To consider the possibility of survival and development of agriculture in Japan, we must envision a type of agriculture that is appropriate to the regional physical and human conditions. For this purpose, and based mainly on previous reports on the recent vibrant agriculture in various regions of Japan, the survival and development strategies are summarized as follows: (1) ensuring availability of farm operators and workers, (2)building up rational farm management by promoting large-scale or intensified farm operations, (3) applying advanced technology, machines and facilities, (4) securing stable and high income sources, (5) establishing multiple channels for shipping farm products, (6) setting up networks between producers and consumers, and (7)promoting the various benefits related to agriculture. These strategies suggest the indications we must select for a new agricultural regionalization. Furthermore, our analysis of previous studies of agricultural regionalization in Japan shows that it is necessary to add practical purposes to academic ones, apply multivariate analyses on the premise of multiple indicators, and use the current merged municipalities as statistical units for new agricultural regionalization of Japan in terms of profitable agriculture. In addition, we must establish two different types of agricultural regionalization: one combining agriculture and other industries and the other one for environmental and regional community sustainability.

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This article is a technical note that describes a conventional agricultural regionalization method and its problems, using the Hokuriku region as an example. The method is a multivariate analysis that combines factor analysis and cluster analysis. Finding agricultural regions requires the following 12 steps; 1) selecting variables, 2) preliminary calculations, 3) omitting variables, 4) weighting factor scores, 5) exponentiating factor scores, 6) selecting a scale of statistical unit, 7) interpretation of factors, 8) map design, 9) displaying maps for factor analysis, 10) interpretation of clusters, 11) displaying a map for cluster analysis, and 12) regionalization. We then discussed these problems. (i) How many variables should be selected? (ii) Which statistical unit should be selected? (iii) How can the calculation be adjusted? (iv) How can regions be classified subjectively?

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The purpose of this study is to categorize Japanese agricultural regions by their strategies for survival and development, and to attempt to classify these regions by their characteristics and distribution patterns. We created a database based on the 2015 Census of Agriculture and Forestry, using municipalities as the unit region, and selected 37 indicators related to farm households, agricultural labor force, management, land use, lease of arable land, contracted rice cultivation, agricultural machinery, productivity, and crop type, and conducted a multivariate analysis. As a result, Japan was classified into six regional types: “general field crop,” “small-scale field crop,” “small-scale combined rice crop,” “rice-centered,” “large-scale vegetable-centered,” and “large-scale field crop and livestock production.” The following four points became clear from the results. First, the results of the classification of agricultural regions are almost consistent with the basic structure of agricultural regions shown in previous studies. Second, it highlighted the advantages of agriculture in Hokkaido for its survival and development. Third, with the exception of Hokkaido, the profitable agricultural development areas from an economic viewpoint were distributed in spots rather than in areas. The fourth point is that “visualization” is necessary in the process of multivariate analysis, considering that the final classification of the regions is also subjective.

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This paper attempts a new regional division of agricultural areas based on tourism utilization potential of agricultural resources in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and examines its effectiveness. To obtain the tourism utilization potential coefficient for agricultural resources, the specialization coefficient of the tourism utilization rate was divided by the specialization coefficient of agricultural resources in each municipality in the Tokyo metropolitan area. A higher coefficient indicates that the agricultural resources are being fully utilized for tourism, while a lower coefficient indicates that tourism utilization of the agricultural resources is not progressing. In the isogram map of tourism utilization potential coefficients, areas with high potential coefficients spread from suburban areas in the western part of Tokyo to areas along the Chuo Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line. Regions with a medium potential coefficient surround the high potential regions, and regions with a low potential coefficient are distributed outside the sphere of medium potential coefficient regions. Regional divisions can be determined based on the spatial distribution of tourism potential of such agricultural resources and the targeted geographical area can be expanded to national scale. Therefore, this new classification based on tourism utilization potential can be proposed as an effective regional division for agricultural areas.

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In the context of an increasing focus on the multifaceted functions of agriculture and rural areas, this paper focuses on community-based agriculture and aims to demonstrate the potential for agricultural regional classification in modern Japan from the perspective of maintaining farmland and local communities. We examine indicators based on the conditions and roles of community farming in municipalities, and categorize and classify the agricultural regions using a multivariate analysis method. As a result, we derive regional typologies and geographical classifications. The results show that there are two underlying factors influencing community-based agriculture: (1) regional characteristics, such as the type of agriculture, particularly the presence or absence of traditional rice-based agriculture, and (2) the policies of the prefectural government. We find that the management of local communities and farmland is active in areas that practice traditional farming, but that community-based farming activities are influenced by various related policies, as community farming is policy driven in nature.

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20th century urbanism was characterized by 1) horizontal expansion of the metropolitan area and 2) functional differentiation within the metropolitan area. Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, metropolitan areas have faced several transformations: 1) under the globalization, municipal governments preferred entrepreneurial urbanism, resulting in the intensive urban developments in metropolitan centers; and 2) a growth in inequality within a metropolitan area in terms of economic status, residential environments, and demographic characteristics caused “divided cities” in major metropolitan areas worldwide. To welcome international elites who work in newly emerged and city-center-oriented industries (e.g., international financial sectors, IT and related industries, or business services), metropolitan centers were redeveloped. On the other hand, the suburbs, especially outer suburbs which have been developed at the peak of the horizontal expansion of a metropolitan area, face several urban problems (e.g., a rise in vacant housing, a lack of commercial function within walkable distance, or aging of existing residents and outflow of younger generation). This special issue aims to discuss future vision of the outer suburbs through field surveys in Ryugasaki city in the outer suburbs of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

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This study aimed to evaluate the sense of belonging of older adults living in the outer suburbs of Tokyo. In the study area, Ryugasaki New Town in Ibaraki prefecture, most older adults had not lived in Ibaraki before moving into this area to purchase a house. As the first generation of the suburbia, male residents tended to work in central Tokyo, and their spouses were mainly housewives. According to our survey, their sense of belonging largely consisted of social bonds among residents. Female residents have engaged in community and school-support activities since they had moved in, forming friends and co-working neighbors over time. On the other hand, most male residents had little chance to communicate with locals, resulting in temporal or spatial divides within their neighborhoods. However, Ryugasaki’s rich natural environments (e.g., hills, forests, lakes, rivers, and parks nearby) took a role as a “key” to recover their bonds with neighborhoods. Some recalled their hometown when they touched natural environments nearby, others accumulated the sense of belonging through their activities there. As a result of this study, older adults’ sense of belonging was largely connected with their traditional social norms and life course which were typically shared among this generation.

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The purpose of this study is to present the future prospect of local communities within Ryugasaki New Town. We analyzed the process of building social relations at a neighborhood scale, focusing on (1) differences among districts and genders and (2) the roles of neighborhood association in each neighborhood. As a result, we found a huge gender gap in bonding social relationships in their nearby neighborhoods. Male residents build social relationships at their later ages, while female residents declined the engagement to their nearby communities at their later ages. In the case of pre-retirement residents, the process of building social relationships at the neighborhood scale was suggested to be determined by the conditions of the development period between the 1970s to the 80s, when the horizontal expansion of Tokyo peaked. However, in Ryugasaki New Town, there was a difference among districts in the roles of neighborhood associations in building social relationship, and it affected how male residents engaged in local communities after their retirements. As the problems faced by each local community vary, further case studies are required to create an environment in which people can continue to live at their old age.

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This study investigated the daily behavior of older adults in Ryugasaki city in Ibaraki prefecture amid the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on ICT and companions of each activity. Many activities are carried out alone or with spouses, and stayed home, but visiting service facilities for purchasing daily necessities are the most frequent activities out of home. Communication using telephone or social media application is used to contact with adult children living apart from them. Some gender differences of daily behavior are found: in the case of women, companions and destinations of activities are diverse and travel distance are longer and cars are much used than men. The daily activities of women are mainly in neighborhood, and it is considered that the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic is less than those of men.

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Japan’s society is rapidly aging, and this shift comes with many associated problems, such as increasingly vacant housing in mid-sized cities and in metropolitan areas’ outer suburbs, as well as a lack of access to fresh foods, transportation services, and welfare facilities within walkable distances. Quality of life is also affected for older adults living in the areas facing these issues. Such aging and its related problems reflect a complex, long-term interrelationship among institutional, habitual, and individual circumstances. Notably, the institutional factors cannot provide a simple explanation for the rise in vacant housing in Japanese cities. In Japan, family members have traditionally provided a large part of the welfare needs (e.g., childcare, domestic work, and nursing care for older parents). In exchange, the children would then succeed the parents’ real estate. This form of “generational contract” has contributed to maintaining housing and welfare in Japan for many decades. Societal changes, however, deteriorated the interrelationship of family, housing, and welfare. This study examines how this interrelationship has changed over three generations and analyzes the changes’ underlying triggers. We conducted semi-structured vis-à-vis interviews with residents in commercial districts, suburban housing estates, and rural areas in Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, on the outskirts of the Tokyo metropolitan area. We analyzed the data from approximately 100 respondents.

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[in Japanese]

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