In this paper, I evaluated urban-rural interaction through agricultural and forestry policies in Japan since the 1990s, then discussed courses of action.Three themes were dominant in the early 1990s: change from 'private-sector-led large scale resort development' to bureaucrat-led 'farm resort' or 'green tourism'; change from 'comprehensive forestland use' to 'public participation in forest management'; and volunteer forest management activities -both top-down and bottom-up.In the late 1990s, amid the policy shift from the Agricultural Basic Law and Forestry Basic Law to the Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas and Basic Law on Forests and Forestry, the urban-rural interaction became a pillar of local revitalisation policies, and as of 2002, it became part of the government's economic revitalisation policy, being developed into a mammoth project conducted through cooperation of eight governmental ministries.Such changes in the nature of interaction reflect the national policy of rationalising domestic agriculture and forestry, due to globalisation and trade liberalisation.Meanwhile, civic activities for food safety and bountiful forests are contributing positively in rural communities, which has found in them a means of survival.
Yumi Oura (Fri,) studied this question.