Governance Structure of "Daily Life" in Rural Areas - Comparative Analysis of Germany and Japan

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K03261
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: Fukushima University
• Principal Investigator: DAIKOKU Taro 福島大学, 行政政策学類, 准教授 (20332546)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 魚住 弘久 熊本大学, 大学院人文社会科学研究部(法), 教授 (60305894) ; 東原 正明 福岡大学, 法学部, 准教授 (00433417)
• Research Collaborator: MATSUNO Terunobu 福島大学, 行政政策学類, 名誉教授 (40135893)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 過疎地域 / 持続可能性 / 再生可能エネルギー / 協働組合 / 比較政治

Outline of Final Research Achievements

From the japanese context on "underpopulated rural area", it is remarkable that many villages in Germany and Austria found a chance in the era of "renewable energy" to make their hometown sustainable. Interestingly, such villages are, in comparison with the japanese standards, relatively small and the number of their residents is low. But these municipalities provide steady " Governance structures" including administration, cooperatives as citizen organizations and partnership with other municipalities for the creation of employment and new income sources through the production of renewable Energy.
To make small villages in rural area sustainable, our research point out the importance of the 5 factors:①consensus-oriented patterns of the municipal management, ②role of cooperatives as citizens participation, ③partnership with municipalities, ④Renewable energy as a new industry, ⑤ political environment on national level suitable for such developments.

Free Research Field

比較政治学