“Yamakiya School” is a community empowerment activity which started in 2016 in the Yamakiya district, Kawamata, Fukushima Prefecture, after the districtʼs evacuation order for the Fukushima nuclear disaster had been lifted. It mostly involves farming activities and included learning radiology in the beginning. This study was conducted to clarify the activityʼs impact on the level of the participantsʼ anxiety toward radiation and reasons for their continued participation. After preliminary hearings, a survey was conducted presenting quantitative and qualitative questions. The main findings were the following: (1) The main reason that the outsiders participated was to interact with residents and other participants and take part in the farming activities, (2) Their interest in food produced in Fukushima Prefecture and radiation reports increased, as did their rapport with the residents, (3) Although learning about radiology did not significantly affect the level of the participantsʼ anxiety as early participants already had high levels of knowledge about radiation, it contributed to bolstering the robustness of their knowledge and, (4) The participants wished to continue participating to witness community reestablishment.

In this paper, I presented the method to show similarities between paired individuals by using connected graph and applied it to show the similarities of districts in the central region of Tottori prefecture regarding composition ratios of agricultural departments. In this study, I calculated the dissimilarity index between paired districts by using an average absolute value of differences in the percentages of the number of farms producing products belonging to each of five departments from which they earn most farm receipts, occupied in the total number of farms. In this method, the dissimilarities are expressed based on the shortest distances between paired districts on the connected graph, which is adopted as a result of deletion of edges one after another from the complete graph in such a manner that an edge, which realizes highest correlation coefficient between the dissimilarity index and shortest distance on the connected graph for the paired districts after deletion, is chosen for each deletion stage. As the districts are connected through edges in a connected graph, the similarity relationship of districts can be shown systematically through the manner of connections among districts compared with usual methods applying multivariate analyses. In case of the application to the region, factors influencing the similarity were also reflected on the difference in branches of the connected graph. Therefore, the method is useful to analyze the similarity relationship systematically among individuals such as districts.

In this study, we clarified the process of constructing a capture system and the contents of activities from interview surveys and material surveys. From the results, we clarified the factors that made it possible to build a community-based capture system. The purpose is to examine “how can we build a community-based capture system in an area where the new distribution of wild animals is expanding”. In this study, we conducted a case study in Nakajima Island in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, where a new catching system was constructed from the situation where there are no wild boar catchers in the area where wild boars have newly expanded. The factors that made it possible to build a new community-based capture system in Nakajima Island are summarized in three points：1）organizational cooperation between the old local government level and local community level, 2）construction of a capture system led by the local community, and 3）multi-layered logistical support through cooperation between prefectural government, city government, and the University. The construction of a capture system at the old local government level made it possible to “create new capturers in the early stages of new distribution expansion” and “continue capture activities in local community level, including small-scale communities”. The residentsʼ association took the initiative in establishing a capture system, which ensured the psychological safety of the capturers and enabled positive and sustainable capture efforts, as well as coordinating interests between existing hunters and local catchers. Furthermore, it is thought that the multi-layered logistical support provided by the cooperation of prefectural government, city government, and the University brought about the scientific knowledge and technology related to capture, which also contributed to the construction of a community-based capture system in the newly habitat expansion area.

The objective of this paper is to formulate the shipping agentʼs behaviour in “Kinoeki project”, one of the economic activities in mountainous area in Japan. We selected the project carried out in Nakagawa-machi, Tochigi prefecture as the target of analysis. We selected this area, because the project has worked with high standards in longer term than Kinoeki projects in other areas. In Kinoeki project, there are four types of agents, shipping agent, steering agent, using agent and shop agent. Shipping agents ship the woods material remained in forests. Steering agents coordinate the whole project. Using agents utilize the woods material. Shop agents sell the goods to shipping agents by community currency instead of money. Firstly, interview surveys were conducted to every agent. And we picked up the problems in the project. Then we did additional research on shipping agent and shop agent. We carried out questionnaire surveys to investigate the consciousness and evaluation of shipping agent and formulate the relationship between their behaviour and consciousness. As a result of this study, we find that we can classify shipping agents to two types of agents. One type of shipping agents ships huge amount of wood, who will consider the activity as economical behaviour. And the other type of agents who ships little amount will consider the activity as social service.

This study regarded the in-house use of solar power generation by farmers as a type of new technology adoption and clarified the following points through case studies. First, the major hurdle for that is the cost. The case studies show that farmers manage to accomplish the in-house use of photovoltaic power generation by accumulating reducing utility costs, using subsidy programs, and income from the sale of surplus electricity. Second, in the case of in-house use of photovoltaic power generation, time and seasonal fluctuations in supply and demand are also an issue. Storage batteries are a powerful means to cope with this, but they are currently too expensive for farmers to introduce them. In addition, it is difficult for farmers to improve their corporate image solely through the in-house use of solar power alone. It is necessary to appeal to the public to combine using solar power and other environmental conservation activities. Policies such as feed-in tariff have a significant impact on the willingness of the agricultural sector to use solar power.

The act on the lease of green productive land is expected to encourage motivated farmers to contribute to the sustainable development of urban agriculture. However, the purpose of farmland leasing and actual use of leased farmland by farmers have not yet been fully clarified. Therefore, in this study, we conducted case studies of farmers who actually leased production green lands in Tokyo and a questionnaire survey of all farmers in six cities. First, the results of the case studies indicate that, in addition to the expansion of scale, the purposes of leasing farmland included the introduction of new crops and farming methods, the establishment of agricultural corporations, and the new entries. In particular, it was an opportunity for successors and new entrants to take on new challenges. Second, the results of the questionnaire survey indicated that the potential tenant farmers showed the entrepreneurial characteristics. They placed the greatest importance on the farming conditions, while the landowners focused on the management of farmland in harmony with the local community. On the other hand, these preferences differed between farmers already participating in leasing transactions and others.

Evaluating the social value of agriculture and rural areas are indispensable for sustainable decision-making. These so-called “social and cultural functions” of agriculture are likely to affect how producers and consumers perceive nature and natureʼs contribution to people of production sites. In this study, applying a novel framework, relational values of nature (hereafter, relational values), we quantitatively examined how conservation agriculture affects the relational values of producers and consumers. Relational values are irreplaceable values that are built on human-nature relationships. Scholars consider agricultureʼs cultural and social aspects as part of relational values and argue that relational values can be improved by agriculture. Furthermore, regarding consumers, existing research claims that purchasing agricultural products on a specific production site may enhance the relational values toward the place regardless of their direct relationships. We surveyed 70 producers and 147 consumers of “Yuki Genki Shojiki Nogyo,” the conservation agriculture programme operated by the Ikeda Town, Fukui Prefecture, which aims to enhance the wellbeing and social bonds among producers beside its pro-environmental goals. We analyzed the producer and consumer models using Structural Equation Modeling, SEM. The result of SEM suggested that producers who evaluate the effect of conservation agriculture practices more are likely to have higher eudaimonism and social cohesion. Consumers, who evaluate the quality of the products, evaluate the relational values towards producers and production sites. Both consumers and producers evaluated the values of nature for themselves and others. The result also implies that indirect interactions like purchasing the products may improve peopleʼs relational values.

Chinese government has introduced Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) for poverty alleviation since 2014 and the policy has been evaluated positively. This study deals with evaluation of the policy by measuring income impacts of the forms of farmersʼ entry into the tourism industry in rural poor areas. Although the policy has been promoted through focusing and accelerating an enterprise form of tourism business, there are many different forms of entry into tourism business, and also the impacts of income formation should be different by the forms of entry. To clarify this research question, three PPT villages in Henan Province were selected as typical successful case of the policy. 394 households were collected from the three villages (78.8％ as effective sample size). The study based on logistic multiple regression analysis clarified that the enterprise form of business requires relatively stronger base of business background such as family size, education, and social networks. As a result, the policy directly supported more relatively well-off farm households than those in poverty. However, the study based on propensity score match (PSM) clarified that the income impacts of participating tourism industry by non-enterprise form is stronger than those of participation by enterprise form if controlled environmental determining factors of participation forms. Therefore, it is important for PPT of China to emphasize more participation through non-enterprise form into tourism which poor farm households can cope easily with normal or weaker business backgrounds.

Communities in rural areas have functions that help the lives of residents in the community. These functions are necessary for maintaining agriculture and forestry. However, these functions tend to decrease because of the population decline in rural areas. It is essential to continue regional activities because they are necessary for supplementing community functions and maintaining communities. Despite the success of regional activities, some organizations have suspended these activities. In this study, we analyzed the previous questionnaire results for the present state and problems of regional activities. Additionally, interview research was conducted on actual suspension factors to investigate the continuation factors of regional activities. A satisfaction survey was also conducted using a questionnaire survey, and the factors that promoted the continuation of activities were discussed It was confirmed that securing human resources was the top priority improvement problem. Furthermore, why securing human resources does not advance in regional activities was analyzed by paying attention to social capital using the two-factor theory.

Small-scale hydropower is technically capable of generating a stable power supply every day in a year. It uses water streams as renewable sources to generate electricity. Numerous waterflows available in Japan make small-scale hydropower promising to develop in many hilly locations. Thus, some private companies are keen to enter the market to turn small-scale hydropower into profitable projects. However, some barriers arise against external private companies in entering local areas and doing business. This study conducted observations at 5 sites and interviews in 2 locations. The results discover necessary relationship-building processes between private companies and local communities during private companies development of small-scale hydropower projects. Local contributions agreed between local community and investing companies will secure investment returns for the companies, while these measures should also lead to profits for the community. Based on the interviews, corporate profits from selling hydropower-generated electricity are redirected to repair two living infrastructures (damaged agricultural waterways and water facilities). Besides, private companies have reduced risks greatly in maintaining and managing power generation facilities, giving a sense of security in the region. Then, extremely delicate legal procedures (contracts, agreements, etc.) with business operators have included measures for any intended contributions to local communities.

We extracted the communities located in the coastal area and clarified the characteristics of them using the 2015 Agriculture and Forestry Census data and the results of the national census, taking Ehime Prefecture as an example. We categorized them used the employment rate data by industry and analyzed the agricultural area types of the communities included in each type. As a result, of the total 3,284 communities, 628 (19%) were coastal communities, and 23% (340,000) of the population lived there. In addition, from the viewpoint of agricultural area type, it was found that the ratio of hilly agricultural areas is high and agricultural land is often used as upland in coastal communities. As a result of cluster analysis using the ratio of employees by occupation as a variable, coastal communities were classified into 6 clusters. As a result, it was found that in the coastal area, mountainous agricultural communities are areas where fishing industry is thriving, and flatland agricultural communities are mostly citrus-cultivated areas using slopes. The high proportion of hilly agricultural communities is due to the development of relatively large orchards and the narrowness of the forests found on the islands and peninsulas. As a result, the number of communities not included in the mountainous agricultural area increases due to the increase in the cultivated land ratio or the decrease in the forest field ratio. Furthermore, it was found that many communities specializing in primary industry are in areas with high geographical isolation, and that the number of workers per community is small in these communities.