The purpose of this report is to review the results of the past research efforts this academic society, and having considered the results related to regional development of rural communities, clarify the topics which should be considered in future regional development research. In terms of past research, it has been divided into 3 distinct phases of development. The first period (1965-1984) was a time in which the number of families working at side businesses or outside of the farming community was increasing, and the historical community function was decreasing, and this period's research dealt with the resulting changes to those rural communities and discussed the organization of regional agriculture. The second period (1985-2000) is marked by the use of “regional development" as a keyword, and was a time when solutions to overcome the stagnation of the agricultural industry and rural communities were

being sought, with new directions in regional development being suggested, such as intra-regional industrial coordination, increased public engagement and the creation of high value added agricultural products. The third period (since 2000), ways in which regional development results can be improved have been considered for specific activities aimed at promoting collaboration between agriculture, commerce and industry and local production for local consumption etc. From the standpoint of the current state of regional development research, future research firstly must clarify the systems and organizations of regional development, specifically regarding what is the core community function and what that entails. Secondly, if regional development is trending towards activities to promote the regional economy, because there are households that cannot participate in these activities, it has become clear that one topic of research is how those households should be positioned within the overall progress of regional development.

There needs to be people who live in rural society for the revival and sustainability of rural society. Both work and a means of livelihood are needed to live in rural society. The deepening subsidiary business over which l gave priority has sacrificed the role of the local community to become a livelihood. On the other hand, a match of rural revitalization doesn’t consider the income, and there are no possibilities for work. Contributions from the agricultural economic society of Tohoku’s academic meeting on revival and sustainability of rural society was put in order from a history of research of this academic meeting. The task of future research is to understand how a circular flow of economy beyond a village is formed. When the research task is listed specifically, it becomes as follows. First; how the mechanism of school lunch by “Local Production for Local Consumption” is being formed. Second; how the mechanism for the circulation of organic matter resources is being formed. Third; how the mechanism of agricultural product marketing that the agricultural produce direct sales place is being formed. Fourth; how the mechanism for creating a value chain through artisan cooperation between agriculture and business is being formed. Fifth; how the mechanism for a natural energy cycle system is being formed. I can also think of a mechanism of cooperation with markets outside the area require a greater degree of cooperation and should be a research task. For example, how the cooperation between CO-OP and the organic agriculture movement are related to the revival and sustainability of rural society will be a research task.

This study aims to clarify the present status and problems in agricultural waste biomass and food waste utilization through a case study of a bio-diesel fuel business and a rice hull solid fuel business in Japan. The analysis clarifies several points. First, the biomass energy business is operated by a variety industries, who promote the business while leveraging local technology. Second, these businesses were started in an effort to handle their waste by using it more effectively. Additionally, their projects are dependent on the non-market sector. The business has problems in the sales side, which require more emphasis on internal applications and environmental marketing to solve. Moreover, the businesses would benefit from promoting its use in the agricultural sector.

The environment of family farm management in the Tohoku Region, centered on rice-paddy regions, is in a severe situation due to falling rice prices. Using the results of settlement cards and individual form data from the Census of Agriculture and Forestry, this paper first analyzes trends in family farm management and farmer population in each prefecture by classification agricultural area and then analyzes the regional characteristics of large-scale management of rice growing and related trends. The results of these analyses have made the following points clear: First， that fragility of the workforce is advancing as farmer population decreases and farmer households rapidly age, chiefly in mountainous areas of the Tohoku region; second, that analysis of large-scale management of rice growing shows that there are substantial differences in the conditions of management of rice growing, such as where crops are sold, between Tohoku and the village of Ogata; third, that the trend toward expansion in scale is weak in Tohoku and Ogata even while cultivated land under management is expanding in the Kanto region and west; fourth, that while organizational management is common in the Kanto region and west, in Tohoku and Ogata family management is the main stream; and fifth, that even though family management in Tohoku is able to secure a succeeding generation for family farms living together with the current farming generation, few of these successors actually are employed in farming. Our findings show that there are major regional differences in areas such as forms of management and age of managers in large-scale management of rice growing and that in Tohoku in particular managers approaching a change in generation are increasing rapidly in number, so that support toward advancing such a change in generation is important.

A purpose of this paper is to examine how a farm co-op can make up for reduction of the production force of farmers through the use of distribution facilities in an example by the apple sale business of the Tsugaru Hiraka agricultural cooperative. In response to the change of the distribution by general merchandising store leadership, Tsugaru Hiraka agricultural cooperative is ascertaining the characteristic of the Aomori apple of the high storability, reducing the sorting labor at the farm, accumulating stock in formation of the high precision, realizing the timely shipment for the order. This innovation of the distribution system realize high price of apple, raises a share of the agricultural cooperative with the evaluation of the producer.

In this paper, we investigate the role of public agricultural extension services that is required for the future of Tohoku agriculture and rural communities. Firstly, the public agricultural extension service is a possibility that can expand the business domain by involving local residents. Secondly, the need for cooperation among different organizations in order to deploy diverse activities was pointed out. Thirdly, it was revealed that the ability of extension officer is essential to be a total coordinator in these activities to create an environment in which people can talk about each other's future in equal footing and freedom. Therefore, in a complicated scene where interests are involved, it is important for an extension officer to be aware at all times of his public so as to keep the fairness. In particular, for local agriculture nurturing program, it is important to build close and stable connection and collaborative relationship with related institutions. This is because the direction of motivation would greatly affect the local development, Moreover, for these connections to be properly maintained within the organization, 'apprentice education system' to reemploy post-retirement experienced extension officers and educational system for younger generations were introduced.