Agriculture in Japan changed drastically during the latter half of the 20th century, and it currently faces various problems. A number of farmers stopped farming in the 1990s, while keeping their farmland, mainly because of a lack of farm successors. It is necessary to consider the way to continue agricultural production and to find those who maintain farming activities in the future. This paper argues the sustainability of agriculture with regard to farm successors by presenting case studies on large-scale tenant rice farming in the Hokuriku District. There are two dominant types of successful farm successors in the Hokuriku District. One is the industrialized and commercialized farming operations by farm companies and farmers' cooperatives. This type is widely found in Niigata Prefecture. The other type is community farms, which are organized by farm support groups consisted of local village farmers. This type is typically found in Toyama and Fukui Prefectures. The national and prefectural governments encourage community farms by providing financial assistance to build common farm facilities and to introduce farm machinery. My field studies on a farm company and a farmers' cooperative in the city of Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture and a community farm in the town of Nyuzen, Toyama Prefecture suggest that they play an important role in maintaining farming in each locality and that they are expected to become dominant successors of rice farming and rural community.

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We have examined the current condition and problems of agriculture in hilly and mountainous areas (Chusankan Chiiki) and discussed measures for promoting less-favored agriculture and rural economy. In hilly and mountainous areas, agricultural production has declined because a number of commercial crops have disappeared. However, in 2000, to protect agricultural multi-functionality, the central government introduced a direct payment system to farmers in hilly and mountainous areas as part of so-called decoupling agricultural policies. This policy has been highly evaluated in terms of its success at maintaining agricultural land that has a high risk of abandonment. However, there are also problems with implementing this policy, such as acquiring a suitable workforce and applying the policy in small settlements. We should not place too much hope in this system. The downward trend in the number of people employed by construction and manufacturing industries means that the local economies in hilly and mountainous areas are fairly depressed. To enable them to play an important role in maintaining rural communities, industries need to be restructured. The globalization of food systems, has led to growing consumer's interest in local foods that are produced using processes that have a positive impact on hilly and mountainous areas. There are successful cases of local and agricultural development based on the integration of different sectors of industry, such as selling agricultural products, processing agricultural foods, and rural tourism. We have described this new kind of industry as an 'integrated lifestyle industry' and the economic changes are described as 'a growing economic complex based on communication between rural residents and urban people'. These new local developments will define the future direction of agricultural and regional development in hilly and mountainous areas.

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This paper discusses problems encountered in promoting organic agriculture in Japan along with the direction to be taken for the future while analyzing the actual state of deployment and promotion of organic agriculture in Japan. Organic agriculture first began in Japan in the form of a social movement through sansho-teikei (collaboration between the production and consumption sectors) in the 1960s, and has involved a diverse range of organizations and individuals. Accompanying this movement, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has strengthened regulations governing the indication and labeling of organic agricultural products rather than promoting organic agriculture. In Japan at present, programs utilizing the government's "eco-farmer system" and prefectural certification systems are being deployed primarily in the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and Kyushu regions. However, production is made unstable by the approach, and management expense increases, an increase of the working hour is caused in organic farming. Despite the considerable management risk, it is difficult to secure sales channels to reduce that risk. In addition, due to the complexity of the current labeling certification system, consumers do not always have an adequate understanding of organic agricultural products. For these reasons, the deployment of organic agriculture has been localized to certain areas with any significant lateral proliferation. In order to position organic agriculture for the promotion of regional agriculture, it will be indispensable to develop technologies that reduce management risk and implement new support policies. It is hoped that new programs and legislations such as the Organic Agriculture Promotion Law and the Environmental Direct Payment System will be effective in achieving these objectives. On the other hand, it will also be necessary to consider the level of interest and evaluation of consumers supporting organic agriculture with respect to agriculture and food products.

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Local brand marketing is one of the remarkable issues to promote agricultural products for small groups or cooperatives in Japanese rural areas. In this paper the author consider localization in foods, particularly branded beef such as Hida-gyu or Matsusaka-ushi, and discuss on the strategies for revitalization of the rural economy. The quality of beef has been uniformalized in recent Japan, because the regional differences of beef cattle breeds, pedigree, and cattle feed have been almost disappeared. In the first stage of Japanese beef industry, breeding and fattening were separated on the basis of interregional division of labor. Thus, locally branded beef on the market is derived from both indigenous cattle and extraneous cattle. Also, since there is no certification authority for branded beef, consumers cannot appreciate the quality with its appellation. Accordingly, I must state that actors who promote their beef fabricate the local embeddedness. This study makes three feasible suggestions for revitalization of the rural economy that is primarily led by the beef industry. First, amalgamating uncompetitive local beef brands into a single brand can supply enough beef to acquire consumers' awareness. Although the locality in the each beef may lose, expanding producing area can make supermarkets display the trademark of the consolidated brand. Second, product differentiation, for example raising rare breed cattle or providing special feedstuff, can success in market penetration. Third, adding a story to the commodity can stimulate demand. When we eat foods, we do not only consume edible material but we do consume information accompanied by the commodity.

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The purpose of this report is to examine and organize activities and problems on the promotion of regional fishery, as well as investigating and viewing the methods of future promotion. It is indispensable for the maintenance and improvement of activities and fishery products to be purchased in respective fishery regions by many traders and consumers, while receiving higher valuation and support. Examination will be focused on points of, "how to increase and ensure potential consumers who choose (regional) fishery products and are supportive of fishery", and the creation of new goods and environment for sales, for the formation and succession of a more desirable fishery activity and region. Attention will be paid on creation value and purchasing chance fishery products and also on nurturing consumers who have interest and understanding in fishery and fishery products. Reports will be made on some related cases that have been observed in prior studies. The following have been organized as points to consider when researching sales promotion; the necessity of considering and devising ways on activities from production to consumption; the thorough quality control and the unified consensus, activities and communication of the people related to management; the consideration and review on marketing strategy of distributing regional fishery products; seeking connections between consumers and regional fishery and products; devising presentation methods of information to consumers; ensuring opportunities for people to deeply understand the role of fishermen and regional fishery, for example, food supply and maintenance of resource; long-term perspectives on fostering future consumers; the consideration for social contribution, for example, return profits not only to the fishery industry but also to the related regions and people, cooperation with other industries and in educational activities.

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In this report, we divide our examination of activities surrounding food culture and food education undertaken in Japan into three major points; Chisan Chisho (local production for local consumption), environmental conservation style agriculture, and tourism and hands-on learning. The key issue surrounding Chisan Chisho in this paper is the importance of an organised production structure. Such a structure would take an integral part in supporting and developing regionally and seasonally suited food products and cultivation method. Furthermore, various food productions would allow us to understand the relationship between food production and environment. In terms of environmental conservation-style agriculture, it is crucial not only to use sound cultivation methods, but also to convey a message to consumers about how particular styles of agriculture conserve the local environment. For this message to successfully reach consumers, it is necessary for recognition of the importance of environmental conservation-style agriculture, and the establishment of a system to cover the cost for this sustainable agriculture with government, consumers, agricultural co-operatives, and wholesalers/retailers alike. For tourism and hands-on learning, it is important to establish practices whereby the tourists fit in with good farming practices and sustainable procedures, instead of local areas conforming to the needs of tourists. In addition to the three points detailed earlier (Chisan Chisho, environmental conservation-style agriculture, and tourism and hands-on learning), this report also advocates food education using detailed case studies. In sum, these three areas, along with food education can be best operationalized using the following strategies. First, for Chisan Chisho, it is crucial to have an organisation made up of farmers that can tackle the issue as a whole. The concept of safe and sound food that is represented by Chisan Chisho can be enacted on an individual farmer basis. It is however, more effective to work as a group to establish cultivation practices most suited to the area, and to produce many seasonal varieties which best utilize the local soil and water. Second, environmental conservation-style agriculture needs to stress the value of agriculture, while gaining understanding and feedback from both consumers and distributors. This is the area in particular that needs more work to fully explore its potential. Conservation of the environment cannot be achieved by individuals alone, as it needs to have a sound framework of cooperating people and systems, all moving towards the same goal. In this way, agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries must follow a united strategy that best achieves the stated goals. Third, in the respect to the tourism and hand-on learning, it is important to raise awareness among urban residents and consumers as part of the total environmental conservation-style food production system. That is to say they would benefit from hands-on learning experiences by having full understanding of environmental conservation-style agriculture and true value of food culture. With this knowledge consumers can act as a facilitator between urban and rural areas. Thus, consumers must change their attitude from "just a consumer" to a facilitator who can share the culture of sustainable food and farming practices. Until the above issues are solved, environmental conservation, and a sustainable regional agricultural industry will be impractical.

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In Germany, counties (Landkreise, Kreise) are administratively a cross between municipalities (Gemeinden) and states (Lander), except for city-states (Stadtstaaten). They are characterized by a sort of self-government on a regional scale, on the one hand and by lower-level government offices for national administration on the other. As about two-thirds of the total population inhabits municipalities within counties and only one-third inhabits non-county cities (kreisfreie Stadte), counties are very important in the regional administration of Germany. Due to limited financial resources of small municipalities, they have played an important role in the administrative system, especially in the period before the areal reform of municipalities that was conducted in West Germany between the latter half of the 1960s and the end of the 1970s. Even today, as self-governing bodies counties have various tasks of promoting the development of all or several municipalities within them and using their supplementing and balancing functions to support poor municipalities. In addition to these functions counties have state functions for administratively controlling their municipalities. Although both functions were originally different, they have overlapped. The majority of county revenues depend on payments (Kreisumlagen) from the municipalities within counties and tax money allocated to local governments (Schlussel-zuweisungen) by states. The former is decided in county parliaments (Kreistage) based on the financial demand of each county each fiscal year. Payment calculation methods are different in each state. In addition, payment ratios are also different in each county. In the new federal states with low taxable incomes, county receipts depend largely on many funds, such as the Osttransfer-fund, from federal states. Recently, serious financial problems have occurred in the counties of most states because of the increased number of responsibilities tranferred by states to counties without their financial support from the states. This brings not only pressure to the payment charged from the attached municipalities but also affects the enterprises located in counties. For most states, functional or areal reform of counties will be unavoidable. In addition, population decrease, innercity-suburban problems, arrangement of NUTS-2-regions in the European Union, and the use of electronic government are also factors stimulating county reform planning. These problems are especially serious for the new federal states because the funds will be abolished in 2019 despite the continuing population decreases. Compared to municipality reform, in which the concept of citizen nearness (Burgernahe) is very important, county reform is more easily conducted based on economies of scale and scope. As seen in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, there is a state proceeding with functional reforms and county mergers.

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[in Japanese]

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