The increasing destruction of forests and pastureland in the mountainous region of the Hautes‒Alpes in Southern France, with the resultant damage caused by the flooding of steep streams and torrents, was a controversial issue during the 19^th century. Although structures like levees and dams were built as the first measures to prevent flood damage, afforestation and grassland creation (recovery and conservation projects in the mountainous region) were implemented as drastic measures to recover and conserve the mountainous region in the upper courses of the torrents. The Hautes‒Alpes were far from being untended, however. They were utilized as pastureland to support the livestock industry that was vital to the residents and their agricultural way of life. They were mostly public land owned by and under the control of the community. The implementation of the project to recover and conserve the mountainous region therefore caused conflict between utilization and control. Efforts were made to incorporate residents’ views as system improvements were made, but only to a certain extent. An expropriation system was introduced amid the conflict between the recovery and conservation plans undertaken by the country and administration by way of diaster control, on the one hand, and the existing community control on the other. The expropriation plan was not acceptable to local residents because it might result in their being deprived of actual use of the pastureland. This research aims to analyze the characteristics of the recovery and conservation project, not only by focusing on the backlash against the expropriation system, but also by assuming that the expropriation could in fact lead to the community's being barred from its accustomed use of the pasture.

Results of the analysis can be summarized as follows. The 1882 law stipulated that afforestation in the Hautes‒Alpes conservation project should not be implemented forcibly as had been stipulated in the 1860 law on Hautes‒Alpes. Nevertheless, residents of the Hautes‒Alpes strongly opposed the law as constituting a threat to their livelihood by divesting pastures --regional resources-- of their materiality (and therefore usability) while ascribing abstract value to the residents of the pastures. The essential distinction of the Hautes‒Alpes recovery and conservation project was its potential to hinder pasture management by depriving pastures of their materiality.

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between regional communities and the national government in the modern era, and historical changes therein, as related to community hot spring use. It considers the Atami Hot Spring in Shizuoka Prefecture as a case study. From the early modern era onward, the development of hot springs proceeded in the context of private ownership, which destabilized usage. As hot spring resources were unregulated by the national government, each prefectural government was responsible for stabilizing practical methods of use. The Shizuoka prefectural government addressed various conflicts by mediating control of hot spring use as well as enacting regulations.

Following World War II, the Hot Spring Law spurred prefectures to enact ordinances related to the development and use of hot spring resources. Moreover, they established new committees to determine the advisability of development and methods of use in order to reconcile resource conservation with reasonable usage. In Shizuoka, unique hot spring conservation policies and protected areas were created, guidance was provided to union organizations, and trends in regional hot spring areas were ascertained. Such efforts contributed to the stabilization of hot spring usage in Shizuoka. By contrast, the Atami Hot Springs were operated as a municipal hot spring by the Atami City government, which oversaw the spring’s usage and management. By being actively involved in the springs’ development and use, Atami City realized open utilization of the spring. The municipal hot spring project achieved inexpensive, stable hot spring usage, which supported the development of Atami hot springs during Japan’s rapid growth period and thereafter. The development of the municipal hot spring project also created new opportunities for hot spring usage among residents who had previously had no connections with them, e.g. by building low‒cost public baths etc. While the national government had almost no connection with hot spring use in modern Japan, prefectural and municipal governments stepped in to support it, leading to regulation on a regional basis.

The regional or local resources in Japan's rural villages used and managed by local farmers are called “secondary nature”. The so‒called satoyama scenery of rural areas, such as rice paddies, irrigation ponds, miscellaneous forests, and grasslands, were the creations of people and have been managed and maintained with their labor.

However, cultivated lands are increasingly being abandoned as they no longer generate income, and these resources are becoming underutilized. Not only is the living environment of the rural villages directly using the resources affected, but so, too, are downstream urban areas, due to landslides and floods.

In this context, opportunities are growing for a reexamination of the value of these resources from an external economic point of view and for maintenance activities by urban residents. For example, there is a movement in Sada Town, Izumo City, Shimane prefecture, to unify rural communities and regional agriculture. In Tokamachi City, Niigata Prefecture, too, regional support personnel are renewing connections among residents and endeavoring to create new livelihoods through community development.

As we consider the current problems in managing regional resources, we cannot overlook the hollowing out of rights rooted in private ownership, or, in other words, the issue of how family property is managed and disposed of. Rural villages need to create mechanisms for rebuilding their economic and social environment such that they can absorb external talent and be passed on to the next generation.

This paper examines how the economic entities of Hokkaido's herring production region modified the use of fishing grounds and relations between fisheries and related industries in order to address the post-WWI growth in demand for fishery foods.

Previous studies have focused mainly on fishery industry problems such as fisheries law and resources. As a result, there has not been an examination of changes in the production region in relation to those in consuming regions. From the 1910s to the 1920s, big cities such as Tokyo began to consume fishery products on a daily basis. Fresh and delicious fish was brought to these cities from across the country, making it difficult for Hokkaido's herring producers to maintain sales of processed food products such as conventional dried herring (Honboshi Migaki-nishin). Hokkaido's herring producers therefore had to establish a framework for shipping fresher processed products (Hanboshi Migaki-nishin or Namaboshi Migaki-nishin) in order to meet the demand of these new markets.

This paper shows how relationships pertaining to the usage of Yoichi's fishing ground, and relations with the fish processing and distribution industries, were established in the course of these adjustments. In the case of fishing ground usage, wealthy and powerful individuals selected and consolidated these grounds as well as establishing companies. At the same time, outside processing subcontractors appeared who could make quick turnarounds in processing and shipping fishery products. This new division of labor, which emerged alongside the changes in fishery grounds, was the result of the reorganization of the production area as it confronted the market changes of the post‒WWI years. The processing subcontractors eventually started to become independent by purchasing raw materials from outside the region and were able to play a supportive role in the production areas even after poor catches of herring there.