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

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• 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
• Keywords: 姉妹都市 / 過疎地域 / 地域づくり / 自治体間連携

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.

Free Research Field

農村計画、地域デザイン

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。