| Research Abstract |
The outcome of the author's research for three years can be roughly integrated into the following four points.
The first point is surveying researches on modern and contemporary village settlements in Japan and confirming the achievements of those researches, while planning the symposium ‘Concerning Communities in Modern and Contemporary Japan' for the Agricultural History Society of Japan, aiming to develop future researches on village settlements and present a report for raising questions under the theme of ‘Modern and contemporary governments and towns, villages and settlements.
The second point is researches on the relationships between Farmer's Cooperative (Nokakokumiai) and village settlements. Taking up Hokkitsu Village as an example, the author introduced the job diary of the Farmer's Cooperative (Nojijikkoukumiai) during and after the economic crisis in the Showa era, together with detailed explanation to the diary. In addition, in ‘The Policy and Development of the Farmer's Coo
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perative (Nokakokumiai) in Rural Community' the Farmer's Cooperative (Nokakokumiai) is generally analyzed and the relationship between the Farmer's Cooperative (Nokakokumiai) and village settlements is clarified, based on the above research.
As the third comes the research on the relationship between the municipal governments and village settlements. Through the ideas and activities of Kamezo Nishihara, chief of old Kumohara Village, Kyoto Prefecture, the author has clarified the changes in the village due to economic crisis in the Showa era, the relationships between the village government and village settlements, and the changes in the roles of village chief and administrative villages. Moreover, as a step to elucidate the condition of town mayors and village chiefs in the decade starting from 1955, the record of interviews with Hiromu Nonaka, who once served as mayor of Sonobe-cho Town, Kyoto Prefecture, was presented with detailed explanation.
The fourth point is a series of surveys and researches on the present condition of ‘large-scale consolidation of municipalities in the Heisei era,' taking up the cases of Miyama-cho Town of Kyoto Prefecture and others as example. Through verifying the effects of the consolidation on regional agriculture, revitalization of villages and residents' autonomy, these researches clarified the relationships between revitalization of villages and old villages, which were administrative villages before ‘the large-scale consolidation of municipalities in the Showa era' or village settlements, new activities in village revitalization, changes in social structure in rural area including autonomy of residents and social participation of women, and connection of those new activities with development of leaders. Furthermore, methodological proposals are made with regard to problems in research on the history of rural society, on the basis of current situation in Miyama-cho Town. Less
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