Cruise tourism demand in Japan is expected to increase in line with worldwide growth forecasts prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cruise tourism can bring economic benefits to port regions however it is important to recognise its possible negative socio-cultural and environmental impacts as well. Sustainable tourism development appears a logical direction to orient the development of cruise tourism for all stakeholders in the value chain, including the public sector, tourism business and organisations and local community. This paper provides overview of cruise tourism, which is still developing in Akita, to enhance understanding and provide proposals for more sustainable forms of cruise tourism development based on UNWTO recommendations.

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The city of Odate is attracting worldwide attention as the motherland of Akita dogs. Strategies must be formulated to attract foreign tourists to Odate, with Akita Dogs as the key content. Based on interviews conducted in December 2019 in Taiwan with the tourism industry and Akita dog breeders, this article discusses Taiwanese people’s perceptions of Akita dogs and desirable strategies and tactics to attract Taiwanese tourists to Odate, with four proposals.

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This paper attempts to unravel a certain mystery around supposed image sources of the Kaitai Shinsho (New Anatomy Book)'s cover page and illustrations drawn by the Akita Ranga painter Odano Naotake, during the late Edo period. It concerns Valuerda's Anatomy book, published in Antwerp in 1568, and its only known extant, imported, original copy, formerly possessed by the Inami family, descendants of Dr. Inami, a medical doctor in the Akita domain of the Edo period. This investigation was conducted through a bibliographical and iconographical analysis of this property, in relation to others from the same period.

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The present study is a report on attitudes of elderly care facilities in Akita towards the acceptance of foreign care workers. Members of this research project conducted a similar survey in 2015, when the issue of foreign care workers was still not a realistic concern for many in Akita. However, in only a few years, the Japanese government introduced several new mechanisms for the acceptance of foreign care workers, including the application of the Technical Intern Training Program, which is more accessible for small and medium-sized facilities. With this changing environment, we conducted a new survey in 2020 focusing on facilities’ perception of Japanese language education and other support systems which may be essential on the successful acceptance of such workers. We find a critical gap in the resources and commitment of the facilities towards Japanese language education.

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This study examines the features of the four introduction schemes of foreign care workers in Japan. Previously, only foreign care workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam could enter Japan under the Economic Partnership Agreements with these countries. With increasing demand for care workers, three new schemes with three different residential statuses have been established (nursing care, specified skilled worker, and technical intern training) in recent years. This study provides an overview of these four schemes, with a focus on the requirements of Japanese language skills. We also present two cases in Akita and Iwate Prefectures to illustrate the support environments of two facilities including foreign care workers.

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“Oga no Namahage”, one of the folk events representing Akita Prefecture, was designated as an important intangible national folk cultural property in 1978, and a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage as one of “Raiho-shin, ritual visits of deities in masks and costumes” in 2018. During these forty years, Namahage events have been disrupted in nearly half the local communities in Oga due to factors such as lack of successors caused by the declining birthrate, aging society, and a decrease in the number of households inviting them. I discuss the current issues regarding the succession of Namahage events, based on my surveys conducted on the residents of three communities. There were cases of tourists and foreign students being incorporated into the events as assistants, and cases in which newcomers played important roles in the resumption or revival. While local people have already been flexibly adapting to the social changes, seeking successors among unrelated people from outside, and especially accepting women as Namahage performers are essential elements for local people which disrupt the very foundation of the events.

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“Akita no Kanto”, which originated from the “Neburi-nagashi” folklore event of the Edo period, is a cultural heritage designated as important intangible cultural property in 1980. The performance competition of Kanto was first held by the Kanto society of Akita city. The term “Kanto” later became widely used. “Kanto-matsuri (festival)” has been sponsored by the executive committee since 1965. While the successors of this event are not lacking today, several projects attempting to secure younger generations aim to tackle the decreasing birthrate and aging society in the near future. Since no guideline exists for the participation of non-Japanese people in this event, a number of international students have been continuously participating as members of the Kanto club of Akita International University and its predecessor, Minnesota State University Akita campus. On the other hand, it is difficult for international students staying at Akita city for a limited time to join in the Kanto society of each neighborhood association (“Chonai-kai”), because it is highly required for them to stay at each town for a period of time.

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Despite their recognition as invaluable cultural assets, many traditional performing arts are on the verge of cessation due to the social and demographic changes in the hosting communities. Akita Prefecture, which has the largest number of nationally designated important intangible folk cultural properties but also the fastest population decline in Japan, is no exception to this trend. This paper provides the first evidence of a statistical association between the cessation of traditional performing arts and the demographic structure of the hosting communities. Based on a survey of traditional performing arts covering two decades, we find a partial and positive association between the fraction of young community members and continuation probabilities, whereas it was not correlated with the fraction of elder community members. The results suggest the need for a further scheme of preservation in remote areas experiencing rapid population decline.

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The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is experiencing a rapidly declining birth rate and an increasing average age. As a result, the work force is in dire demand in rural and agricultural areas. The introduction of the Work Permit system in 2004 and that of the Working Visit system in 2007 significantly increased the number of foreign workers, but not enough to satisfy the labor needs in rural and agricultural areas. In 2015, the South Korean government introduced the Seasonal Labor system in the agricultural sector. This system is unique in that it provides significant power and responsibility to local communities as the main actors in accepting foreign workers. This note depends largely on a report by Eom Jinyoung and others to briefly explain this recently introduced system, and tries to clarify what should be examined further to facilitate the discussion on the possible introduction of such a system in Japan.

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