Since the end of the Second World War, rural Japan has experienced continuing depopulation. To revitalize rural areas, local governments have attempted to promote interregional exchanges. One important policy measure for such exchanges is to hold rural products fairs in urban areas. In general, the major purpose of these fairs is to introduce and sell products to new markets. The purpose of our study is to examine whether these fairs can play an effective and practical role in promoting interregional exchanges by focusing on the actors who plan and participate in these fairs. As a case for this study, we chose to examine some rural products fairs of Yamagata Prefecture which were held in several department stores in Osaka City. The results of our study are as follows. First, for every department store, the fairs serve as an important means for sales promotion. Therefore such the fair tends to lack the element of entertainment. The local governments put an importance not on entertaining the visitors but on selling rural products because they cannot ignore the intention of department stores. Second, the companies that participate in the fairs not only pursue the sale of rural products for the purpose of market expansion, but also intend to enlarge interregional exchanges by displaying rural products. Our analysis of visitors' preferences shows that visitors expect to experience a rural atmosphere as well as to purchase rural products. They also tend to become interested in Yamagata Prefecture after they visit the fairs. Our study concludes that rural products fairs seem to contribute to the promotion of interregional exchanges.

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