일본 농촌에서의 지역활성화 운동의 사례연구

Abstract

This study clearly shows that the utmost effective utilization of existing resources made it possible to modernize and enrich the communities. In a sense, the community revitalization movement can be said to create a new type of rural people, i.e, the rural people with self-confidence, strong solidarity and creative mind. This was in a degree supported by the strong tradition of solidarity and cooperation among community members in Japanese rural communities. Frequent meetings and discussions, and persistent studies among community members made it easy to cope with many problems generated by the process of modernizing the communities. Especially, the role of the local elites must be emphasized. Existence of well educated local elites made it possible to draw up the master plan to develop the community and implement the plan effectively. Well educated local elites are one of the most important assets of rural communities in Japan today.