Message to the World from Rural Studies in Japan:
Evolving Agenda and Lessons for the Future
Japanese Association for Rural Studies

1. Introduction to the Association: The Establishment of “Sonken” and Its Path to Becoming
an Association
The Japanese Association for Rural Studies (commonly known as “Sonken”) is anassociation composed of researchers who perform analyses targeting “rural areas” frommultifaceted viewpoints that include economics, history, and sociology. The Society for Rural
Studies, which was the association’s predecessor, was launched at the end of 1952 and its first
official research meeting was held in October 1953 at Tohoku University. Therefore, the year
2012 marked the 60-year anniversary since the establishment of Sonken. ARUGA Kizaemon and
FUKUTAKE Tadashi, who had been a central researcher from back in those days, played leadingroles in the establishment of the Society for Rural Studies. In fact, it was clearly specified in thefirst volume of Research News (April 18, 1953) that the association’s Headquarters would besituated at the Department of Sociology, Tokyo University of Education, with which Aruga was
affiliated, and its News Editing Division was situated at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of
Letters, University of Tokyo, with which Fukutake was affiliated. At the symposiumcommemorating its 30-year anniversary (published in Research News Volume 129, August 1982)
the circumstances at the time of its initial launch were discussed in a variety of different ways.
These revealed a number of things, such as the fact that it was established as a research
association in which a broad range of people could take part, including researchers studying
fishing villages. This came about by virtue of the fact that “rural studies” had been used in its
name rather than a term like “agricultural village studies.” It also revealed that while sociologists
had played a central role in its launch, there were aspirations that it would deepen research from acomprehensive viewpoint that included a variety of other fields, such as economics, history, andlaw. It could be claimed that the movement for and momentum towards striving to achieve ageneral synthesis of the problems facing postwar Japan—such as agrarian reforms anddemocratization—in research fields formed the backdrop against which Sonken was launched.
In 1993, exactly 40 years after the launch of Sonken, the Society for Rural Studies got a
fresh start as the Japanese Association for Rural Studies. Following Sonken’s conversion to an
association it worked out new policies for its activities which included: (1) introducing a
Chairperson position (KAKIZAKI Kyoichi was the member who became the first Chairperson),(2) establishing the association’s own encouragement award (this was granted for the first time in1997), and (3) publishing a new academic journal (commonly referred to as the Sonken Journal;
publication began in September 1994). The association was officially inaugurated at the general
meeting in October 1993.
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Below, an overview of the future direction of its research will be given based on a generalsynopsis of trends in the research interests found at Sonken (including both the Society for Rural
Studies and its successor association, the Japanese Association for Rural Studies). In addition, it
will also offer up a message to the world by discussing the implications of and future challenges
inherent in earthquake disasters as seen from Sonken’s perspective based on its experiences with
the Great East Japan Earthquake of 3.11.
2. Trends in Sonken’s Research Topics
Rural areas in Japan have found themselves buffeted by various different changes that haveaccompanied the eras. Two catalysts in particular that spurred these drastic changes in theenvironment surrounding Japan’s rural areas were the agrarian reforms in the post-World-War-II
period and the rapid economic growth that followed these. Up until that point in Japan semifeudalistic socioeconomic relationships had taken shape amidst a social structure in which thelandowning classes owned the majority of agrarian land. Under the land reforms instituted during
the US occupation (the main thrust of which was the democratization of rural societies), most of
the tenanted lands were allocated out to tenant farmers. As a result, Japanese agricultural
structures got a fresh start as farms owned by small farm families under a system ofgeographically dispersed plots owned by multiple people. The rapid economic growth that cameafter this produced population outflows from agricultural villages to urban areas, as well as mixed
urban-rural settlement patterns in agricultural villages adjacent to urban areas and depopulation in
mountainous agricultural villages, thus drastically transforming conventional homes and villages.
Moreover, agriculture, which was the core industry in rural areas, was at the mercy of the
agricultural policies that were implemented from time to time in any number of different ways.
Policy initiatives that were promoted included collective cultivation, cooperative organizations,
cutting production of paddy field rice, and regional promotion policies, to which rural areas wereforced to mount a variety of responses.
It was the far-reaching establishment of landed farmers through these sorts of postwar
agrarian reforms and the changes to the structure of agricultural villages that formed the historical
backdrop under which Sonken was originally established as a research association. Thereafter as
well, the influence of agricultural policies and the vicissitudes of the Japanese economy continued
to have a major impact on the existing structures of rural areas in agricultural, mountain, andfishing villages. Of course, the regional and historical characteristics of each rural area also castlong shadows in this, and so Sonken was constantly paying attention to what sorts of qualities
these traditional Japanese families (ie1) and villages (mura) had and what sorts of transformations
they were undergoing. In this sense, the themes that were taken up by Sonken developed in amanner that is indivisible from the circumstances of their respective ages.
1 According to Fukutake, ie is characterized as “the continuing entity, perpetuated, in principle bypatrilineal descent, from ancestors to descendants, an entity of which the family group at any one
time is only the current concrete manifestation.” (Fukutake 1967: 39)
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Picture 1. Transplanting of Rice Seedling (1957)
Source) Shashin Monogatari, Showa no Kurashi 1 Noson (Rural Life in Showa era), Nosan
Gyoson Bunka Kyokai, 2004, Photo taken by Jun’ichiro Tamura in Iwate town, Iwate prefecture
in 1957.
Now then, what sorts of trends are there when it comes to the research interests of theJapanese Association for Rural Studies? We can get a grasp of their subject matter by tracing backthe trends in the theme sessions (shared themes) from each year’s meeting.2 Since the meeting’s
theme sessions were largely reflected in the Annual Report from the following year, we caninterpret these as being the same as the themes taken up by this report.
TAKAHASHI Akiyoshi (2007) pointed out that the changeover in Sonken’s researchsubjects could be seen as coincidentally corresponding to the changes in the publishers ofSonken’s annual reports. The publishing firms issuing the annual report have changed four times,
from the initial Jicho-sha Co., Ltd. to Hanawashobo Co., Ltd. and Ochanomizu Shobo Co., Ltd.,and finally to the current Rural Culture Association Japan. He traced back Sonken’s major themes
from each of these periods, and has indicated the following points.
In the first period (Jicho-sha [1953–1964]), he posits that a perspective that attempted tounderstand the villages and their way of life from inside the agricultural villages prevailed, with
2

In addition, the 30-year anniversary symposium (published in Research News), the 50-year

anniversary symposium (published in Sonken Journal), and so on are also useful as reference
literature for tracing back through the history of Sonken’s research.
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this including the characteristics and structures of agricultural villages following the agrarianreforms, as well as rural community and family (ie) alliance theory. Moreover, upon reaching thefinal stages of this period, the changes in agricultural villages that were brought about by the
Agricultural Basic Act and the rapid economic growth came to be the focus of research.

Picture 2. Harvesting Wheat Using Machinery (2010)
Note) Photo taken by Dr. Hideki YOSHINO in Hanamaki city, Iwate prefecture in July 2010.
In the second period (Hanawashobo [1965–1974]) there were discussions over how Sonken
should consider the changes engendered by the differentiation of the peasant classes,
urbanization, and agricultural administration under the Basic Act, with the dissolution of villages
taken up as a common subject. As dependency upon capitalist development was progressing,questions were raised about whether rural areas could actually serve as core constituents
responsible for autonomous and voluntary development. The claim could be made that
establishing such themes resulted in the following secondary effects. In other words, its
discussions over the dissolution of the very rural areas that constitute Sonken’s identity and which
are its research subjects provided it with an opportunity to explore new research directions.
During the third period (Ochanomizu Shobo Co., Ltd. [1975–1987]) and the first stages of
its publication by the Rural Culture Association Japan [1988–1990] debates were carried out that208

reconceptualized the effects produced by capitalism within agricultural villages, including
subjects like “Japanese Capitalism and the Traditional Family (Ie)” and “Changes in and the
Present State of Agricultural Village Life.” As part of this, SHIMAZAKI Minoru took up the“livelihood disruption” caused by the Annaka pollution case, which is an issue that must be
considered as a visual lens with which to take a second look at the modern day with its
experiences from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The agency of the rural villagers to oppose theimpacts of capitalism was also discussed, and “Agricultural Village Autonomy” and “Agricultural
Village Planning” were set as shared themes thereafter.
The fourth period (Rural Culture Association Japan [1990–present]) has been evaluated as aperiod in which rapid forward progress was seen in the diversification and expansion of Sonken’s
themes. More specifically, the themes here include environmental problems, international
comparisons, gender, agricultural village welfare, the post-productivism, the organic farming
movement, entrepreneurialism, education, green tourism, damage from wildlife, and municipal
consolidation. The titles of the annual reports from recent years (over the past ten years) havebeen listed for reference (see Table).

The body of research that Sonken has accumulated in this fashion has also been published in amanner whereby the texts have been edited with beginning students in mind. Namely, theseinclude Studies on Village Communities (edited by the Japanese Association for Rural Studies
with TORIGOE Hiroyuki as Presiding Editor) and Studies on Village Resources (edited by theJapanese Association for Rural Studies with IKEGAMI Koichi as Presiding Editor; both of thesewere published in 2007 by the Rural Culture Association Japan). The expansion in Sonken-related
studies as of this point in time can be understood from a look at these texts.
As Takahashi (2007) pointed out, Sonken’s history consists of it having repeatedly engaged
in methodological examinations based on which it has worked out new research directions. By
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achieving new growth and development through such methodological examinations it hascontinued to maintain its dynamism. The fact that it has increased its number of young members
could also be said to be evidence of this. Moving forward, Sonken must continue to posequestions over what sorts of research fields it can expand into while capitalizing upon its
accumulated body of research.
3. Distribution of the Interests of Sonken’s Members
As was mentioned above, Sonken is unique in that its members approach their sharedresearch subject of rural areas from an interdisciplinary perspective that includes economics,
history, and sociology. Since “Discipline,” “Target research region,” and “Target researchdomain” were listed in the membership roster published in 2012, a general look at the distributionof the research interests of Sonken’s members would reveal the following (multiple responses
were allowed for all of these).
First off, for “Discipline” 70% of its members chose sociology, followed by economics,
anthropology (or ethnographic studies), and history (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Disciplines of Sonken members (multiple responses allowed)
Data) 2012 Members' Directory
Next, from a look at “Target research region” it stands to reason that many of the researchers
take agricultural villages within Japan as their field of research. Yet it can also be surmised fromthis that among its members there is particularly high interest in studying mountainous areas
within Japan in particular (Figure 2). Mountainous areas are undergoing an ongoing process of
becoming marginal settlements as a result of the aging of their populations and depopulation(Ohno 2005), and such regions present a collection of themes for which there is a high degree ofurgency. This is thought to account for this interest in studying them. From mountainous areas adownward trend can be observed in the number of members who take up other target researchregions in the order of plains areas, suburban areas, and fishing communities and islands. What is210more, research on rural areas in other countries is also a comparatively large area of interest
among Sonken members. Its members have made particularly significant contributions in studies
on rural areas in Asia (including South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, etc.). For Asia, the Asian
Rural Sociological Association (ARSA) was established in 1996, and has already held four
meetings (its meetings are generally held once every four years). The expectation for the future isthat a network of researchers on agricultural villages in Asia will take shape. After Asia, the next
largest overseas research region is Europe. Europe has attracted research interest owing to the factthat it is rife with implications for Japan from such perspectives as the position of farmers andrural areas within an industrialized society and the advanced state of its agricultural policies.

Figure 2. Distribution of target research regions (multiple responses allowed)
Data) 2012 Members' Directory
Lastly, a broad overview will be provided of the “Target research domains” that haveattracted the interest of Sonken’s members (Figure 3). Naturally of course, there is a high level ofinterest in villages and local societies, but it was also learned that aside from these, interest insocial consciousness and behavior is also widely shared. In addition, rural family and culture are
garnering attention, as are the environment and organic farming. In the subject of family, researchon both rural areas and traditional family (ie)/villages (mura) has continued to be fundamental
themes at Sonken. Furthermore, research on rural culture is an area that serves as research on thevarious customs, performing arts, and other facets of rural areas. The interest of researchers on
rural areas in the environment has led to a rethink of the mechanisms for managing local
resources that have traditionally been erected by rural areas, and has produced a variety ofsuggestions for the field of environmental sociology. In addition, it could also be said that there isrelatively high interest in subjects like farmer’s associations, gender, and policies.

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Figure 3. Distribution of targeted research domains (multiple responses allowed)
Data) 2012 Members' Directory
4. Future Research Directions and Prospects
What sorts of prospects can be envisioned for the direction of Sonken’s research in the
future? At the meeting commemorating the 50-year anniversary of Sonken (2002), the direction
for its research that was presented by KUMAGAI Sonoko, one of its member, can be thought of
as offering useful perspectives still today (Kumagai 2004). Namely, the first perspective is,“When it comes to the units of agricultural management and the structural units and groups incommunities in rural areas, it is no longer possible to adopt the premise that people permanently
reside in fixed regions” (a perspective of migration rather than permanent residency; and one ofindividuals rather than groups). The second perspective is, “In analyses of agricultural
management, agricultural labor, and farm life, problems and domains have arisen that cannot becovered by using productivity (improving productivity) alone as a yardstick” (perspective ofshifting to sustainability rather than the principle of productivity). The third perspective that was
proposed for the direction that studies on rural areas should head hereafter in the 21st century is,“It is no longer possible to grasp the local communities of rural areas as a single, cohesive whole”(a perspective of comprehensive views rather than being locally endemic (fixed)).
In this manner, Sonken continues to take up topics that reassess its results andmethodologies thus far at its theme sessions in response to the times, as Sonken’s domain has
been redefined and it has searched for themes in this new era. It is believed that this sort ofprocess of questioning anew the research themes on rural areas and methodological self-reflection
has been meaningful in terms of Sonken’s continued existence as an association.
The year 2012 marks the 60-year anniversary since Sonken was established, making this theyear when it reached its 60th birthday, to put it in human terms. Using this as an opportunity,
plans were taken into consideration to reconsider the question of how the legacies of our212predecessors can be put to use in the future. The socioeconomic environment surrounding rural
areas is undergoing enormous changes, and Japanese society as a whole is approaching an age inwhich it will seek out new social configurations on the impetus provided by the Great East Japan
Earthquake. In the midst of all this, questions are being raised about how to pass down the
research results that Sonken has amassed to the future while also connecting these up to otherresearch domains.
As for Sonken’s characteristics of setting rural areas as its specific target domain andapproaching these in an interdisciplinary manner, this cooperation across disciplines has been
built into the fabric of the association, on top of which this framework has persisted for the longtime span of 60 years. So in this sense it could be claimed that these in themselves have been
extremely valuable scholarly endeavors. Assessments of whether or not the initial vision forcomprehensive research from the time of Sonken’s founding has been achieved will be left to the
judgment of each researcher. But the hope is that it will further expand the scope of its
cooperation with other disciplines, including sociology, agricultural economics, and history, inorder to break new ground in the future as well.
5. The Great East Japan Earthquake as a “Rural Disaster”: Post-3.11 Challenges
The massive earthquake that struck East Japan on March 11, 2011 exposed Japan to acompound disaster that was accompanied by a tsunami and a nuclear accident. Agricultural andfishing villages made up the regions that suffered particularly serious damage due to this recent
disaster. For the association, which has set its sights on Japan’s rural areas in its research, theaccumulated body of its research to date was tested and said that research will be involved insome manner or other with the activities geared towards the regions’ reconstruction and recovery
for a long time to come in the future. Having said that, the fact that conventional academic
associations that study rural areas do not have all that much experience with addressing such
earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear accidents head-on is one that must be acknowledged. The
question now is how will rural areas respond when they are confronted with crises in the form ofnatural disasters or man-made calamities, and how will such functions be exhibited, suspended,
and altered? It is hoped that a great deal of research will continue to be performed in the futurefrom the perspective of rural area studies on answering this question.
Originally, to the people who live in agricultural and fishing villages, disasters such as
earthquakes and tsunamis have existed within their memories of the past over the course of lives
that span multiple generations. The majority of the regions that experienced this recent tsunami
also experienced tsunamis during the Meiji (1896) and Showa (1933) Eras. Or if one were to trace
this back 1,000 years into the past it would become apparent that the people back then also
experienced tsunamis that were at a similar scale as these. Yet sometimes past experiences thatare engraved in history and geological stratum surpass human life cycles and the wisdom passed
down in rural areas is neglected over the course of social changes. When this happens we end up
once again encountering the hardships that our predecessors faced.
In this manner, many regions are repeatedly assailed by tsunamis time and again. But in such213

cases, why do people return to tsunami-prone villages? Ueda and Torigoe (2012) explain thisphenomena in the following manner based upon a survey in the Sanriku Region (Kesennuma
City). Namely, that people’s way of thinking forms the backdrop for their returning to sites thathave experienced tsunamis. In other words, such people live together with the sea—in whichabundance and calamity have existed together as two sides of the same coin—and therefore thisway of thinking among the people has taken shape there and persists. As people have lived amidst
nature, which can induce fear and anxiety in us while also bestowing us with abundance,
generation after generation has passed in which people go about giving rise to social order andcultivating beliefs. Yet the fact of the matter is that this social order can still be shaken.
The communities in rural areas have been comprised of close, collective ties designed tosurmount such disasters, but the challenges currently surrounding these communities (such as theaging of their populations, depopulation, and municipal mergers) have been serving to weaken allof these sorts of close, collective ties.

Picture 3. Destroyed Villages and Paddy Fields by Tsunami Disaster (2011)
Note) Photo taken by Dr. Hideki YOSHINO in Tanohata village, Iwate prefecture in May 2011.
This is a phenomenon that has been observed across Japanese society as a whole, yet the fact thatthe agricultural and fishing village regions that were struck by this recent tsunami are regions inwhich this depopulation and aging of their populations is particularly advanced cannot be214

ignored. The enormous disaster of 3.11 was a disaster that assailed agricultural and fishingvillages that are confronted with this reality, and many of the casualties (nearly 70%) were elderly
people. This fact provides a graphic accounting of the circumstances mentioned above.
The accident at the nuclear power plant that occurred immediately after the earthquake
evoked memories of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in people around the world and shocked
many. However, the damage brought about by the recent accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi
Nuclear Power Plant was a rural disaster first and foremost. Agricultural and fishing villages,
which have heretofore engaged in the cyclical (integrated) use of resources centered mainly
around lovely satoyama areas, are now being faced with complex problems such as the dispersalof radioactive materials into the environment over the long-term. Economic disparities haveexisted between urban and rural areas when it comes to choosing the locations for nuclear power
plants, and furthermore the affects from accidents directly impact the placed-based economies ofrural areas. In this sense, the challenges facing them and disasters from nuclear power plants are
deeply entwined with such areas by virtue of the fact that they are rural areas. For example, Iitate
Village in Fukushima Prefecture is a region that has been highly praised for its village
development and beautiful agricultural village scenery. However, the entire village was forced toevacuate, and the people were no longer able to maintain their agricultural village community inthe region they had been living in up until then. The people are agonizingly searching forsolutions to the question of how they should go about clearing a path for Iitate’s future.
Due to the contamination from radioactive materials, some agricultural producers had tostrip away fertile soil that they had created through many long years of farming for the sake ofdecontamination, and have had planting limitations imposed on them. In addition, somefishermen also had fishing restrictions imposed on them due to the contamination of the ocean.
These people have been up-rooted from the soil and seas, and are finding themselves hard-pressedboth economically and psychologically. The “livelihood disruption” (Shimazaki Minoru) that
occurs in agricultural regions once pollution problems have arisen in them is occurring primarily
in Fukushima.
However, in regions that were not all that badly contaminated, when spring arrived there
were people whose bodies sprang into motion automatically as they set about their farm work
(these were mainly elderly people) (Sugeno and Hasegawa, eds. 2012). They were incited to takeup their farming lifestyle and habits, and made vegetable gardens and cultivated fields. Moreover,as a result of their uncertainty over whether it was all right to let their families and grandchildren
eat their produce they took it over to radiation measuring facilities that had been set up by anNGO. The results of these measurements showed that most of the rice and vegetables were atlevels that were perfectly safe for consumption, and came in far below the levels that had been
expected. It was discovered that the underlying reason for this was because the radioactive
materials (especially cesium) were being captured by the argillaceous soil, and so for the mostpart they were not being absorbed by the crops. As this indicates, there is still a great deal that is
unknown about the movement of radioactive materials within the environment, and there are still
numerous points remaining that merit future research. The fact that local production activities and215

lifestyle configurations themselves are being impacted by the movement of radioactive materials
throughout the environment speaks to the fact that such studies must be promoted throughcollaborative research between numerous fields, including the social sciences.
Initially, before the nuclear disaster, Fukushima Prefecture had been the region that had
garnered the most popularity throughout East Japan as a sought-after destination for urban-rural
exchanges and migration to the countryside from city-dwellers.3 Its popularity is thought to havebeen derived from the fact that while it is relatively close to the Tokyo metropolitan area, it still
maintains an abundance of nature and a traditional way of life. The affects produced by the
nuclear accident represent a problem that is having a significant impact on exchanges and theflow of people between urban and rural areas. Regions that have attempted to promote hands-on
experience with agriculture and similar experiences for children, such as by having them live andstudy in mountain villages, are now confronted with a huge dilemma that was instigated by the
problem of radioactive materials.
This recent nuclear accident has prompted a reassessment of Japan’s energy policies. Rural
villages are the ones that are closest to not only nuclear power, but also to electricity supply
policies in their capacity as municipalities in which the power plants are situated. Yet despite thisthey occupy the very farthest extremity removed from the decision making process. While Japanis in the process of searching for new energy policies, initiatives to decentralize energy demandand supply are also gaining ground. Mechanisms that will reflect the views of rural villages in theformulation of future energy policies are required. Natural energy and biomass power generationin particular have numerous points of contact when it comes to agriculture and land use. The
question currently being posed is what sort of prospective outlook for the future should be
adopted in coordination with the future regional development visions of rural villages andregions.
6. Conclusion
To date, the Japanese Association for Rural Studies has amassed a body of empiricalresearch based on field studies. With respect to the various impacts wrought on Japanese societyby the Great East Japan Earthquake, the association plans to continue collecting anddisseminating knowledge from a field-based perspective on into the future. The impacts
experienced by the Japanese agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries and local communities
from the compound disaster that they recently experienced, as well as knowledge related to theirstrengths and weaknesses, are undoubtedly rife with implications for contemporary agriculturaland fishing villages and communities throughout the world that continue to experience a variety
of different external shocks (this assumes not only natural disasters, but also shocks caused bywars, political or economic turmoil, infectious diseases, and so on). Moving forward, the hope is3

In the 2010 “Ranking of Desirable Regions for Country Living” by the Hometown Return

Support Center (an NPO corporation), Fukushima Prefecture came in first place, Nagano
Prefecture came in second place, and Chiba Prefecture came in third place.
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that progress will be made internationally when it comes to sharing and exchanging such
experiences and knowledge.
Basic data on the association
Year established: (Society for Rural Studies) 1952, (Japanese Association for Rural Studies)
1993
Number of members: 435 (as of September 2012)
Publications:
Annual Report: Studies on Rural Societies (published by the Rural Culture
Association Japan once annually)
Journal of Studies on Rural Societies (published by the Rural Culture Association
Japan twice annually)
Sonken News (printed by the association’s Administration office published thrice
annually)
Meetings: Held once annually (in addition, regional research meetings are held as needed)

Contact Information
Association website: http://rural-studies.jp/English/index.html
Please refer to the above website regarding the association’s organization.
Reference Literature
Japanese Association for Rural Studies, ed. (Presiding Editor: Torigoe Hiroyuki), 2007, Mura no
shakai o kenkyu suru: Fiirudo karano hasso (Studying Village Communities), Nosan gyoson
bunka kyokai.
Japanese Association for Rural Studies, ed. (Presiding Editor: Ikegami Koichi), 2007, Mura no
shigen o kenkyu suru:Fiirudo karano hasso (Studying Village Communities: Ideas from theField), Nosan gyoson bunka kyokai.
Kumagai Sonoko, 2004, “21 seiki sonraku kenkyu no shiten” (Perspectives on 21st Century Rural
Studies), 21 seiki sonraku kenkyu no shiten, Annual Report: Studies on Rural Societies 39,
Nosan gyoson bunka kyokai .
Ohno Akira, 2005, Sanson kankyo shakaigaku josetsu: Gendai sanson no genkai shurakuka toryuiki kyodo kanri (Introduction to the Sociology of Mountain Village Environments—The
Conversion of Contemporary Mountain Villages to Marginal Settlements and Joint
Watershed Management), Nosan gyoson bunka kyokai .
Sonken Journal Editorial Committee, 2007, “Sonken 50 nen no Ayumi o furikaette [50 shunen
kinen zadankai kiroku] (joo)” (Reflecting Back on Sonken’s 50-year History [Records fromits 50-year Anniversary Symposium] Part 1), Journal of Studies on Rural Societies 14 (1),pages 37-50.
Sonken Journal Editorial Committee, 2007, “Sonken 50 nen no Ayumi o furikaette [50 shunen
217kinen zadankai kiroku] (ge)” (Reflecting Back on Sonken’s 50-year History [Records fromits 50-year Anniversary Symposium]Part 2), Journal of Studies on Rural Societies 14 (2),pages 35-57.
Sugeno Seiji and Hasegawa Hiroshi, eds., 2012, Hoshano ni katsu no no itonami: Fukushima
kara no kibo no fukko e (Agricultural Activities for Overcoming Radioactivity: Restoring
Hope after Fukushima), Commons.
Takahashi Akiyoshi, 2007, “Kaidai” (Synopsis), Journal of Studies on Rural Societies, 14 (1),pages 51-54.
In addition to those mentioned above, the Annual Report: Studies on Rural Societies, Journal ofStudies on Rural Societies (commonly known as the Sonken Journal), Research News, and the
Research News database were referenced when preparing this paper.
English Resources on Japanese Rural Studies
Fukutake Tadashi, 1967, Japanese Rural Society, Cornell University Press.
Fukutake Tadashi, 1980, Rural society in Japan, University of Tokyo Press.
Shimpo Mitsuru, 1976, Three Decades in Shiwa: Economic Development and Social Change in a
Japanese Farming Community. Victoria: University of British Columbia Press,
Tsutsumi Masae, ed., 2010, A Turning Point of Women, Families, and Agriculture in Rural Japan,
Gakubunsha Publisher. Tokyo.
Tsutsumi Masae, ed., 2000, Women and Families in rural Japan, Tsukuba Shobo Publisher.
Tokyo.
Ueda Kyoko and Torigoe Hiroyuki, 2012, “Why Do Victims of the Tsunami Return to the Coast?”
International Journal of Japanese Sociology 21: 21-29.

Written by: TACHIKAWA Masashi
Chair, International Affairs Committee

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