In recent years, many condominiums in Japan are facing with the aging of facilities and the increase of elderly residents, and required a variety of repairs and renovations in order to maintain their living environment. On the other hand, due to inactive communities, lack of janitors and conflicts of interest between generations, it is becoming more difficult to form consensus on important matters for managing condominiums. Furthermore, there are cases where some of the residents are in arrears of management costs (including management fee and contribution to repair service fund) or opposing to raising the prices, then even necessary maintenance activities cannot be implemented because of fund shortage. There is also a concern that this situation may lead to “slumism” of condominiums and real estate market crash. As a background of this critical situation, we can theoretically assume a “social dilemma situation” in which individual resident's “short-term pursuit of private interests” conflicts with the community’s “long-term pursuit of public interests” regarding living environment and social relationships as common properties. To improve such a situation, we need measures to reduce non-cooperative behavior and to induce cooperative behavior. In this study, we conducted interviews with managers from two condominiums located in Osaka and Kyoto, both of which have been managed well for many years. We will describe the activities for solving social dilemmas taken in those condominiums and elicit suggestions from the comparison between the two cases. Then, we will discuss what types of empirical scientific research, including modelling and quantitative analysis, should be conducted in the future to help condominium residents find and expand solutions to the dilemma situations.

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To execute an integrated transportation policy and promote sustainable community development in Japan, it has sought the human resources development for practitioners involved in the policy. A non-profit organization Saisei-Juku has been promoting the activities of human resources development, and the construction of exchange network for practitioners who belong to various organizations. Its activities are paying off gradually. In the present study, we report a trial of Saisei-Juku Practical version as a new activity of the human resources development for practitioners. In Saisei-Juku Practical version, we have attempted to a social experiment Yukkuri-Tengoku by the pedestrianized main street of the shopping district by the vehicle traffic regulation, and the measure against an illegally parked bicycle by the installation of a temporary parking lot with local residents. Many local residents were able to have expectations and confidence which Machizukuri activities accompanied by the vehicle traffic regulation could be performed, through success of the social experiment tried together with the local community as these achievements. In addition, Saisei-Juku Practical version has become a new field of valuable human resources development in order to grow through the activities of the site clearly for the practitioners who were able to experience the social experiment together with the local community. For the promotion of the Area-Management, it is important that practitioners work in the human resources to coordinate the local community together with local residents, through that practitioners are involved in urban development project measures in the field.

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Political reforms are recently sometimes proceeded by prime minister, governors, and mayors. However, these reforms are usually criticized because the political reforms may decrease the well-being of citizens. This paper aims at investigating the impact of fiscal reform based on an empirical study to clarify the merits and demerits of it to the citizens. An empirical study of the political reforms in Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City has been conducted in this research due to the radical issue within the process compared with other area in Japan. It has been found that the fiscal reforms in Osaka, as the second largest city in Japan, impacted significantly to the local economics. Moreover, the result also showed that the radically political reforms proceeded by some governors and mayors lead to decline in the local area of Osaka. Therefore, we suggest to the citizens to discuss calmly and objectively the recent political reforms which possibly occurred in the local government.

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This paper reports the detailed process of a residents’ workshop for the Reconstruction Land Readjustment Project in Machikata District of Otsuchi Town, Kamihei County, Iwate Prefecture, which suffered devastating tsunami damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (Machikata Machizukuri WS 2013). It focuses on the community unit to gain a multilateral understanding of the target local community with characteristics, post-disaster changes in lives, residents’ sentiments, challenges, and ramifications.

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Many local and mountainous areas in Japan are facing a severe crisis of existence as a result of a population outflow. This study is aimed at understanding the reality of residents’ existential anxiety about the future survival of their area on the basis of a theoretical concept of anxiety developed by the Danish philosopher Kierkegaard. An interview survey targeting the residents (n = 60) of a mountainous area in Ehime Prefecture was conducted to understand how they felt anxiety about their locality’s survival and what they experienced while they were anxious. The survey result indicates that residents might not always confront with their own anxiety due to their spiritual as well as physical burden, even though they knew that the number of local areas are declining. Focusing on the experience of one person who returned back to this area and started a new agricultural business while knowing the crisis of existence of the area, this study discusses the possibilities that anxiety about the survival of local areas in future will increase dialectically to the spirit of anticipatory preparedness for the crisis. Then, it highlights that such a dialectical progress can be realized through a realistic recognition with regard to “extinction of local areas” based on previous experience and continuous “decisions of life” toward the survival of the localities. Finally, based on the findings, the way to promote practices of regions and communities and their revitalization are discussed.

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In this study, for better understanding of the roots of social bias against civil engineers in modern Japanese society, folklore research about civil engineers in Japanese history were surveyed in terms of oni, including research performed by Itsuo Wakao, who is a pioneer of Japanese non-agricultural culture research. First, folklore studies on civil engineers were reviewed. These studies suggest that civil engineers were categorized as non-farmers, which also included other groups of people such as vagabonds and social outcasts. As non-farmers, these people have not been the main subject of Japanese folklore studies. Second, existing legends about the exterminations of oni were reviewed, which suggest that mineworkers, who were categorized as non-farmers, were called oni. Certain mining technologies were diverted into tunnel mining in gorobe irrigation channels, which falls under civil engineering. Through these reviews, this research indicates the possibility of civil engineers being called oni.

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The media coverage could have a certain influence on the directionality of the Japanese public policy. In this paper, the causes of bias over public works reports which had been revealed in existing researches are extracted through interviewing with reporters by the questions such as “why newspaper criticize public works so hard”. As a result, it was found that the media was influenced by governmental offices, and particularly the ministry of finance. Reporters and editors tend to write what their superior is implying. Furthermore, the media is afraid of complaints from their readers even if they are small numbers. It was also suggested that the media was influenced by the situation of public opinions.

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