大都市近郊山村の再編成と地域の対応 : 被合併山村・広島市安佐町における農協活動を中心として

Spatial Restructuring and Local Responces of a Suburban Mountain Village in Hiroshima Metropolitan Region : with special reference to the development strategy of Asa-cho Agricultural Cooperative

Okahashi Hidenori

Sawa Munenori

広島大学農業水産経済研究

Agricultural and fisheries economics of Hiroshima University

This paper attempts to make clear the development process of a suburban mountain village, Asa-cho in Hiroshima city and to examine the role of development strategy of the agricultural cooperative.

Mountain villages in Japan have experienced serious depopulation since the postwar rapid economic growth period. The central government enacted regional policies such as the "Mountain Villages Development Act" in 1965 and the "Urgent Measures for depopulated Areas Act" in 1970. Those policies aimed at improving the economic and social condition so that further depopulation is prevented. However they are less successful in solving the mountain village problem, though they have realized social infrastructure. In 1980's, New development strategy called "muraokosi"(village renaissance) has attracted attention in rural development of Japan. It places more emphasis on the concept of development from within. In most successful cases of "muraokosi", local organization such as local government and cooperatives played an important role in promoting the regional development.

In Asa-cho, the agricultural cooperative has shown regional management capabilities over the last 20 years. It covered broad areas of development spheres. Main thrust of the strategy is the utilization of spread effect of urban areas, for example, development of housing estates, introduction of manufacturing industries and growth of suburban agriculture. It is important to note that the cooperative posseses its own land use policy which plays a crucial role in reorganizing rural space systematically. On the other hand, much attention has been paid to the uplifting of living and cultural conditions and the growth of harmoneous rurban community. As a result, nowadays Asa-cho represents one of sucsessful cases in development of suburban mountain village.

This case study shows an ideal model of rural development in advanced nations.

Agriculture [ 610 ]

jpn

広島大学生物生産学部食糧管理学講座

[ISSN] 0918-6913

[NCID] AN1001835X