Basic Study of Actual Condition and Utilization Process of Sister Cities Partnership by Depopulated Municipality

Research Project

Project/Area Number	17K14778
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Town planning/Architectural planning
Research Institution	Tokyo Metropolitan University
Principal Investigator	NODA Mitsuru 首都大学東京, 都市環境科学研究科, 助教 (70793909)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2019)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000) Fiscal Year 2018: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Keywords	姉妹都市 / 過疎地域 / 地域づくり / 自治体間連携 / 地域間連携 / 友好都市 / 過疎自治体 / ネットワーク
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This study focuses on domestic sister city, clarifies the potential of community development in depopulated municipality. In this research, based on the questionnaire survey to the person in charge of the local government, the following 3 points were mainly clarified. 1）As a specific measure, courtesy visits, mutual exchanges, information dissemination, and sales of special products were observed at a large rate. 2）Although the evaluation of the efforts is generally high, there are issues such as lack of financial resources, human resources, motivation and distance between local governments. 3）The conditions that the other local governments want in the new agreement tend to emphasize the points that they can directly contribute to the development of regional development, such as the fact that they can share the strengths and weaknesses of the area and that they have Industrial common points.
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	本研究の意義は、これまで学術的関心が殆ど払われてこなかった姉妹都市に焦点を当て、今後の人口減少社会の求める自治体間連携、広域ネットワークの姿を見出そうとする点である。また自治体間連携の手法としては最も知られるものである一方で、現状のニーズや関心は低く、取り組みも活発ではない姉妹都市の活用に向けた知見の蓄積は、今後の過疎自治体の地域づくりの実践においても少なからざる意義を有すると考える。