amount of income between metropolitan areas and rural areas has been getting larger. On the other hand, some rural communities are being revitalized while others are still struggling to revitalize their communities. It is noted that those communities are under similar conditions. In this paper, it is pointed out that "community capacity" plays a significant role in revitalizing rural communities, and that human capital is a vital factor for enhancing this capacity. With this recognition, this paper analyzes the Akita community capacity development seminar, which has been co-hosted by the Center for Regional Sustainability Initiatives (CRESI) of AIU and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery of Akita prefecture since 2005.

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As of January 2012, When I was assigned as a professor of Center for East Asia Research (CEAR) AIU, it seemed that there were very limited number of people who were conscious enough of the necessity of promotion of inbound tourism from South East Asian nations to Akita prefecture and Tohoku region. This essay is to record and give an outline of the result of the research on the promotion of inbound tourism from South East Asian nations, especially from Thailand, to our region, conducted under the mission of CEAR as "Think Tank with Action" and also refers to some problems to be solved in the future which were apparently identified during the research process. First of all, I will deal with a policy proposal entitled "Promotion of inbound/outbound tourism with ASEAN countries" which was informally submitted to the Prefectural Government of Akita on the basis of the result of the interviews in Thailand and Singapore, as potential tourism markets in South East Asia, learning from the advanced experiences of Sendai city. Second, I will introduce "Business Meeting Mission to Thailand" which was also aiming the promotion of the inbound tourism from Thailand and "Akita Survey Mission" organized by Association of Thai Travel Agents. Third, I will refer to "Top Sales" conducted by the Governor of Akita Prefecture and "Akita Seminar" in Thailand organized by Akita Prefectural Government which were followed by a "Visiting around Tohoku Tour" organized by Association of Thai Travel Agents using a charter flight operated by Thai International Airways. Finally, I will propose some ideas including possible tour plans to be designed that emphasize the concept of "corridors", envisioning the possibility of the integrated/inter-prefectural activities to be jointly operated by the multiple prefectures/regions.

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The passenger numbers of the regular connection of Korean Airlines, which started in October 2001 between Akita and Seoul, have remained stagnant. That fright has not been used a lot on business needs, so sustaining that fright has depended largely on tourism needs. It is difficult to expect the increase of tourists to Korea given long-term downward trend of outbound tourists from Akita prefecture. Thus, the method to increase the visitors to Akita from the bigger cities like Seoul or Incheon might largely affect the sustaining activities. In this paper, based on a review of the recent trends in the number of Korean tourists visiting Japan and Akita, I would analyze the means to attract Korean tourists to Akita prefecture. In addition, I introduce promotions of tourism and local products sale, both of which were discussed at project-based learning (PBL) program between Akita International University and Korean Central University conducted from January to March in 2015

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There are more than ten million dogs kept in Japanese houses amid unprecedented pet boom in this country. However, the number of Akita Inu in Japan has been decreasing because large-sized dogs are disliked by pet-lovers who tend to keep small western dogs. In contrast, Akita Inu is more popular in foreign countries, especially in the Europe. New branches of Akita Inu Hozonkai have been opened in Russia, Ukraine and Italy in recent years and they hold Akita Inu festivals annually. Akita Prefecture should be more proud of Akita Inu, a large breed of dog originating from Akita. This year is the 80 th anniversary of the death of Hachiko, a famous Akita Inu who showed loyalty to the owner even after his death. Akita prefecture should make use of Akita Inu to promote tourism. In this paper, I make some proposals to the local government for the popularization and internationalization of Akita Inu.

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Akita prefecture has been known for various types of cultural properties: the largest number of Important Intangible Folk-Cultural Properties; archaeological sites; historical buildings and landscapes; Heritages of Industrial Modernization; Natural Monuments and National Parks and so on. While their distributions are concentrated in Akita prefecture, it is almost impossible to regard all of them as tourism resources contributing to attract tourists. According to tourism trends in Akita, since most of the tourists are short-staying visitors to specific cultural events, the scientific value of its rich heritage is not fully conveyed to them yet. This paper would try to redefine the abundant cultural properties in Akita prefecture as sustainable tourism resources. From the viewpoint of heritage tourism dealing with global value and conservation of heritage, I discuss the signficance of re-definition of them. Additionally, through the discussion of specific examples of cultural heritage, I attempt to raise the problem on `locality' entailed in `tourism for local culture'.

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The concept of Islamic tourism has been growing as a lucrative niche market in tourism industry. Muslim tourist destinations are upgrading their services to cater to the needs of Muslim tourists such as providing Halal food, developing Muslim tour packages and enhancing Islamic values in accommodation services. Besides this, non-Muslim tourist destinations such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan are geared to provide Muslim friendly facilities and services in order to welcome more Muslim tourists to their countries. Therefore, this study explores the challenges to provide Muslim friendly facilities in non-Muslim tourist destinations such as Akita Prefecture. A discussion of several difficulties including the language barrier, missing link between tour companies in the destination and origin counties and lack of information on Muslim tourist needs were found as major obstacles to develop Akita Prefecture as a Muslim friendly tourist destination.

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Many countries in Asia introduced the public land ownership PA (protected areas) system, based on public land ownership and denial of private rights in PAs. However, it is difficult in practice to prohibit the exercise of private rights completely and it is even more difficult to eliminate existing private rights. This is the reason why some countries of the public land ownership PA system started to introduce the zoning system, where private land ownership is allowed in PAs. In Asia, the Ecolinc policy in Sabah, Malaysia can be an example. In socialist countries including China, since the private land ownership is denied altogether, the dichotomy between public land and private land does not make sense. Asia has the philosophy and tradition for protection of the nature based on the principle of symbiosis. Such a philosophy requires us to go beyond the public-private dichotomy and develop a system for protection of the nature in areas larger than strictly protected areas using the zoning technique and the symbiosis of human residents and the nature.

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The seventieth anniversary of the end of WWII was met by the escalation of the Ukrainian problem, which is deeply rooted in the political events during those years including the post-war territorial settlement (alias the Yalta regime), Cold War, the fall of Berliner Mauer, the collapse of Soviet Union, and the enlargement of the EU and NATO. The Putin administration in Russia, confronting the US and EU supporting the Poroshenko administration in Ukraine, enjoys high domestic popularity of more than 80%, in spite of the economic sanctions imposed by the West, Australia, and Japan and the resulting isolation from the world market. His Ukrainian policy is to pursue political objectives at the cost of economic interests. This political and economic doctrine, named "State Capitalism," finds its origin in the Soviet Union's politicization of economy, which was inherited by the Russian Federation and further strengthened by President Putin himself when he established his economic policy through political struggles with business magnates (Oligarchs). Our understanding of his East Asia policy, with focuses on energy and natural resources, requires careful considerations of his political and strategic intentions which do not necessarily conform to purely economic interests or market principle.

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