The purpose of this paper is to clarify how irrigation canals are co-managed among irrigation associations and new residents. Irrigation canals have traditionally been characterized as “tight commons” (Inoue, 1997) managed and used by villages and irrigation associations. However, as new residents moved into the rural area and irrigation canals began to have a domestic wastewater function, new residents became involved in some of the irrigation canals management.
　　　Based on this awareness of these issues, we conducted an analysis based on interviews and participant observation and an account book of the irrigation association using a case study of irrigation channel cleaning in Marugame City, Kagawa Prefecture, which has been plagued by drought since ancient times and retains severe water use practices.
　　　 As a result, the following findings were revealed. The irrigation association allowed various degrees of commitment and involvement of new residents, depending on the relationship between the residents and the irrigation channel. The tight canal management, which had imposed strict obligations on members, was restructured to a flexible mechanism that include diverse new residents with various residential purpose and migration dates.

In Japanese villages that sent out male migrants, women took the initiative to maintain and revitalize their homes and villages in the absence of these men. These women not only assumed this responsibility independently but were also explicitly expected by the men to fulfill this crucial role. Postwar Japan developed a series of policies specifically targeted at the subject formation of rural women, institutionalizing their critical role in community preservation. Previous studies considered women to be in a subordinate position and focused on the process of their subject formation a critical question emerges: How, then, did men’s expectations of women’s roles in migrant-sending villages, where they were already proactive, change with the implementation of policies that encouraged women’s subject formation? In this paper, we analyzed comfort magazines distributed for male migrant workers in the old town of Taki, which served as a long-established migrant-sending village and our primary research site. Our findings reveal that women initially played numerous vital roles in their homes and villages, and men recognized and appreciated their activities. However, as migrant labor entered a period of decline, women began to be repositioned by the non-migrant men who held editorial control of the magazines as complementary, temporary personnel serving only in the absence of men. This repositioning was partly the result of a broader social context in which migrant labor itself was viewed negatively, and partly due to external factors such as difficult discussions on the mergers of towns and villages. Although previous studies have reported cases in which women were empowered and expected to exert political power when men left rural regions or worked outside the farm. Our research partly demonstrates that women were deliberately excluded from and not expected to exert any form of political power, despite their essential contributions to community maintenance.

　　　Japanese farmers have exited from agriculture, putting at risk food security, generational renewal, and the continuity of kin-based communities. Yamanashi Prefecture since 2005, however, has seen small but steady flows of people interested in farming and alternative lifestyles in the countryside. This paper examines this subtle but important change. Based on the questionnaire surveys of 84 new farmers and 22 indepth interviews of new farmers and supporting organizations in Koshu and Hokuto cities, Yamanashi, it thoroughly analyzes who these new farmers are, how they started their farming, what challenges they are facing, and how they are coping with these challenges. The research identified three main challenges new farmers face; access to farmland and housing, farming knowledge and skills, and gaps between expectations and realities about farming. First, to find farmland, new farmers use a variety of private and public resources including families and government farmland and housing banks. New farmers found it more difficult to rent houses than farmland as house owners do not want to sell their houses even if their houses are no longer used. Second, new farmers recognize the need of acquiring farming knowledge and skills to continue farming in the long term. Third, new farmers are concerned about the gap between their original aspirations and actual conditions of their lifestyles. We argue that the challenges of new farmers stem from the gap between their aspirations for lifestyles and the blueprint of future agriculture designed in policy. Policy to maintain agriculture and rural communities needs to address this issue in the entwined relationship between food, agriculture, and community.

　　　This paper examines how small communities (villages) in Japan have historically confronted crises such as wars and natural disasters, focusing on the village of Chinai on the shores of Lake Biwa. Drawing on the “Village Diary” (mura no nikki), which has been continuously kept since 1745, the study analyzes the interplay between everyday life, collective norms, and extraordinary events.
　　　During the Asia-Pacific War (1931–45), villages became deeply integrated into the national mobilization system, functioning as local agents of the state. Chinai participated in conscription, resource provision, air defense drills, and patriotic ceremonies, while simultaneously struggling with depletion of manpower and material resources. A central theme is the tension between “national affairs” and “household affairs”: even as villages upheld their role as extensions of the state, internal conflicts emerged over leadership responsibilities, resignations, and the sustainability of local governance. These episodes reveal how communities sought to preserve their own norms and continuity while under severe external pressure.
　　　 Parallel to wartime experiences, the paper explores disaster responses, particularly frequent floods in the Lake Biwa basin. The records illustrate both continuity with premodern practices (such as petitions to officials for relief) and modern transformations following the Meiji state’s institutional reforms. A striking case is the aftermath of the catastrophic 1885 flood, when the village introduced the “Poor Fisher System.” By reallocating communal fishing rights exclusively to impoverished households, Chinai embedded a form of social redistribution into its institutional fabric. This mechanism exemplified what can be termed a “right of survival for the weak,” ensuring that no household would be permanently excluded from securing its livelihood.
　　　In conclusion, the study highlights that small communities confronted crises not simply by absorbing state policies or natural shocks, but by creatively reworking norms, institutions, and communal resources. Crisis responses were rooted in everyday practices and oriented toward maintaining continuity between village, household, and collective survival, revealing resilience as a lived and adaptive process.