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Paper short abstract:

This presentation will discuss how community-based tourism development has succeeded in creating new cultural resources from local resources by looking at the recent case of regional redevelopment by the local community in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture.

Paper long abstract:

It has been almost two decades since tourism was highlighted in a new public policy in regional Japan after the decline of post-war national economy in the 1990s. In post-war Japan, a planned economy was adopted through the National Land Development Plan. Certain regions have been intensively developed according to this policy. In return, subsidised public investment has been made in areas not covered by the labour supply in those specific regions. However, such economic policies have reached their limits. Thus, instead of large-scale public investment by the state government, regional societies were encouraged to become economically self-reliant by attracting domestic and foreign tourists. For example, the government has expanded the existing system of cultural heritage protection, creating new categories such as ‘National Modernization Heritage’ and ‘Japan Heritage’ and transforming various local cultural resources into tourism resources. This has created a mechanism to transform various local cultural resources into tourism resources. The policy involves a limited distribution of government subsidies to local communities. Various regions are campaigning to have their sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, with the aim of obtaining continuous subsidies. However, the promotion of tourism has not been successful. Decades of dependence on government public investment have alienated local communities from the means and awareness to create their own societies by their own initiative. Furthermore, rapid ageing have become more serious and an increasing number of local communities experience obstacles to local development. Looking at a recent case of regional redevelopment by local communities in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture, which has experienced the most serious pollution and fragmentation of local communities in post-war Japan, this presentation discusses how community based-tourism development has succeeded in producing new cultural resources from local resources. It also conducts a critical investigation into their voluntary practices by pointing out two key social factors of regional development in post-war Japan: dependence on the state by local governments and rapid depopulation of the community.