As population decline advances in the mountain areas that cover the major part of Japan’s land area, nurturing human resources for local revitalization has become a crucial issue.
　　　In the mountain areas of the Chugoku region, almost all residents have had the experience of migrating to cities for education or employment during the early part of their life course. Using the concept of “outsiders grown up inside their hometown,” this study considers how family business successors form hybrid identities that combine the natures of a local resident and a city resident and how nurturing “outsiders grown up inside their hometown” may serve as the driving force behind local revitalization.
　　　The study approaches the construction of identity from temporal and spatial aspects. To clarify the process by which the two identities integrate while experiencing internal conflict, the life story method was employed to conduct empirical surveys with family business successors. The analysis reveals the fact that family business successors, with their hybrid identities, face structural changes related to population decline in the local community. In the narratives of the family business successors, when changes in the local community turned into problems that impacted the family business, the nature of “outsiders who grew up inside their hometown” functioned as an agency of business reform.
　　　Arguments concerning local revitalization have thus far often emphasized the opposing aspects of endogenous development through nurturing and harnessing the unique characteristics and spontaneity of local residents and exogenous development that incorporates a new sense of values from outsiders. In contrast, the findings of this study point to the importance of research into the hybrid identity of human resources for local revitalization in mountain areas, where the issue of family business succession is simultaneously endogenous and exogenous.

　　　In 1925, Japan implemented universal manhood suffrage, which motivated the creation of "Farmer’s Self-government" (Nōmin-Jichi) concept for anti-parliamentary democracy movement. This thesis reveals essential part of the concept, by analyzing the usage and the difference of definition between each advocate. First, Yasaburō Shimonaka proposed the words "Farmer’s Self-government" with reference to Non-Partisan League (NPL) in United States. His purpose was criticizing intellectualistic and capitalistic parliamentary democracy, and to find alternative way of the democracy. The members of Nōmin-Jichi, such as Shimonaka, Tēsuke Shibuya, Inosuke Nakanishi and Aikoku Takeuchi emphasized that the constitution of "Farmer’s Self-government" was brought from double antagonism. One is between the city and the village, the other is between the government and self-government. They aimed the self-government for/by the farmers in the village, instead of universal suffrage. Second, in Nōmin, Ken'ichi Yarita inherited the concept from Nōmin-Jichi. His anarcho-communism argumentation, referring Leo Tolstoy, idealized the new society which everyone has land ownership and becomes farmer. For Yarita, "Farmer’s Self-Government" became the key concept of leading whole proletariat, not only farmers, forward his ideology. Finally, Shigeru Inuta, a member of Nōmin, made the concept the new socialism theory for revolution. He designed the "World Union" of "Autonomous Rural Communities" as the ideal society, which was suitable for Japanese rural area. He also showed how to start the revolution toward "Farmer’s Self-government". However, Inuta's idea was suppressed in 1933, thus the development of the thought of "Farmer’s Self-government" had ended up without any demonstration. In conclusion, this research proves that "Farmer’s Self-government", from antiparliamentary democracy to "Autonomous Rural Community", was an equivalent substantial thought to anarchism or agriculturalism in the same era; against previous research analyses which show "Farmer’s Self-government" is the ambiguous concept. Moreover, changing the thought of "Farmer’s Self-government" had been led by a lot of advocates. That shows the self-governmental way of making a thought without authoritarian theory.