Photovoice is an innovative participatory action research method that uses photo images, participant voices (textual explanations), and discussions of photos to make voices heard and to elicit action in a community. Its aims include (1) to enable people to understand community needs and strengths; (2) to increase individual and community empowerment; and (3) to enhance community engagement in advocacy activities. After a brief introduction of photovoice, this article presents three research projects using photovoice to illustrate how photovoice can be effectively utilized for community management. The first project conducted with a youth group in the Philippines resulted in needs assessment in their community, which elicited their voluntary actions for improving their community. The second project with war survivors in the Philippines led to advocacy work for seeking justice by holding photo exhibits both in the Philippines and Japan. The last projects with immigrant youths in Japan facilitated empowerment of these participants. The author summarizes advantages and limitations of using photovoice for community management to conclude the article.

This study aimed to reveal the differences between children's hazard perception and those of adults, using the photo projective method (PPM) developed by Noda (1988). PPM is a new technique based on a projective method that captures subjects' perceived environments through photographs. Thus, this method helps us understand an individual's internal mental world. To evaluate the patterns of children's hazard perception and safety awareness, we first asked 23 children (4^th graders) and 19 mothers to take photographs of hazard points or areas that caused anxiety in the children during their commute to school. The results show that children perceived traffic hazards as being less hazardous than adults did. Second, to assess the development of children's safety awareness, we asked 139 children (1^st trough 6^th graders) and 106 adults, the children's parents, to take photographs of hazard points or areas that caused anxiety in the children during their commute to school. The results revealed certain patterns of the children's developmental process relative to hazard perception and safety awareness. The differences in the photographs reflect the development of hazard perception ability in the children. It was observed that children above the ages of 9 and 10 have perception patterns similar to those of adults.

We developed a new interview and analytical approach for use in community research. The approach was named the Photo Eliciting Narrative Approach (PEN-A), which was based on the Photo Projective Method. PEN-A is a method for understanding a participants' perceived environment by using photographs. Elderly participants (N=14) were provided with digital cameras and were requested to take photographs related to their daily lives in their community for about a week. Subsequently, while watching the photographs on a monitor, we asked the participants why they had taken the particular photos. Content analysis of the data that consisted of the photographs and the narratives of elderly indicated that they actively used social support provided by their friends and spouses in their daily lives. Moreover, it was suggested that PEN-A could be a useful approaches for conducting community research aimed at clarifying the current living conditions of elderly people in detail.

The purpose of this study was to verify whether photographic survey is an effective method for discovering and developing community resources. Twenty participants (6 tourists, 7 domestic emigrants, and 7 local residents) were asked to conduct photographic survey at Kokusai-dōri Street in Okinawa. As a result, 596 photographs were taken. For each photo, the participants were asked via interviews what they photographed and why they photographed it. Accordingly, seventeen categories of reasons classified. Among these reasons, a response that was common among the three participants groups was “particular to Okinawa”. Individual response from each group showed that tourists focused on “novelty” and “localness”, while local residents focused on “daily usage” and emigrants focused on “Okinawa's culture and characteristics”. These results suggest that the photographic survey method was moderately effective in the discovery and development of community resources.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that travel photos taken at tourist destinations have the ability to aid our understanding and measurement of a tourist destination's attractiveness and propose the Travel Photo Method (TPM) as a new research method. Many previous studies about tourist destination attractiveness revealed their attractiveness attributes by the use of questionnaires, but this research method has some limitations. Therefore, two studies were conducted to overcome those limitations. In Study 1, ten tourists were requested to show photos and explain the subjects. In Study 2, fifteen university students were requested to show photos of previous travel and classify those photos according to tourist experience categories. In addition, they were given a questionnaire to examine the correlation between the number of photos and travel motives. The analysis of the travel photos revealed the following: (1) The types of tourism resources and experiences that influenced tourists' evaluation of destination attractiveness, and (2) Travel photos reflected the perspectives and personal interests of the tourists. Based on these results, we discussed the advantages and possibilities of TPM.

The aim of this research was to explore the challenges of psychological support services for foreign residents in Japan and to identify the roles of psychological practitioners. Seventeen practitioners who had been engaged in varying services that provided psychological care for foreign residents were recruited to be interviewed. By using a grounded theory approach, the interview results were analyzed and categories were generated that explained the challenges.

Dynamic interaction among practitioners, organization and the society, and the expectation of the possible users of the services affected the service delivery process and the challenges that practitioners faced.

For the future development of culturally appropriate services, training psychological practitioners, as well as cultivating the understanding of society for the need of these services is crucial. Importance of organizational level effort and the multiple roles of the psychological practitioner were also discussed.

In this paper, we report on camps that have continued for many years by transforming their organizational structure and programs in response to the needs of the community. These camps, sponsored by the nonprofit organization, started as an “organizational camp” for healthy children. Over the years, however, they have been attracting a wide range of participants by expanding and transforming their camp name and contents. With such efforts, they have developed into an “integrated camp” and a “universal camp.”

Firstly, we classified the camp's 11-year history into four periods and reported the characteristics, issues, organizational structures, members, programs and current situation for each period. Secondly, in order to clarify what kind of a camp organization and program enable it to sustain its activities while accepting a variety of participants, we looked at the camp based on the following five aspects: 1) the transformation from a camp for healthy children to an integrated camp and a universal camp; 2) the factors that have contributed to the sustainability of camp organization while it undergoes transformation; 3) the organizational framework that supports group diversity; 4) a program in which a variety of people can participate, and; 5) the sharing of a “sense of community” which can connect the people with joy. Finally, we proposed limitations of the camp and of this study.