Policy and Governance Working Paper Series No.

145

Enduring Depopulation: A Process of Dying of a Village

Satoshi Watanabe*

January 2008

The 21st Century Center of Excellence Program

“Policy Innovation Initiative: Human Security Research in Japan and Asia”
Graduate School of Media and Governance
Keio University, Japan

This paper is prepared for the COE international symposium,“ Policy Innovation Initiatives and
Practices in Japan and Asia”. In the course of writing this paper, I received various suggestions and
supportive comments. First of all, I would like to thank the anonymous individuals from Maki
who have contributed to this research. Dr. Michio Umegaki, Dr. Lynn Thiesmeyer, and Dr. Yasushi
Watanabe—my advisors at Keio University—have always supported me with immense kindness.
My COE colleagues also provided me with valuable suggestions. I would like to particularly thank
Mr. Atsushi Watabe, Mr. Daisuke Watanabe, and Mr. Masatoshi Uehara. Ms. Chikako Baba
helped me collect data. Finally, Ms. Rie Takanuma spent many hours of her time examining my
arguments, until we found that it was impossible to distinguish which ideas were hers and which
were mine. Without doubt, I assume full responsibility for this paper and all of its consequences.

* COE Research Assistant, Ph.D. Student, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio
University (watanave@sfc.keio.ac.jp)

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 Enduring Depopulation: A Process of Dying of a Village

Satoshi Watanabe

Abstract
This paper aims to study the practices adopted by farmers in order to cope with the
impacts of depopulation and ageing in a rural village in Japan. In Maki, a tea-cultivating
village located in the hinterlands of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis, where the author
conducted fieldwork for one year between 2005 and 2006, the villagers are encountering
difficulties in sustaining farming activities due to depopulation and ageing. The author
focused on a consensus among the villagers, who had collectively decided to give up farming.
This consensus required that households in Maki would not allow their farm holdings to
decrease below 0.5 ha, nor would they retire from farming until around 2010. In this paper,
the author argues that such a consensus was a product of the process of the villagers’ search
for a way in which they could administer “euthanasia” to tea cultivation, their agro-based
communal structure, and the village itself. All of these villagers had come to believe that they
had no option but to give up farming. Therefore, their dilemma concerned how and when to
exercise this inevitable “choice”, in other words, how to make it acceptable to themselves.
The villagers were attempting to make all possible efforts to control and domesticate their
inevitable future to the greatest extent possible. This case draws attention to the practices
that people adopt to achieve a “secure” life, even under limited living conditions. Although
the direct implications of such practices for policy management studies (Sougouseisakugaku),
to find “better” way to give up farming, require further study, in this paper, we will discuss
the moral and practical dilemmas inherent in such a decision.

Key words: depopulation, ageing, tea farming, “euthanasia” of communal practices

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1. Introduction

We are now witnessing the disappearance of villages in Japan. What Hashimoto calls
“the final phase of dismantling of the farming class”1) has become a reality. According to the
statistics, rural villages in Japan are disappearing at the rate of five hundred per year. There
were 142,377 agricultural villages in 1980. This number decreased to 140,144 in 1990
and 135,179 in 2000, while the number of villages with less than ten households increased
from 13,869 in 1980 to 29,955 in 20002). This is one of the greatest social “tectonics”3)
that postwar Japan has experienced. It has reduced a group that had once dominated more
than half of the total population to a complete minority. The total number of farmers in
Japan is 3,120,000, and 59% of this figure are over 65 years old4). As a result, the ongoing
depopulation and ageing in rural areas create numerous “zero sustainability” villages,
which are unable to not only sustain their way of living but also renew their population.
In this paper, we will examine this rapidly disappearing farming-oriented way of life in an
environment that provides no expectation for any betterment or hope for the reversal of
fortunes.
Maki village, where I conducted fieldwork for one year from 2005 to 2006, is
one of those villages faced with this process of disappearance. Maki is located in the
hinterlands of the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolis, and the villagers herein have continued
with tea cultivation as a communal practice. My purpose was to elucidate how the villagers
understood and estimated the impacts of depopulation and ageing and how they managed to
deal with these impacts to the best of their ability. I focused on the practices these villagers
adopted to solve the problems cropping up in their daily life and how they managed to
construct a “secure” life, that is, to achieve human security, even under severely limited
living conditions.
In 2000, Maki had a consensus that households in Maki would not reduce their farm
holdings to less than 0.5 ha and not retire from farming until around 2010. It seemed that
0.5 ha was still a considerable area for the ageing farmers, and they actually mentioned this.
One of the initial reasons why I chose Maki as my research field area was that I expected
to observe some “inventive” ways in which to sustain farming and the application of some
tangible or intangible resources with which to implement them.
However, as my fieldwork continued, I discovered that the reality was quite
otherwise. This seemingly “positive” consensus for sustaining farming was also a consensus

1) Hashimoto (2000), p.132

2) Nishida (2006), p.27
3) Gluck (2007), p.414
4) Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan [http://www.maff.go.jp/www/info/shihyo/ichiran.html]

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deciding a “preparation period” for ending it. Given the villagers’ keen awareness that they
could not reverse or stop this process of depopulation and ageing, they began seeking ways
to reconstruct their future life and the prospects of the village after tea cultivation ended.
In this paper, I would like to show that this consensus was the product of the process
of the villagers’ search for “euthanasia” for tea cultivation, the agro-based communal
structure, and the village itself. All the villagers had come to believe that giving up farming
was the inevitable option. Therefore, the problem for them was how and when to adopt this
“choice”, in other words, how to put it into practice. Essentially, this is not “choice”, which
people can choose among various alternatives, because it is an unavoidable one. However,
the villagers were making all efforts to control and domesticate their inevitable future, to
the greatest extent possible. The consensus did not indicate that the villagers’ practices for
reviving the farming. Rather, it signified that they were resisting the “present,” which had
imposed an unavoidable “choice” on them.
This paper addresses the issue of how people think and behave when they are
faced with the extinction of what was once the center of their life. In the course of this
examination, we will discuss what kind of policies should be developed to tackle situations
wherein the very notion of betterment has fallen into abeyance. Moreover, how should
researchers deal with such an issue?
I have selected an unconventional way to describe Maki, by letting my informants’
voices appear in the pages of this paper to a greater extent than is the norm in papers on
policy studies. This is because their voices suitably signify how it is to live through the
experience of depopulation, which is the main focus of this research.

2. Depopulation in Japan

In November 1967, the report of the department of local areas, which was presented
in the Economic Council (Keizaishingikai Chiikibukai), called attention to the extant
situation in the rural areas of Japan. This was among the first times that the problem of
depopulation had appeared in the government’s official documents. This report pointed out
the presence of some undesirable social changes in the rural areas. It said,

The tremendous population moving toward cities also causes various problems in
depopulated areas. We call these problems “depopulation problems,” in contrast to the
“overcrowding problems” occurring in urban areas. What we understand from “depopulation”
is a situation wherein basic living conditions and requirements of the local community,
such as disaster prevention, education, and healthcare, can be no longer sustained, and the

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 local production is severely reduced due to the difficulty in using resources. Therefore, the
problem of depopulation, in fact, adversely affects rural areas that find it difficult to sustain
conventional life patterns; in such areas, population density reduces as ageing progresses as a
result of depopulation5).

For instance, as depopulation progresses, Yutaka Araoke argues that the community
can no longer provide tangible and intangible goods and services to individuals or families.
He identifies the breakdown of cultural institutions such as seasonal festival celebrations,
agricultural organizations, and the kind of mutual assistance people once provided to one
another as the main threat to the lives of those living in depopulated areas. For example,
according to Araoke, the deterioration of agricultural cooperation makes it difficult
for farmers to maintain farming lands that cannot be maintained without cooperative
cultivation, labor exchange, or the setting up of defenses against wild animals. Finally, this
deterioration leads to an increasing abandonment of arable lands6).
Obviously, depopulation is closely related to Japan’s extensive economic growth.
Okado enumerates four main causes of depopulation7). First, the initial take-off of the
economy drove depopulation. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Japanese rural areas
were suddenly home to a large number of people returning from the ex-colonial areas. The
subsequent land and education reforms put a pressure on this population in the rural areas.
In addition, the loss of its colonies in East Asia forced Japan to close its domestic labor
market. Therefore, the industrial sectors situated in urban areas had to seek labor from
the domestic rural areas. Second, the growth of heavy industries and the chemical industry,
supported by regional development policies, absorbed a great many people from these
areas. Third, until around the late 1960s, the most popular ideology advocated the need for
economic growth. This fact inhibited policy makers and the other authorities from paying
close attention to the situation in the rural areas. Fourth, in the rural areas, both farmers
and their descendents began to consider their lifestyles to be old-fashioned.
In spite of the implicit warning in the official documents, depopulation has not
ceased in the post-growth era, but it has altered from being a decline caused by people
“moving away” to that caused by people “dying.” Demographers call this the change from
social decline to natural decline. In other words, people who have remained in the rural
areas are now ageing and dying. As mentioned earlier, a number of villages are now on
the verge of disappearing. These villages are called “marginal villages” (Genkai-shuraku)
and comprise those villages that can no longer maintain their population at a sustainable

5) Economic Council (1967), cited in Yamamoto (1996), p.2

6) Araoke (2005), pp.230–234
7) Okado (2006), pp.111–114

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(replaceable) level.
In these circumstances, policy scientists have tried to identify ways in which
“depopulated areas can be rejuvenated.” Takehiko Hobo’s research in this field is a
good example of such a study. Hobo, a regional economist, argues that a shift from
the modernization model to an endogenous development model is the need of the day,
because such a change can reactivate the local agricultural communities, which play an
important role in preserving natural resources. He analyzes several cases and enumerates
four “checkpoints” (necessary elements) to plan endogenous development activities: grand
design, participation by local people, presence of a leader, and resources. Based on these
checkpoints, Hobo tries to extract “lessons” that can also be applied to other areas8).
Undoubtedly, such studies on rural rejuvenation are important, and many practices
for rejuvenation are actually conducted in this field; however, this kind of research tends
to focus only on those who are actively trying to revitalize their communities, projects,
or livelihoods. Moreover, intentionally or unintentionally, the discourse of rejuvenation
posits that residents in depopulated areas must resist the adverse impacts that are imposed
by depopulation9). The practices of the people are evaluated only in terms of the extent to
which they can or cannot contribute to rejuvenating something.
We cannot ignore the fact that the residents of most of the depopulating
communities are facing overwhelming and irreversible changes resulting from this process
of depopulation. This implies that the residents are compelled to construct their lives around
the process and have to confront and cope with resignation, defeat, and alienation as well.
The views of Toshinao Yoneyama, a Japanese anthropologist, succinctly capture this
aspect of a depopulating community. He has suggested that depopulation be considered as
a problem of human existence. He writes, “For me, the problem of depopulation seems to
be a still-raw human problem. This is a problem of each man who happened to be born in
mountainous areas after World War II10).” Instead of the structure of the local economy and
society, he proposes that the researchers should focus on the choice of the people, that is,
address the manner in which people construct their realities and life choices that are limited
and promoted by the living context.
The villagers in Maki, where I conducted fieldwork, are seriously examining their
living conditions. In this paper, I have documented and elucidated the common ground of
their realities and the ways in which they are attempting to recapture their deteriorating life.

8) Hobo (1996)
9) Nakata (2001)
10) Yoneyama (1969), p.29

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3. The Profile of the Field11)

3-1 Kitagawa Township

Kitagawa Township, where Maki village is located, is situated in the hinterlands of
the metropolis of Tokyo. It is situated in Kanagawa prefecture, approximately 80 kilometers
west of Tokyo, and is two hours away from the center of Tokyo by train. About 90 percent
of the area is mountainous. Tea cultivation (Kitagawa tea) and tourism are the major sources
of income.
The number of farmers in Kitagawa Township has declined from 2,114 in 1955 to
493 in 2000. Most farmers are from “part-time farming households” and have other jobs
that pay much better than farming. The tea plantations of Kitagawa comprise one-fourth of
the total area under tea cultivation in Kanagawa, but in recent years, the local government
has shown concern for the increasing number of abandoned lands where tea cultivation has
been discontinued.
Tea cultivation peaked in the 1960s and the early 1970s; however, it is declining
now. There is a common expression that the farmers in Kitagawa use when they narrate a
cherished a memory: “When we harvested tea three times a year, we could earn enough for
our children’s school expenses, our own living expenses, and even have some money left for
savings.”
Historically, tea cultivation in Kitagawa started in 1923, the year the great Kanto
earthquake and flood took place in Kitagawa. The two disasters destroyed approximately 40
ha of fields and 300 ha of forest. At that time, most of the farmers made a living by raising
silkworms and processing charcoal from wood, so the damage caused by the disasters was
tremendous.
In an attempt to revive the local economy, the local government and the Agricultural
Society of Kitagawa recommended the cultivation of tea and provided seeds for tea trees.
They found that the misty weather, low temperatures, and fewer hours of sunlight in
Kitagawa were suitable for tea cultivation. This practice gradually spread, and twenty tea-
cultivating villages erected their own workshops for the primary processing of tea.
However, as depopulation increased and the price of tea decreased, the villagers
had difficulties in maintaining their workshops. In the year 2000, all these workshops
were integrated into one tea-producing factory, set up as a result of the local government’s
initiative. Now the tea cultivating villages only harvest the crops—all the processing is done
at the new, integrated tea factory operated by farmers selected from every village.

11) With regard to my descriptions of Maki, first, all the names of my informants and geographical places have been
changed. Second, I have used several official and historical documents on Maki; however, I have not cited them in order to
maintain the anonymity of the village.

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3-2 Maki
Maki is one of these tea-cultivating villages in Kitagawa Township. It is situated on
a hill, at 200 m above sea level, and the slope of the hill is more than 13 degrees—similar to
that of ski slopes. Parts of Maki’s farmlands bear the official warning: “Dangerous zone—
steep incline.” From the base of the hill, it takes a person ten to fifteen minutes to reach
Maki on foot, along a road snaking up the hill.
Approximately 3.5 ha of tea plantations are located on the hilltop. All six households
own roughly the same area of farmland, so the average holding is 0.58 ha. Farms of this size
are commonly found in mountainous areas in Japan.
The total population comprises twenty persons, and their average age was 56.8 years
in 2005. Although seven people are currently over 65, more than half the population will be
over 65 years of age within the next ten years. The youngest villager is a thirteen-year-old
girl, while the second youngest is a twenty-year-old man. Household size is also decreasing;
in 1960, Maki’s total population comprised forty persons, who were distributed among
seven households.
Households in Maki can be basically classified as part-time farming households—the
men work outside the village and help with farming during the holidays, while the women
take care of day-to-day farming. Since the income derived from tea cultivation is extremely
meager, salaries or pensions form the basis of their regular household income. None of the
families’ descendants would like to inherit the farms. Some of the young people who are in
their twenties have declared to their parents that they do not want to be farmers; others have
already moved out to live in the cities.
Both insiders and outsiders tend to represent Maki as a coherent unit. Maki as a
community provides a sense of identity and definition to the villagers. They like to say that
“Maki instills a sense of patience” or “People in Maki are stubborn, so they preserve the
conventions.” However, Maki has not remained historically unchanged or isolated: the
institutions and social relations in Maki have always undergone metamorphoses.
The villagers identify that tea cultivation, as a communal practice, forms the “core”
of their life and of the structure underlying the village itself. For them, farming includes not
only tea cultivation but also cooperative work, a kind of labor exchange. Although there
are other communal practices, the villagers give special priority to these. Tea cultivation
partially based on cooperative work is recognized as the manifestation of Maki’s “spirit of
mutual help”.
Tea also represents Maki’s collective memory. According to the villagers, since Maki,
where the first experiment in tea cultivation was conducted, was the birthplace of Kitagawa
tea, its villagers have played a leading role among Kitagawa tea farmers. For them, the

10
history of Maki is the history of successful tea cultivation. They used to believe that no
matter what kind or degree of trouble emerged, they could overcome it by cooperating
with each other. This collective memory is a constant reminder to the villagers that they are
expected to uphold their “traditional” values and carefully preserve the convention of tea
cultivation.

3-3 Tea Farming in Maki

At present, economically speaking, the status of agriculture in Maki is in a gradual decline,
because there has been almost no income from tea cultivation since the 1990s. When the
price of tea began to fall, the villagers initially tried to increase their income by increasing
the size of their farms. Thus, the area under cultivation in Maki increased from 2.8 ha in the
1960s to 3.8 ha in 1980. However, this strategy met with failure. The steep incline of the
land prevented the thorough mechanization of farming, while at the same time, the villagers
faced labor shortages due to the ongoing depopulation. As a result, the expansion slowed
down, and the villagers either moved on to growing vegetables or fruits, or they abandoned
their farms. In the meantime, many adult males had already managed to secure employment
at workplaces located in the cities, such as supermarkets, the electric power company, and
the food manufacturing industry.
However, the declining status of this kind of agriculture does not mean that tea
cultivation is an easy task. There is a great deal of work involved in taking care of tea
plants, which includes the use of heavy machinery and involves activities such as fertilizing,
disinfecting, pruning, and harvesting the crops. Villagers often complain of this hard work,
and most of them suffer from chronic pains in their legs, feet, or backs.
Basically, each family is responsible for the tea cultivation on their own farm, but
certain activities are too laborious for one family to manage on its own—these include the
abovementioned activities of disinfecting, pruning, and harvesting crops. Four women and
approximately the same number of either retired men or men back on vacation from their
regular jobs work together on each family’s farm and pay each other for the work done. The
payment given in exchange for this labor amounts to ¥1,800 per hour.
However, this ever-declining labor force is also ageing. The burdens of farming and
its associated health risks are both sharply increasing. One informant said, “Four or five
people now have to do what seven or eight people did before. It’s physically and mentally
burdensome and time-consuming.” Although the core members involved in the cooperative
work consisted of six women from each of the six families, one died in 1990, while another
one retired due to a serious chronic illness in 2002; this left only four members. Further, no
new members came to participate in this cooperative work during this period (1990–2002).

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From 1960 to 1985, the average age of a woman’s retirement from cooperative work was
57.5 years. In 1960, the average age of the six women was 34 years, but today, this figure
amounts to 51 years, with the two oldest members being 57 and 55 years old. These two do
not have anyone to carry on with their work after their retirement.
As a result, there is a “common sense” among the villagers that the ongoing
depopulation has made it impossible to maintain a “status quo.” A radical improvement in
the depopulation situation is no longer expected. In other words, the villagers have come to
terms with depopulation and have given up attempting to reverse it. A villager who seemed
to me, at first glance, to be attempting to protect the practice of tea cultivation appeared to
think that the deterioration of cooperative work was unavoidable and acknowledged that he
considered tea cultivation to be on the road to extinction.

4. Competing Realities

4-1 Ambivalence Regarding Giving up Farming

The villagers in Maki always told me that they considered giving up farming with
ambivalent and unsure feelings. Certainly, the villagers identify farming as such a crucial
component of their life that giving it up is equated with a sense of failure or defeat.
However, certain opposite feelings also arise in the narratives of some villagers. At times,
some villagers have admitted that giving up farming would “liberate” them. This version
suggests that they might even be pleased with the current predicament.
Roughly speaking, there was a tendency among those who admitted a sense of defeat
to consider tea cultivation as their sole identity, which nothing could substitute. In contrast,
those who mentioned that giving it up would be liberating were more likely to envision
the possibility of being able to continue without farming. Moreover, they sometimes even
discussed with me the possibility of moving away from the village, regardless of whether or
not such moving was really feasible.
However, it should be noted that the villagers’ opinions do not differ to such an
extent as to result in the formation of factions or groups in the village. Their perceptions
of whether or not to give up farming kept changing, depending on the time and place of
their conversations. In addition, it was not unusual for my informants to change their
minds within the course of an interview12). One informant told me, “My opinion changes

12) My fieldwork mainly consisted of two types of interviews. I interviewed most of the villagers while participating
in farming or other activities with them. I also conducted two to three-hour-long semi-structured interviews with seven
people, each of whom I interviewed between one and four times. When I spoke with the villagers, I tried to keep them
informed about my interpretations and doubts regarding their narratives in order to deepen our dialogue. This is because
my informants’ ways of modifying, denying, or sometimes even getting angry at my interpretations provided me with
valuable information.

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everyday.” This testimony well summarizes the profound sense of confusion in Maki at
present.
The main reason for this instability in the villagers’ perceptions is that they
considered both—continuing farming for a while and giving it up before long—to involve
high costs and risks. It was obvious that continuing with farming, in order to avoid feeling
a sense of defeat, would increase health risks. In particular, there was no justification that
would allow a villager to compel the others to continue with farming, when faced with the
problem of health risks. In contrast, if they decided to give up farming in an attempt to
reduce their responsibilities and sought new lifestyles, it was obvious that the dissolution of
tea cultivation as a communal practice would imply the disappearance of mutual assistance
in the village. In short, giving up farming would directly result in the collapse of Maki as a
community. This is an enormous problem for the villagers.
In this section, I wish to examine this ambivalence by exploring narratives that
clearly represent the abovementioned confusion in the villagers’ minds.

4-2 Giving up Farming as “Liberation”

Mrs. A was 45 years old in 2006, the youngest among the cooperative work
members. After the interview, conducted in a small building located at the center of the
village, which is used as the “community center,” she told me, “Your interview is a great
stress-buster. I will be able to continue till next week.” She explained her difficult position in
the village and gave vent to her ambivalent feelings.
Initially, like all my other informants, Mrs. A presented a negative image of tea
cultivation, characterized by increasing burdens, health risks, and economic irrationality.
“Honestly speaking, I always think of giving up farming,” she continued, “Tea cultivation
is such a hectic daily activity; it is impossible for our declining numbers to sustain it. I get
so tired every day that I tell my child to ‘shut up’ when she wants to talk about her day in
the junior high school with me.” She added, “I realize it might be better to get another job.
I worked in an office for seven years before I got married [to a man from Maki] and moved
here. That experience makes me think that I don’t need to identify myself as a farmer at all.”
Mrs. A believed that the dissolution of farming would certainly be a kind of
liberation from mental and physical burdens for her; however, she also said that she could
not think of giving it up in the near future. Not only have Mr. and Mrs. A maintained their
normal tea plantations, they have also experimented with pesticide-free tea cultivation on
some farms since the 1980s, a practice that the other villagers have long abandoned. Mrs. A
explained to me, “First of all, I can’t uproot the tea trees because it would hurt the feeling of
my family members, especially my father- and mother-in-law. They worked so hard to plant

13
and cultivate tea trees, even at a time when there were no roads leading up to the village.”
Second, Mrs. A feared that if she gave up farming now, it would invite conflicts with
the other villagers. She believed that not only would the cost of starting a new life unrelated
to farming be very high, it would also be morally wrong. She was concerned over the
possibility that if she retired from tea cultivation, the other villagers would also be unable
to continue, due to inadequate labor. Other informants also often referred to this concern.
They were keenly aware that such a choice, exercised by one villager, would incur costs on
all the others and cause the destruction of another’s life.
Mr. B is a man who is relatively positive about giving up farming. After insisting that
farming in Maki had no future, he continued, “But giving up farming doesn’t mean that we
will be liberated from all problems. Basically, we will continue living after the end of tea
cultivation, even if the women who used to farm on a regular basis find other jobs. This is
not a problem of farming or land usage.” His wife described her future prospects thus:

[After giving up farming], the only thing I can imagine is the emergence of extreme
individualism in human relationships in Maki. “Extreme individualism” in a human
relationship means that nobody will help another. This would be the end of Maki. Of course,
this is a hopeless scenario, but it is true that we don’t have any other option.

Mrs. A summarized the villagers’ anxieties very well: “I always wonder whether
or not I will end my days in Maki. The reality is that I cannot think of moving away from
Maki, because I have nowhere else to go and I have to take care of my house. My husband
and I will be the last people in Maki in terms of age, and my children will find a life outside
Maki. This might be our only hope. However, it is painful to think of living in a dissolved
Maki.”

4-3 Giving up Farming as “Defeat”

“Farmers don’t need any academic background. He always thinks of the world
outside Maki,” Mrs. C sneered at Mr. B, who holds a bachelor’s degree, before continuing,
“Those who want to give up farming have too many things in mind. As a result, they will
destroy the community.” “Too many things,” in this context, refers to the fact that some of
the villagers are searching for an alternative way of life.
Mrs. C clearly told me that giving up farming would “defeat” the core of her life.
“I know that depopulation is an irreversible social trend. This trend has defeated me and
deprived me of many things.” Mrs. D also spoke about the “misery” of giving up farming.
She said that tea cultivation was really her pride and the keystone of her identity. She

14
explained, “I would be so miserable if I had to uproot all my tea trees, which I inherited
from my ancestors. I don’t want to be an object of contempt.” I asked her, “Who will hold
you in contempt?” and she replied, “Anybody, young or old.”
Both Mrs. C and Mrs. D said that it is important to take into consideration the
sentiments of others, including family members. Mrs. D said, “To tell the truth, tea
cultivation is a huge burden to me, but I can’t give it up. When my father-in-law was sick
in bed, he said, ‘You can uproot the trees if you want to.’ But I couldn’t do so, because I
could imagine the tremendous efforts that were put in to establish the farms. Of course, tea
cultivation has nothing to do with our livelihoods any more.”
I must point out that those who were seemingly optimistic about continuing with
farming did not have very clear opinions either. First of all, their concerns regarding health
risks were significant. The villagers were keenly aware of the fact that their “selfish”
insistence on farming could destroy the health and lives of the other villagers. An informant
summarized this concern: “If we don’t do anything, we will kill each other.” Second,
given the present predicament, they know that mere rhetoric such as “Tea farming is our
tradition” or “Tea farming is a duty that we have inherited from out ancestors” was not
convincing at all.
After all this, they have begun to accept that it is inevitable to give up farming.
However, they need to solve one important problem first, which is common to those who
are relatively positive about giving up farming. Mrs. C’s husband said, “I would like to
prevent one thing: losing the time and opportunity to help each other, meet each other, and
share our common daily issues with the other villagers. This kind of social interaction was
always provided by tea cultivation. To give up farming would be to lose Maki.”

5. “Choose” what is Forced: The Strategic Implications of the Consensus

In the former section, we briefly went over the villagers’ perceptions regarding
giving up farming. Although these perceptions were conflicting, the villagers appeared to be
inscribed with the same anxiety for the imminent future. Whichever positions the villagers
adopted, they all confessed feeling an overwhelming sense of powerlessness: “I know that it
is unavoidable to give up farming. No one wants to do so. But we have no other option.”
Therefore, the problem that faces these villagers is what they should do to make
the “choice”, to give up farming, acceptable to themselves. Moreover, they wonder what
kinds of procedures and practices are required to complete this process, and how long
will it take to successfully exercise this “choice”. The villagers are desperately looking for
ways to reduce the cost of giving up farming. As an outcome of this search, the community

15
consensus, which the villagers in Maki arrived at in 2000, is worth discussion.
According to the consensus, the villagers will not plant trees such as cedars and the
Japanese cypress on their farms until at least the year 2010. This consensus also requires the
villagers retain a minimum area of 0.5 ha until 2010. This is ostensibly because the subsidy
that Maki receives from the Japanese government requires them to do so. This subsidy aims
to promote and revitalize community agriculture in mountainous areas, and Maki receives
¥42,000 to improve its roads, in exchange for maintaining its farms.
At the first glance, this consensus can be understood as an effort to revitalize farming
in Maki. However, I could not help suspecting that something was wrong when I took into
consideration testimonies such as “If we don’t do anything, we will kill each other” and
realized how insufficient the money was compared to the villagers’ sense of crisis.
The reality was as I had suspected. There was another reason. This determination to
continue farming until 2010 is aimed at setting up a “preparation period” to deliberate on
how to give up farming. The villagers believe that such an agreement provides them with the
time to explore ways in which to reorganize the community after the death of tea cultivation
as a communal practice.

Mrs. C explained that the consensus provides the villagers with time to
“contemplate.” She emphasized, “We can’t avoid giving up farming. Eventually, we will
plant trees in our farms. This is the end of our farming. I regret taking such a step, but it
is time to accept it.” She continued, “Everyone should coordinate with each other, and we
should proceed carefully. Farming should not end without a discussion and deliberation on
how we can rebuild Maki.”
In this case, an impossibly difficult problem has been presented: how to enable
villagers to communally give up a communal practice. Mr. C explained that this consensus
provides a sort of “platform” for discussion. This is because the villagers cannot avoid
arguing about the interpretations, amendments, violations, and continuation of the
consensus. “We must avoid finalizing this issue without sufficient discussion. We are trying
to find ways that will suit everybody.” Thus, the consensus is a strategic effort to control the
vicissitudes of time and search for a “soft landing.”
The important objective for those who are relatively reluctant to give up farming is
to convincingly demonstrate the fact that they resisted taking such a step to the best of their
ability. The period until 2010 is slated to be the preparation period. In this period, they must
do all they can toward tea cultivation, after which they can gradually resign themselves to
the inevitable.
For Mrs. D, the period until 2010 will serve to erase her “feelings beyond logic.”

16
When she takes into consideration her own health and that of her husband, who is seriously
ill, she admits that giving up farming in the immediate future is “rational”. However, she
told me, “I don’t want to simply give up. I want to give up only after I have done everything
I can to preserve this kind of farming. Without this effort, many people will say, ‘She gave
up farming without putting in any efforts to preserve it.’ Such a thought is painful and
awful.” Although there are hardly any other courses of action open before her, she continues
to help other households with their farming.
In Maki, there is also another person who is more proactive. Mr. E began to build
concrete pavements to smooth out portions of his farms. Reducing the steep inclination
makes farming easier. He never told me how much this work cost, but it seemed to have cost
millions of yen. “We must do everything. I know, of course, that farming has no future, and
we have neither the energy nor the motivation to continue with it. These concrete pavements
are meaningless, in a sense. Nevertheless, it is important to try everything. Finally, our
ambivalent feelings will settle.”
Of course, the villagers of Maki do not deny the fact that they expect a “fluke”
that will revitalize farming. However, a fluke is not something they can intentionally seek
or achieve. Mr. E verbalized such a wish: “I sometimes hope that Kitagawa tea will gather
attention, for example, if it is found that this tea contains some health benefits. If such a
discovery is made, our tea will become more popular, and the younger people will return.
However, this is only a dream. When we take our age into account, we understand that
we can do nothing toward its realization. Of course, we are waiting for such a fluke, but it
would be more realistic to think about and search for an alternative way to live. We are too
old to believe in and pursue what seem to be dreams.”
Although all of my informants emphasized the importance of searching for an
“alternative” or “different” way of life, the words themselves do not contain any concrete
vision in them. In other words, attaching a practical idea to these words is another problem
that needs to be tackled during the preparation period. Mrs. C said, “So far, I don’t know
what we should do. It is too difficult to believe that things will improve. I guess we may
not be able to find the best way to solve this problem, but we have to find out the least
problematic way.”

Those who are relatively positive about giving up farming have also accepted this
consensus, albeit with the complaint that the period until 2010 is too long. One of the
reasons they agreed was that this consensus allowed them to reduce their farm to 0.5 ha.
Above all, they could not imagine what would happen to Maki after the dissolution of tea
cultivation, and they had severe anxieties regarding its fate. Nevertheless, they also believed

17
that if they did not take the necessary steps, the results would be disastrous.
Their anxiety is well summarized by Mrs. B’s words regarding the possibility of
“extreme individualism” in human relationships. She informed me that, thanks to the
communal practice of tea cultivation, even despite diversity in the resources and interests
of each family, they were able to put aside their differences and integrate their interests into
“Maki’s interest.” Mrs. B explained, “It was, of course, cumbersome, but it was definitely
important. I don’t want to cast off the others … I am so ambivalent about Maki. It confines
me, but it also helps and protects me.”
Mrs. B has proposed a strategy to reduce the communal characteristics of tea
cultivation gradually until 2010. In order to do so and to get used to the situation after tea
cultivation ends, she insists that the villagers should experiment with future possibilities.
For example, she proposes to reduce the communally performed labors. “We should get
used to thinking that we are not responsible for the others.” Further, she and her husband
have attempted to reinterpret the consensus. They insist that the consensus does not prohibit
them from changing crops as long as they continue with farming. Therefore, they are
optimistic about growing vegetables and fruits, which require less care, instead of tea trees
in some parts of their farms. Although such practices face strong opposition, Mrs. B insists,
“We have to get used to the situation. We don’t have a choice regarding whether or not to
continue farming. So we have to discover an alternative way.”
Her proposal involves a moderate plan to give up farming in stages. However, like
the other informants, she also admits that she cannot answer the fundamental question
that faces the villagers. “I just hate to think of a time like that (extremely individualistic
relationships) … I would really hate it if after the end of tea cultivation, we end up envying
or finding endless faults with each other, for example, thinking that ‘He found an alternate
life only for himself’ or ‘She gave up farming selfishly, without taking us into account.’ That
is the worst possibility. If we proceed gradually, we might avoid this. The time has come for
us to take on the dare of choosing to give up farming.”
The villagers are attempting to endure this period by reformulating their convictions
or by searching for ways in which to control their insecure future. The testimonies of my
informants represent their desperate efforts to recapture their control over a “choice” that
has been forced on them.

6. In Lieu of a Conclusion

6-1 In Support of “Euthanasia”?

During my fieldwork, I witnessed a process put into motion by villagers that can only be

18
termed as administrating euthanasia to tea cultivation as a communal practice. An informant
called the current predicament of Maki a “chronic disease.” Now this chronic disease is
entering its terminal stage. The villagers cannot help considering the least problematic way
to end tea cultivation, rather than search for ways in which to revitalize it. Without any
concrete visions for the future, the villagers must continue with the trial and error method.
All the informants I interviewed claimed that they could not think of a future course of
action. This appears to be a “common sense” among the villagers.
It is too difficult to envisage the betterment or a radical refinement of the current
situation in Maki. In such circumstances, we, as policy scientists, have to ask to ourselves,
how should we deal with and navigate in a field wherein the policy target of “betterment”
appears to be denied? What does problem-solving mean in such a context?
This problem appears not only as a cognitive or normative problem to be tackled in
classrooms but also as a practical problem. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to critically examine
the historical events and social structures in Japan that gave rise to the predicament of
depopulation in its rural areas. However, at the same time, when we develop relationships
with the people in the field, it become apparent that mere examination conducted in the
academic world is not enough. This is simply because these people cannot wait any more.
Throughout my fieldwork, I was always asked questions: “What should we do? Do you
know the answer?” Although the informants and I seriously attempted to visualize a new
Maki with many references to other “model cases,” no concrete visions for the future could
be formed.
If we directly try to grasp the implications of the observations in this research, the
policy issue that requires further study is how to find a “better” way to dissolve farming
practices and villages. In other words, we should seek ways to achieve a soft landing and
collect them as practical knowledge, to which many people can refer. This perspective is
apparently the blind spot of conventional development studies. From this perspective, in the
case of Maki, setting “the preparation period” can be cited as an example of such practical
knowledge.
This is definitely an alluring research direction. However, this direction leads to an
even more serious, inevitable problem. Let me explain this with an allegory. Fredrick Klaits
reported a religion that had gained prevalence in a part of Botswana13). In that region, HIV
prevalence among the people is extremely high, and the spread of HIV is unceasing. With
this backdrop, rather than seeking recourse to medication or directing efforts toward the
prevention of HIV, the people are more interested in seeking “a good death” as a relief
measure, to the extent that it has become a widespread religious attitude.

13) Klaits (1998)

19
 The problem here is how to evaluate such a religion. Is this religion a salvation that
provides relief or an ideology that deprives its followers of all the possible opportunities to
resist HIV? Klaits’s own position on this issue is also unstable. He honestly confesses that he
once celebrated the practices that constructed that religious community. However, he states,
“Yet, as I watch my friends become sick and die, I worry that it may be only a matter of
time before things fall apart.”14)
Does not the research direction seeking “the better death” of villages present the
same dilemma as the evaluation of this religion?

6-2 Beyond the Dilemma?

First of all, there is a risk that the research direction that pursues a better death is too
confined to the reality of the field to be statically captured. In the field, there must exist the
possibility that different futures with various orientations might take place, even though they
are as yet invisible. Without this critical view, supporting one direction could unintentionally
oppress or destroy the other possibilities. When a proposal that rejects being relativized is
once implemented and institutionalized, it cuts off information and knowledge regarding
all other practices. Any movement setting an absolute goal to pursue could unfortunately
restrict the freedom of the people.
The realities of the villagers are never static or unchangeable. For the villagers, I, a
fieldworker, can be the resource that helps form their realities. In the course of my fieldwork,
I became aware of that. I was surrounded by the villager’s practices, which tried to induce
me to the specific reality. I was sometimes requested by several villagers to demonstrate my
current interpretation and evaluation of Maki village. Although they had varied reactions
to my comments, it is worth noting that when the villagers agreed with my comments, they
often said, “You should inform the people of other villages about this” or “This is exactly
what I have always thought, too. It is a pleasure to know that an outsider sees this situation
in the same way.” The real influence of my comments must have been quite small, but it
is undeniable that my comments sometimes seemed to endorse some of the villagers’ own
opinions, and as a result, had an effect on the decisions taken in Maki. Moreover, for this
reason, it is highly likely that the villagers attempted to guide my interpretation to conform
to their viewpoint. For example, some narratives sought to represent an individual opinion
as the opinion of all the villagers, with statements such as “Everyone thinks so” and “This
is the common feeling in Maki.” The reason they attempted to convince me thus was
precisely so that I could also endorse their specific point of view, because for them, I was
either an outsider who knew about “sophisticated” urban life or a student from a well-

14) Klaits (1998), p.114

20
known university who could evaluate them “objectively”. In this sense, regardless of his or
her own wishes, a fieldworker is at times obliged to participate in the dynamics of the field
as a participant; or provides, for the informants, a kind of “capital” in the sense of either
material or symbolic resources.
Since we as fieldworkers cannot avoid involving ourselves in the dynamics of
the field, it is crucial to capture as much of this field dynamics as possible in order to be
able to perceive the potential possibilities. On occasion, we might even have to counter
an informant’s argument. I interviewed a villager who said, “I don’t want to discuss
the issue of Maki any more. No one hears my opinion. I’m so tired of my meaningless
farming. I don’t care what happens to me.” I had to cheer her up using the discourse of
the environmentalists: “There is a widespread tendency to reevaluate farming in rural and
mountainous areas. Something good will be happen.” She replied, “I haven’t seen farming
as such. I might need to change my mind.” In the same context, I informed another villager
about this lament. She said, “It becomes difficult for us to have in-depth conversations with
each person in everyday life. Your advice is so helpful. I have to care for her more and talk
to her some more, too.”
Of course, this is only a tiny and ephemeral example, but it is evidence that realities
can change. Needless to say, behaviors such as “counseling” or “spying” on villagers require
a serious sense of responsibility15). There is too much of asymmetry in the relationship
between a fieldworker who is a member of secure institutions and an informant whose single
word to a fieldworker could be fatal to his or her life16).
It might be that the researcher’s role in this kind of field is to promote and support
the villagers’ conversations in order to construct and reexamine their choices and strategies.
However, we must not regard this support as a one-way, paternalistic support. Researchers
cannot insist that only they can identify the best course of action. The informants are also
unaware of what they should do. Therefore, what researchers can do is to continue to
cross the scattered local knowledge, a kind of local theoretical view of the world, which
is possessed by both the parties involved in the dialogue. We need “mutual support”.
Although we must not forget the many dangers of violence and tensions that characterize an
asymmetric relationship, this is a fieldwork that policy management studies are barely able
to manage.

15) Tierney (2000) contains one of the most shocking and controversial accusations regarding what fieldworkers did in the
field.
16) See Clifford and Marcus (1986).

21
References

Araoke, Utaka (2005) “Chapter 2. Kaso Mondai to Konjuka Mondai (Kaso Problem and
Coexistence Problem)”, Tabata, Yasushi and Ouchi Masatoshi, eds, Sengo Nippon
no Shokuryo, Nogyo, Noson 11: Noson Shakaishi (Food, Agriculture and Rural
Community in Postwar Japan 11: Social History of Community), Tokyo: Norin
Tokei Kyokai, pp. 215–242 (in Japanese).
Clifford, James and Marcus, George, eds, (1986) Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics
of Ethnography, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gluck, Carol (2007) Rekishi de Kangaeru (Thinking by History), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten
(in Japanese).
Hashimoto, Kenji (2000) “Chapter 5. Sengo Nippon no Nomin So Bunkai (The
Dismantlement of the Peasant Class in Postwar Japan)”, Hara J., ed, Nippon no
Kaiso System1: Kindaika to Shakai Kaiso (The Stratification System in Japan 1:
Modernization and Social Stratification), Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press (in
Japanese).
Hobo, Takehiko (1996) Naihatsuteki Hatten Ron to Nippon no Nosanson (Indigenous
Development and Japanese Rural Communities), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten (in
Japanese).
Klaits, Frederick (1998) “Making a Good Death: AIDS and Social Belonging in an
Independent Church in Gaborone”, Botswana Notes and Records 30, pp. 101–19.
Nakata, Hideki (2001) “Kaihatsu Riron toshiteno <<Kasseika>> Gensetsu no Kozo Bunseki
Shiron: Gensetsu Kukan ni oite Jumin ha donoyou ni Shutai tarieteiru ka (The
Discourse Analysis of Revitalization as the Theory of Development: How Can a
Resident Be a Subject in the Discursive Space?)”, Sonraku Shakai Kenkyu 14 (2),
pp. 1–12 (in Japanese).
Nishida, Yoshiaki (2006) “Chapter 1: 20seiki Nihon Noson no Henka to sono Tokucho”
(Changes in Agricultural Villages and Their Characteristics in 20th Century Japan),
Nishida, Yoshiaki, Waswo Ann, eds, 20seki Nihon no Nomin to Noson (Agricultural
Villages and Farmers in the 20th Century Japan), Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press
(in Japanese).
Okado, Masakatsu (2006) “Sengo Nippon no Nouson to Kaihatsu (Agricultural Community
and Development in Postwar Japan)”, Mizuuchi Toshio, Suzuki Yuichiro, Okado
Masakatsu, Morita Shinya, Okamoto Masako, eds, “Kaihatsu” no Henyou to
Chiki Bunka (Changes in “Development” and Local Culture), Tokyo: Seikyusha (in
Japanese).

22
Tierney, Patrick (2000) Darkness in El Dorado—How Scientists and Journalists Devastated
the Amazon, New York: Norton.
Yamamoto, Tsutomu (1996) Gendai Kaso Mondai no Kenkyu (The Study of Contemporary
Depopulation Problems), Tokyo: Kouseisha Kouseikaku (in Japanese).
Yoneyama, Toshinao (1969) Kaso Shakai (Depopulated Society), Tokyo: Nippon Hoso
Kyokai Press (in Japanese).

23
 Policy and Governance Working Papers*

Number Author(s) Title Date

1 Tomoyuki Kojima What is Policy and Governance Research? November 2003

Mitsuaki Okabe

2# Michio Umegaki Human Security: Some Conceptual Issues for Policy Research November 2003

3 Takiko Fujii Ageing and Generation Changes in the Tokyo Metropolitan Suburbs —A Study November 2003
Moriyuki Oe on Stable and Secure Habitation for the Aged—

4 Soichiro Moridaira Derivatives Contract for Event Risk November 2003

5 Toshiyuki Kagawa Natural Disaster and Governance of Regional Government : A Case of the 1997 December 2003
Akira Ichikawa Oder River Flood in Poland

6 Wanglin Yan Mapping the Spatial Structure of Regional Ecosystems and Calculating the Value December 2003
Aya Matsuzaki of Trees for Regional Environment Governance with GIS Tools
Mikako Shigihara

7 Hitoshi Hayami The Possibility and Practice for CDM in Kangping Province in Shenyang: Policy December 2003
Yoko Wake Collaboration between Japan and China for Human Security
Kanji Yoshioka
Tomoyuki Kojima

8 Sayuri Shirai European Monetary Union and Convergence in Monetary and Fiscal Policies December 2003
—Human Security and Policy Response—

9 Mitsuaki Okabe International Financial Integration and the Framework of Economic Policy December 2003

10 Masaaki Komai The Integrated Evaluation of Price and Quality in Selecting PFI Contractors December 2003

11 Atsuyuki Kogure Life Table and Nonparametric Regression: An Inquiry into Graduation of January 2004
Standard Life Table for Japanese Life Insurance Companies

12# Lynn Thiesmeyer Human Insecurity and Development Policy in Asia: Land, Food, Work and HIV January 2004
in Rural Communities in Thailand

13 Satoshi Nakano An Attempt towards the Multilateral Policy Collaboration for Human Security January 2004
Woojong Jung in Northeast Asia: Possibilities of CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) among
Xueping Wang Japan, China and South Korea

*Working papers marked with “#” and “§” are written in English and Chinese, respectively, and unmarked papers are
written in Japanese. All the papers are accessible on the internet homepage of the Center of Excellence (COE) program and
can be downloaded in PDF file format (with some exceptions). A booklet version of the paper may be obtained by email at
<coe2-sec@sfc.keio.ac.jp>. All the researchers affiliated with the COE Program are strongly encouraged to submit research
papers to this working paper series. “Instructions to Contributors” are included at the end of the working paper as well on
the home page of this COE Program <http://coe21-policy.sfc.keio.ac.jp/>.

25
14 Kanji Yoshioka The Practice of Tree Planting in Kangping Province in Shenyang: Policy February 2004
Tomoyuki Kojima Collaboration between Japan and China for Human Security
Satoshi Nakano
Hitoshi Hayami
Hikaru Sakuramoto
Yoko Wake

15# Yoshika Sekine Air Quality Watch in Inland China for Human Security February 2004
Zhi-Ming YANG
Xue-Ping WANG

16# Patcharawalai Human Security and Transnational Migration: The Case in Thailand February 2004
Wongboonsin

17# Mitsuaki Okabe The Financial System and Corporate Governance in Japan February 2004

18# Isao Yanagimachi Chaebol Reform and Corporate Governance in Korea February 2004

19 Mikako Ogawa RFID as Consumer Empowering Technology —Its Deployment in Japan— February 2004
Masaki Umejima
Jiro Kokuryo

20 Mikihito Hayashi Development of Open-source Software —Human Security through Disclosure of February 2004
Jiro Kokuryo Key Technologies on the Net —

21 Toru Sugihara Creating a New Method Measuring Capability of University Students February 2004
Jiro Kokuryo

22 Miki Akiyama Electronic Patient Record, Information Sharing and Privacy Protection —for March 2004
Institutional Design to Achieve Human Security—

23 Yoshinori Isagai The Role of Agents in Regional Digital Network based Business Matching March 2004
Systems —B2B Relationship Mediation to Enhance Human Security—

24 Yusuke Yamamoto The User’s Cost of Photo Voltaic System and Its Reduction Effect of CO2 March 2004
Satoshi Nakano
Tomoyuki Kojima
Kanji Yoshioka

25# Jae Edmonds Implications of a Technology Strategy to Address Climate Change for the March 2004
Evolution of Global Trade and Investment

26# Bernd Meyer Economic Growth of the EU and Asia. A First Forecast with the Global March 2004
Christian Lutz Econometric Model GINFORS
Marc Ingo Wolter

27# Wei Zhihong Economic Development and Energy Issues in China March 2004

28# Yoginder K. Alagh Common Futures and Policies March 2004

29# Guifen Pei China’s Financial Industry and Asset Management Companies —Problems and April 2004
Sayuri Shirai Challenges—

30# Kinnosuke Yagi Decentralization in Japan April 2004

31# Sayuri Shirai An Overview of the Growing Local Government Fiscal Problems in Japan April 2004

26
32# Sayuri Shirai The Role of the Local Allocation Tax and Rerorm Agenda in Japan —Implication April 2004
to Developing Countries—

33 So Yamamoto The Impact of Inter-governmental Transfers on the Spending Behavior of Local April 2004
Sayuri Shirai Governments in Japan

34 Mitsuaki Okabe The governance structure and the performance of Japanese corporations: An April 2004
Kei Fujii empirical study

35 Suko Yoshihiko The Research on the Privacy Secured Matching Model using Social Network April 2004
Kokuryo Jiro
Jun Murai

36 Atsushi Watabe Life Histories in the Village of Migration: an Essay on Labor Migration as a April 2004
Human Security Issue

37 Wanglin YAN Framework for Environment Conservation and Social Development with Natural April 2004
Capital in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

38 Kiyonori Sakakibara Industry/University Cooperative Research in the U.S.: The Case of the Center for May.2004
Intelligent Maintenance Systems

39 Sayuri Shirai Controversies Over the Revaluation of the Chinese Currency —Impact of the May.2004
Cheng Tang Revaluation and Policy Recommendations—

40 Atsushi Kusano Media and Japanese Foreign Aid for China May.2004
Takehiro Okamoto

41 Atsushi Kusano A Function of the Mass Media in National Security Policy Making May.2004
Tadashi Kondo

43 Sachiko Nakagawa Constructing the public-private partnership model based on offer of trust and May.2004
reliability

44 Yuichiro Anzai Policy Innovation Initiatives for Human Security May.2004

45 Miyako Ogura Challenges for Regenerative Medicine Business in Japan —A Case Study of a July 2004
Start-up: Japan Tissue Engineering Co., Ltd.—

46 Emiko Ban A Study of Organizational System Related to Burnout among Employees of July 2004
Elderly Care Institution

47 Yuichi Ito A Study and Evaluation on “Open Method of Coordination” —The Case of July 2004
Employment Policy in the EU

48# Hideki Kaji Human Security of the Mega-cities in East and South-East Asia July 2004
Kenichi Ishibashi
Yumiko Usui

49# Takashi Terada Thorny Progress in the Institutionalization of ASEAN+3: Deficient China-Japan July 2004
Leadership and the ASEAN Divide for Regional Governance

50# Sayuri Shirai Recent Trends in External Debt Management Practices, Global Governance, and September 2004
the Nature of Economic Crises —In Search of Sustainable Economic Development
Policies—

27
51# Sayuri Shirai Japan, the IMF and Global Governance —Inter-Disciplinary Approach to Human September 2004
Security and Development—

52# Sarunya Benjakul Equity of Health Care Utilization by the Elderly Population in Thailand during September 2004
the Periods of the Economic Bubble and after the Economic Crisis: Human
Security and Health Policy Options

53 Hironobu Maintaining public order in developed countries and Human security —A study September 2004
Nakabayashi of EU Policy of Justice and Home Affaires—

54# Yuichi Ito Globalisation, Regional Transformation and Governance —The Case of East January 2005
Asian Countries—

55§ SUN, Qian jin An Analytical Foundation of Logistics under Shaping the East Asian Economic January 2005
CHEN, Hong Area
Toshiyuki Kagawa

56§ Wanglin Yan Scheme Design for Sustainable Tree Planting with Clean Development Mechanism January 2005
Tomoyuki Kojima in Kyoto Protocol: Experience of the Cooperative Tree Planting Project of Keio
Hitoshi Hayami University with Shenyang City of China

57 Sayuri Shirai Macroeconomic Problems of Development Aid (ODA) —Based on the Policy and January 2005
Governance Approach—

58 Sayuri Shirai A New Approach Towards Aid Allocation and Disbursement —Aiming At January 2005
Greater Human Security and Millennium Development Goals—

59 Atsuyuki Kogure Comonotonicity Approach to the Multivariate Actuarial Risk Management April 2005

60 Norio Hibiki Multi-Period Portfolio Optimization Model for Dynamic Investment Decisions April 2005

61 Naoki Matsuyama Issues on Risk Management for Variable Annuity April 2005

62 Kousuke Kudo An Analysis of the Embedded Options in the EIA Products April 2005
Katsuya
Komoribayashi

63 Shuji Tanaka On the Construction of Experience Tables for Medical, Disability and Long-Term April 2005
Care Insurances

64 Shuji Tanaka The Great Controversy: Reinventing Pension Actuarial Science April 2005

65 Wanglin YAN Impacts of Agricultural Policies on the Progress of Desertification in Horqin April 2005
Takafumi Miyasaka Sandy Land with Temporal Satellite Images

66 Hironobu EU assistance Policy for Central and Eastern European Countries in the Field of April 2005
Nakabayashi Justice and Home Affaires

67 Setsuko Aoki Legally Permissible Limitation of Military Uses of Outer Space April 2005

68 Setsuko Aoki Significance of 1969 Diet Resolution on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in the Era April 2005
of Weaponization

69 Mitsuaki Okabe Financial Sector Deepening and Economic Development: A Multi-country April 2005
Takamasa Mitsuyasu Econometric Study

28
70 Soichiro Moridaira Risk Averse or Not: Japanese Household’s Attitude toward Risks in the Post- April 2005
Shinichi Kamiya Bubble Era

71 Atsuyuki Kogure Statistical Modelling of the Projected Life Tables: the Lee-Carter method and its April 2005
Tomohiro Hasegawa extensions

72 Yuu Yamada How Transaction Systems Affect Asset Price Formation July 2005
Atsuyuki Kogure

73 Masaaki Komai Housing Vouchers: Lessons from the U.S. Experience July 2005

74 Aya Yasui Language Policy as a Basis for Human Security July 2005
Fumiya Hirataka

75 Yo Nonaka Current Movement for Jilbab among Secular High-educated Muslim Women in July 2005
Atsushi Okuda Indonesia —Based on the Policy and Govermance Approach—

76 Mitsuaki Okabe Toward Policy Innovations (1): From Traditional Public Policy to Social August 2005
Program

77 Mitsuaki Okabe Toward Policy Innovations (2): Theoretical Foundations, Research Methods and August 2005
Remaining Issues

78 Jiro Kokuryo Network and Policy Management August 2005

79 Tomoyuki Kojima Policy Innovations for Environmental Governance: Building an International August 2005
Wanglin Yan Scheme for Policy Cooperation on Environmental Issues in the East Asian
Region

80 Sayuri Shirai Integration of Macroeconomic and Institutional Approaches Toward the Foreign August 2005
Aid Policy —Proposal Based on the Policy and Governance Methodology—

81 Michio Umegaki Human Security and Policy Innovations November 2005

82 Moriyuki Oe Action for Problem Solution and Governance: An Importance of Intermediary November 2005
Fumiya Hirataka

83 Fumiya Hirataka Language Policy from the Perspective of Policy Innovations November 2005

84 Mitsuaki Okabe The Evolution of the Behavior and the Structure of the Japanese Firm November 2005

85 Sayuri Shirai The Chinese Renminbi Reform and a Regime Shift —Policy and Governance February 2006
Approach on Economic Development and Exchange Rate Regime—

86 Kayo Shiina A Study of Interpreters’ Roles in Intercultural Business Communication between February 2006
Fumiya Hirataka English and Japanese Speakers

87# Setsuko Aoki Nonproliferation, Arms Control and Disarmament: Asian Perspective February 2006

88# Setsuko Aoki International Legal Cooperation to Combat Communicable Diseases: Hope for February 2006
Global Governance?

89# Moriyuki Oe Problems and Implications of Japan's Aging Society for Future Urban March 2006
Developments

29
90 Daiichiro Ishii A Study on Care Service System Drawing out Users’ Abilities based on ‘The Oba March 2006
Shino Sawaoka model’ in Wakamatsu of Kitakyushu city
Fumio Funatani
Moriyuki Oe

91 Mitsuaki Okabe Interest rate and the Japanese economy: An evaluation and outlook of the March 2006
quantitative easing monetary policy

92 JUNG Woojong Commitment to Kyoto target based on energy regional characteristic in EU March 2006
countries — An action of EU countries for Human security —

93 Setsuko Aoki First Bush Administration’s Policy Combating Wepons of Mass Destruction: March 2006
“Multilateralism”, Legality and Justifiability

94 Masakazu Tateno Introducton to TextImi to realize Text Meaning Space Analysis March 2006
Masahiro Fukaya

95 Yu Akiyama The system of showing sentence patterns for Socio Semantic Survey March 2006
Masahiro Fukaya
Masakazu Tateno

96 Masahiro Fukaya Socio-semantic Research on Japanese Folk Notion of Nature March 2006
Akiko Masuda

97 Hitoshi Hayami The Keio-Shenyang afforestation activity as a Clean Development Mechanism: March 2006
Tomoyuki Kojima Evaluating the policy and governance of an investment to the mitigation of global
Xueping Wang warming gasses

98 Subaru Yamakage Discrepancies in Recognition on “Human Security” in Japan: Focusing on March 2006
Tomoyuki Kojima Arguments within Both Houses of the Diet

99 Jun Shigematsu Some issues for the curriculum of foreign language education by video conferencing March 2006
Takao Tomono — A fundamental research for human security —
Yihua Ceng
Jiaying Huang

100 Izumi Shirai The Demographic Study on The Living Arrangements of the Elderly: Projection March 2006
Moriyuki Oe of the Elderly By household types and Marital-Status on Analysis of Family
Dynamics

101 Sayuri Shirai East Asian Community and Currency and Financial Cooperation —Towards the June 2006
Development of Human Security —

102 Tomohito Nakano Workshop on Policy Innovation and Practical Knowledge (1) —Establishing a June 2006
Yu Akiyama Practice-Based Academic Discipline—
Mikako Ogawa
Takefumi Nakamura

103 Daisuke Watanabe Workshop on Policy Innovation and Practical Knowledge (2) —Practicing Human June 2006
Atsushi Watabe Security in Policy Fields—
Yuichi Ito
Mitsunori Shoji

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104 Takao Kojo Workshop on Policy Innovation and Practical Knowledge (3) —Constructing a June 2006
Daiichiro Ishii Framework for Empowering the Concerned Parties—
Taeko Nakashima
Emiko Ban

105 Hironobu Nakabayashi Workshop on Policy Innovation and Practical Knowledge (3) —Contending June 2006
Akiko Orita Views toward a New Discipline—
Tomoki Furukawazono

106# Sayuri Shirai Financial and Monetary Cooperation in East Asia —Global Governance and June 2006
Economic Integration—

107 Mitsuaki Okabe Effects of Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan —An econometric Study June 2006
Shinya Seki on Corporations’ Stability and Efficiency—

108 Eiji Gon Anxiety as the problem of stabilizing an ordinary life —The human security in January 2007
the mature society—

109 Masakatsu Okumoto The UNHCR’s Policy of Assistance for Returnees January 2007
Toshiyuki Kagawa

110 Xueping Wang Implementing Environmental Cooperation Beyond Borders : Empirical Analysis January 2007
of the Japan-China Afforestation CDM Project in
Shenyang, China

111 Daisuke Watanabe TEveryday Life and Needs After Retirement: January 2007
One Case Study in Suburban Area in Fujisawa City

112 Yuichi Ito Youth Unemployment in Japan January 2007

From a perspective of “social exclusion”

113 Daiichiro Ishii Building A Mechanism for Community Care in Metropolitan Suburbs January 2007
Takiko Fujii —Through the Evaluaion of Community Services by Community Care Center
and the Regional Structure Analysis in Yokohama City —

114 Emiko Ban Effects of Coaching program for supervisor and Performance Interview with January 2007
Supervisor on Staff Workers’ Perceived Social Support and Mental Health in
Long Term Care Hospital —A Pilot Study—

115 Tomohito Nakano Development of the Japanese Text Analysis Tool “TextImi” for Efficient January 2007
Interpretation of Vast Amounts of Text on the Web

116 Miki Akiyama Considering the Role of Academics in Policy Making and Evaluation Process January 2007

117 Eri Sekiji Intercultural Education Open to the Society —From an Attempt at Intercultural March 2007
Fumiya Hirataka Learning at a Public Elementary School—

31
118# Hideki Takei Corporate Governance and Control in Cross-national Organizations based on March 2007
Yuichi Ito Ethical Relativity

119# Hideki Takei Human Resource Management and Governance in the Central and Eastern March 2007
Yuichi Ito Europe: Case studies in Bulgaria and Slovak Republic

120 Daisuke Watanabe Symposium on Best Practices in Policy Management Studies (1) —(Re-) March 2007
Yuichi Ito Discovering Policy Issues through New Frameworks—
Xueping Wang

121 Daiichiro Ishii Symposium on Best Practices in Policy Management Studies (2) —Arrangements March 2007
Emiko Ban for Solving Social Problems—
Takiko Fujii

122 Tomohito Nakano Symposium on Best Practices in Policy Management Studies (3) —New Research March 2007
Miki Akiyama Methods for the Network Society—

123 Kazuya Uehara Symposium on Best Practices in Policy Management Studies (4) —Strategy for March 2007
Kouta Sakato Expanding Policy Management Studies—
Bae Yoon
Satoshi Watanabe

124 Bae Yoon CDM Project in Japan-China Bilateral Context—An Environmental Governance April 2007
Tomoyuki Kojima Approach—

125# Mitsuaki Okabe Toward the Establishment of Policy Management Study (1): From Traditional “Policy” April 2007
to Social Programs

126# Mitsuaki Okabe Toward the Establishment of Policy Management Study (2): Theoretical Foundation, April 2007
Research Methods, and Future Challenges

127 Mitsuaki Okabe The Japanese Company and M&A—A Multidisciplinary Approach— April 2007

128# Naoki Shinada Japanese corporate fixed investment under uncertainty of productivity growth September 2007

129# Sayuri Shirai Integration of Macroeconomics and the Institutional Approach in Developmental September 2007
Aid Policies—Proposing a Method Using Policy Management Studies—

130# Moriyuki Oe Problem-Solving Implementation and Policy Management Studies: —Importance September 2007
Fumiya Hirataka of the Intermediary Support Organization as a Site—

131# Jiro Kokuryo Networks and Policy Management Studies September 2007

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132# Tomoyuki Kojima Practicing Environmental Governance through Policy Management Studies September 2007
Wanglin Yan —Environmental Problems and Construction of an International Policy
Collaboration Scheme in East Asia—

133 Yuichi Ito Social and Employment Policy towards Social Inclusion of the Jobless Youth January 2008
Role of “Youth Support Station” in Japan

134# Yuichi Ito Social and Employment Policy towards Social Inclusion of the Jobless Youth January 2008
Role of “Youth Support Station” in Japan

135 Kenji Sakaguchi New Community Theory opposing to the Cost Efficiency —Basing on the January 2008
Questionnaire Surveys and Field Studies

136 Atsuko Koishi The Notion of Diversity in Language Education: Policy and Practice at Primary January 2008
and Secondary Level (1)

137 Atsuko Koishi The Notion of Diversity in Language Education: Policy and Practice at Primary January 2008
and Secondary Level (2)

138# Moriyuki Oe Family and Community Transformation in Metropolitan Suburbs and January 2008
Development of the Weak Expert System

139# Fumiya Hirataka Network Technology as Context of Society and as Methodology of Social January 2008
Jiro Kokuryo Science
Masahiro Fukuya

140# Michio Umegaki Human Security in East Asia: Redefining Problems January 2008

141# Takiko Fujii Diversifying Suburbs —in Terms of the Generational Balance of Parental and January 2008
Offspring Cohorts—

142# Daiichiro Ishii Activities of the Community Coordinator for Laying the Foundation of January 2008
Community Care in Metropolitan Suburbs — Through Policy Management
Approach—

143# Tomohito Nakano Development of the Meaning Chunk Extraction Tool and Its Significance for January 2008
Web-based Social Survey

144# Atsushi Watabe The Official Narratives of Empowerment and Peoples’ Narratives in the January 2008
Transition: Reconsidering Human Security from Thai Farmers’ Fluctuating Way of
Recounting Past and Imagining Future

145# Satoshi Watanabe Enduring Depopulation: A Process of Dying of a Village January 2008

33
 Instructions to Contributors
Revised December 22, 2004

1. (The purpose of the series) The working paper series, covering researches conducted under the 21st
Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program “Policy Innovation Initiative: Human Security Research
in Japan and Asia,” aims at timely publication of research results and eliciting comments and furthering
debate. Accordingly, all the researchers affiliated with the COE program (twenty nine members whose
names are listed on the COE web page) are strongly encouraged to submit relevant research papers to this
series. Along with this Series, a new “Policy and Governance Research Data and Document Series” has
been introduced in June 2004 to put up various research materials. The nature of the COE program is
explained on the homepage (see the URL at end of this note).

2. (The nature of the papers) The series includes research papers written, as a general rule, in Japanese,
English, or Chinese language. Given the aim of the series, the papers of the series include reports of ongoing
research, papers presented at the COE-sponsored workshops and conferences, relevant published research
papers, as well as original unpublished formalized research papers. Although the papers may vary in
their theme and scope, all papers are expected to address either the issue of policy and governance or its
methodology, or the issues involved in the various aspects of human security. Specifically, the relevancy to
the issue should be expressed in the title or subtitle of the paper, or in the abstract of the paper, and all the
submitted papers must include the word “policy,”“governance,”or “human security” in either the main
title, subtitle or the abstract of the paper.

3. (Submission procedure) Contributors are requested to store the paper in a single document file (using, as
a general rule, MS Word or LaTeX) and to transmit the paper as an e-mail attachment. It should be sent to
the editors of “Policy and Governance Working Paper Series” (see below for the e-mail address). Hard-copy
printouts of the manuscript are not required unless editors specifically request them. Working papers are
going to be continuously published and there is no time limit for submission.

4. (The requirement of the author) While the COE members and Keio University Fujisawa-Campus
researchers may submit papers directly, all other collaborating researchers are requested to submit the
paper to one of the COE members who are expected to edit, correct and ensure that it meets the criteria of
the series.

5. (Refereeing) Given the aim of the series, there is no refereeing process per se. However, any submitted
paper may be excluded, if the editorial committee regards the manuscript inappropriate for the series. The
editorial committee may ask for minimum revisions before printing. Upon acceptance of the paper, the
Secretariat may request the author to provide original data (such as Photoshop EPS) to improve the clarity
of the printing.

6. (Submission fee) There is no submission fee. Forty copies of the paper will be provided to the author free
of charge (and more will be available upon request).

7. (Copyright) Copyright for all papers remain with the authors.

35
8. (Forms of publication) All the papers are made accessible in two ways: (a) in a booklet form, and (b) in
downloadable PDF file format on the internet homepage of this COE program.

9. (Style instructions) Although all the papers will be reformatted before printing, authors are requested to
make the manuscripts conform to the following format:
 1) The manuscript should be typed with double line-spacing (including all notes and references) on A4
size paper.
 2) The font size should be 10.5-11point in the case of Japanese or Chinese, and 11-12 point in the case
of English. (In the case of other languages than these three, interpret the guidelines appropriately here, and
below also.)
 3) The title page (page 1) should contain the following information: (1) the title; (2) the name(s) and
affiliation of the author(s), (3) the email addresses of the author(s) , (4) the background of the paper, such
as conference presentation, and acknowledgments (if applicable). If the paper is in any way funded by the
COE or its related programs, it must be so mentioned.
 4) The second page is for the abstract of the paper. The abstract must be in a single paragraph that
summarizes the main argument or the conclusion of the paper in about 150 words in the case of English,
and 7-12 lines of characters in the case of Japanese or Chinese. At the end of the abstract, a list of four
to six keywords should be included. If the paper is written in languages other than Japanese or English, a
corresponding Japanese or English version of the abstract should also be printed.
 5) Main text should begin on page 3. Beginning from the cover page (page 1), all pages should be
numbered consecutively.
 6) Footnotes should be numbered consecutively and should be placed at the bottom of the appropriate
page.
 7) Tables and charts may (1) be placed in the appropriate place in the text, or (2) be prepared on separate
pages and attached at the end of the text, provided that the place to be inserted is indicated in the text.
 8) Reference list must be attached at the end of the text. Only works referred to in the text should be
included in the list.
 9) Although there is no exact limit of the length of the paper, the editorial committee requests that the
paper be of approximately 15-30 pages in length.

10. (The revision of the instructions) This Instructions to Contributors will be revised from time to time,
and the current version is always shown on the COE web page.

11. (Correspondence)
-Submission of the paper: coe2-wp@sfc.keio.ac.jp
-Requesting the booklet version: coe2-sec@sfc.keio.ac.jp
-PDF file version of the paper: http://coe21-policy.sfc.keio.ac.jp/

Editorial Committee Members of the Working Paper Series:

Masaaki Komai (Managing Editor), Michio Umegaki, Mitsuaki Okabe.

36