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This paper focuses on a regional art festival in southern Kyoto and analyzes the process by which the city's diversity expands through 'reconciliation' that transcends conflicts among minorities.

Paper long abstract

In the southern part of Kyoto, there was Buraku, a community located at the lowest rung of Japanese social hierarchy. Since the Meiji era, Japanese imperialism brought Korean as subjects from its colonies. The labor demand generated by Kyoto's kimono dyeing industry and civil engineering projects, represented by the Shinkansen, contributed to the rapid formation of a Korean community in the area.

After the war, the Japanese government aimed to repatriate residents from former colonies to their home countries and strip them of Japanese nationality and citizenship. Furthermore, both the North and South Korean governments encouraged repatriation and urged people to acquire their respective citizenships. As a result, immigrants from Korea not only faced discriminatory treatment from the Japanese society but also had to compete with existing minority groups for market opportunities and welfare resources. Korean residents had to deal not only with conflicts with local but also with disputes within their own communities. These multiple political divisions created significant difficulties for Koreans living in Japan.

From the early days of immigration, they have worked to preserve their homeland culture in new regions, but cultural expression also became a focal point of political struggle. By the 1990s, they began organizing local festivals as symbolic movements within their communities. There were two key figures in the leadership. One was a musician from Korea, and the other was a person with a physical disability. During difficult times, they supported each other and, while addressing common challenges, expanded the character of the cultural festivals to encompass a broader sense of 'diversity.'

One of the highlights of the festival is a theatrical performance that combines Japanese and Korean percussion instruments. Historically, Japanese drums have been associated with the leather industry of marginalized and discriminated communities.

This paper mainly focuses on the significance of the festival held in the area known as 'Higashi-Kujo Madang' and analyzes other artistic expressions produced in this region—such as film, photography, dance, and essays. The author argues that urban diversity expands not only through welfare policies and human rights movements but also through the process of 'reconciliation.'

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Based on fieldwork in rural Japan this paper explores how a shrinking community navigates depopulation through the lens of disaster preparedness. In this community, depopulation and disaster risk become entangled and a discussion of one becomes saturated with the other.

Paper long abstract

Japan is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries, yet it is also a global leader in disaster preparedness. From early childhood, residents are socialized into practices of risk awareness through drills, education, and a dense visual landscape of warnings, symbols, and mascots. This paper examines how such preparedness cultures intersect with depopulation discourse in a field site in Kochi Prefecture, where anticipation of the Nankai Trough megaquakes profoundly shapes everyday life. The Nankai earthquakes, recurring roughly every one to two centuries, last struck in 1946 with catastrophic consequences, including a major tsunami, and are widely understood as inevitable though temporally unpredictable.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2025-2026, drawing on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research, this paper argues that the named and well-known megaquake has become embedded in public consciousness in ways that goes beyond general disaster awareness. In this settlement, tsunami towers, evacuation signage, and multilingual maps produce an environment in which future destruction is continuously anticipated and normalized. This is accompanied by the concept of akarui bōsai, or “bright disaster preparedness,” in which resilience planning is framed as pragmatic and even optimistic.

The paper further explores the intended and unintended consequences of disaster-oriented policies, such as GPS-based property demarcation and post-disaster rebuilding regulations that will inevitably alter spatial configurations. These measures intersect with existing depopulation and vacant housing issues, challenging assumptions about preservation, continuity, and choice. I suggest that the certainty of a specific future disaster might disrupt the illusion that depopulation can be reversed through effort alone, but can also reframe decline and destruction as opportunities for renewal. In doing so, disaster anticipation reshapes local imaginaries of place, inevitability, and the future. This paper contributes to debates on disaster risk, depopulation, and rural futures in aging societies.

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Given that the double aging of the resident population and the deterioration of buildings are expected to become more serious in the future. The purpose of this study is to understand the location and management status of "dilapidated apartment buildings."

Paper long abstract

Since the period of rapid economic growth in Japan, there has been a continuous movement of population to metropolitan areas, and since the 1970s, a large number of mid- to high-rise apartment buildings (condominiums) have been supplied as housing for the influx of people into urban areas. Many of these apartment buildings are now in need of major repairs and renovations, as they have been in existence for more than 50 years.

Over time, aging apartment buildings that have not undergone proper maintenance and repairs pose disaster prevention risks, such as not meeting earthquake resistance standards, and it has been pointed out that structural safety is declining due to aging. Furthermore, problems such as a decline in asset value due to aging and the emergence of vacant homes due to a decrease in tenants are becoming more serious. In addition to issues with the building and its residents, poor management can also lead to various problems, such as the abandonment of garbage and the deterioration of the surrounding living environment and urban environment.

Given that the double aging of the resident population and the deterioration of buildings are expected to become more serious in the future, understanding the actual state of double aging in aging condominiums is an urgent task in order to consider how to respond to future issues related to urban housing.

In this study, apartment buildings that are more than 50 years old are defined as "dilapidated apartment buildings. The purpose of this study is to understand the location and management status of "dilapidated apartment buildings."

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This paper analyzes how eco-critical art is exhibited in Japanese museums, focusing on how local museums distinguish themselves from metropolitan institutions by foregrounding regional artistic and industrial histories and addressing their social roles in their exhibition practices.

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This paper examines how artworks that interrogate the relationship between humans and nature have been embraced by museum exhibitions in Japan over the past decade. It argues that these curatorial practices reflect a growing awareness of local history and context on the part of museums. In recent years, several large museums in metropolitan areas have demonstrated increasing attention to the relationship between human society and the natural environment. Examples include “Our Ecology: Toward a Planetary Living at the Mori Art Museum” (2023–2024) and “Aichi Triennale 2025: A Time between Ashes and Roses” in Aichi Prefecture. The featured artworks can be analyzed through the frameworks of site-specific art and environmental aesthetics, which together suggest an eco-critical turn within art history. In addition, these exhibitions can be understood as responses to rising social concern with climate change and the Anthropocene—that is, the new planetary phase shaped by human activity.

This paper argues, however, that such eco-critical tendencies are not limited to major metropolitan institutions. Local museums are also actively engaging with this trend, particularly by highlighting local artists and re-evaluating regional histories, especially those shaped by industrialization. Examples include “The Coal Mines (Yama) as Depicted: Masao Kikuchi Painting Exhibition” at the Iwaki City Coal and Fossil Museum in Fukushima Prefecture (2025–2026), and “Iron and Art: Traces of Beauty Spun by the Iron City” at the Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (2026). Drawing on museum studies literature and exhibition discourse analysis, this paper examines how artists and artworks are mobilized within museum exhibitions to fulfill museums’ roles and responsibilities to local communities, and how globally framed eco-critical art intersects with social and local turns in contemporary local museum exhibitions in Japan.

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This study explores how ritual spaces in northern Okinawa villages are recognized as public places through cognitive maps and interviews with younger and older residents. Results show generational differences in spatial cognition, with older residents perceiving publicness via cultural transmission.

Paper long abstract

This study aims to clarify how ritual spaces in northern Okinawa villages are perceived as places with a public character by analyzing cognitive maps of younger and older residents. Northern Okinawa continues to practice nature worship through local rituals, preserving a unique cultural heritage within Japan. However, in recent years, the decline in ritual practitioners has led to the erosion of the public nature of these spaces, placing many at risk of disappearance. Conversely, certain spaces, such as Asagi, remain recognized as communal sites within the village. To explore this dynamic, the study targeted four younger residents and eight older residents, employing cognitive map analysis and interviews to examine how they perceive and assign meaning to ritual spaces. The findings reveal that older participants’ maps contained more ritual-related landmarks, such as Tōnuka and Shika, and depicted a broader spatial range extending southward. These differences appear to stem from childhood experiences and intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge. For older residents, the public character of ritual spaces seems to persist at a level distinct from everyday life, suggesting that these spaces maintain a symbolic communal function even as their practical role diminishes. This research contributes to understanding how cultural landscapes embody publicness and how generational shifts influence spatial cognition. It also highlights the importance of preserving ritual spaces as cultural assets, not only for their religious significance but also for their role in sustaining communal identity and social cohesion in rural Okinawa.

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Through fieldwork conducted in Ogata, a state-planned reclaimed village, this paper demonstrates how both visible and invisible local actors uphold community life. Utilizing ANT, it examines how residents interpret and implement state and digital policies to facilitate endogenous revitalization.

Paper long abstract

Ogata in Akita prefecture occupies a distinctive position in Japan’s regional development history. Created in the 1960s as part of the “kensetsu kokka” project of postwar nation-building, the village was constructed on reclaimed land and envisioned as a model agricultural community. Today, however, this planned settlement faces the structural challenges shared by many rural regions in Japan: demographic decline, aging, economic dependence on agriculture, and the uncertain promises of digitalization initiatives such as the Digital Garden City Nation policy.

Drawing on anthropological fieldwork and in-depth interviews with residents, this paper analyzes Ogata through the lens of Actor-Network theory. Rather than understanding rural revitalization as the result of centralized policy, the study examines the interaction of diverse local actors and infrastructures. The analysis distinguishes between visible actors (community leaders, organizers, and cooperative entrepreneurs), invisible actors (institutional structures, infrastructures, care practices, subsidy systems, and social expectations), and partially visible actors who shift between these roles depending on the context.

A central finding concerns the paradoxical presence of the state. Although the village is a product of strong state planning, residents rarely describe the state as an active partner. Instead, the state is experienced as a diffuse framework embedded in rules, infrastructures, and administrative routines. Residents thus function as translators who selectively reinterpret external programs, including digital initiatives, in accordance with local rhythms, relationships, and community ethics.

The paper argues that Ogata mura should not be seen either as a nostalgic “furusato” or as a declining peripheral settlement. Rather, it represents an evolving social experiment in which modernization continues to be negotiated from within. Sustainable revitalization depends less on renewed top-down projects and more on strengthening endogenous networks of cooperation, care, and everyday practice that quietly sustain community life. This case contributes to broader debates on regional restructuring, governance, and resilience in shrinking Japan.

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Anime pilgrimage–based regional revitalization is commonly considered a temporary initiative. However, through a case study of Summer Wars–themed vending machines, this study demonstrates that long-term implementation fosters expanded local participation and involvement of private companies.

Paper long abstract

Anime pilgrimage–based regional revitalization is often considered as a temporary initiative that declines once the broadcast period of an anime ends. However, in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, the 'Summer Wars Village' project based on the Japanese animation movie 'Summer Wars' has continued from 2009 to 2025. This study examines the long-term impacts of anime pilgrimage by focusing on the active involvement of local companies, using the Summer Wars–themed vending machines as a case study.

The project has been led primarily by the Ueda Film Commission and the Summer Wars Committee, which coordinate copyright management, local community involvement, and anime pilgrimage-related events. During the 10th anniversary project in 2019, local companies—particularly a vending machine company—participated proactively by proposing and implementing 'Summer Wars'-themed vending machines as part of the pilgrimage experience.

This study employs document analysis and a semi-structured interview with the Summer Wars Committee conducted in January 2025 to clarify the roles of each stakeholder and the development process of the vending machine project. The findings reveal that, five to ten years after the film’s release, the expansion of local actors—including private companies—became evident. The study concludes that the long-term continuation of anime pilgrimage initiatives encourages broader local participation, and that the autonomous involvement of local companies can be understood as an outcome of the sustained implementation of anime-based local initiatives.

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The aim of this presentation is to offer a perspective on regional society through Shochu. While discussing the current state of shochu research, I will identify two issues, argue for the necessity of an ethnographic approach, and present a new foundational framework for the study of shochu.

Paper long abstract

The theme of this presentation is the relationship between “Shochu” and “Regional Society”. Shochu is a type of Japanese Sake, widely consumed in Southern Japan. The purpose of this presentation is to suggest that that previous research on Shochu has overlooked the connection between Shochu and regional culture or regional society, and to suggest a perspective for viewing regional society through the lens of Shochu.

To support this, I will critically review the history of Shochu research from its emergence in the 1970s to the present, highlighting both its achievements and its limitations.

I will begin by explaining some fundamental information on “what is Shochu.” One of the most significant events in the history of Shochu is the 1970s "Shochu-Boom " , which sparked interest in the subject. I will then outline key achievements in humanities and social science research. Historically, humanities scholars have focused on the history of production such as the origins of ingredients, distillation technology, and the master distillers known as Shochu-Toji. Meanwhile, social science research has treated "Shochu as an industry," using quantitative analysis to examine production, distribution, and the dynamics of the Shochu-Boom and its potential for globalization.

However, I identify two significant gaps in this existing body of work. First, humanities research has largely ignored the role of Shochu in the daily lives and practices of local communities. Second, social science studies often fail to connect the industry to the regional society that underpins its economy.

Ultimately, Shochu research is incomplete without considering its deep ties to the community. I argue that ethnographic research, which directly engages with contemporary society and culture, is essential to bridging these gaps. To facilitate this, I present the "Tetrahedron of Shochu Research" as a fundamental framework for future study.

Few studies explore regional societies through the specific, historical objects rooted within them. Therefore, this perspective offers significant insights not only for Shochu studies but also for post-WWII Japanese social history.

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Paper short abstract

Tokyo represents a distinct urban model: the self-reliant superblock. By wrapping a low-rise residential zone in a high-rise perimeter, this morphology proves that density can be achieved without sacrificing walkability and the intimate social fabric of a neighbourhood.

Paper long abstract

Tokyo is a city that can be rather prone to being misread as chaotic or unplanned due to its visual character departing from the ideals of Western urbanism. This paper challenges that view of a “chaotic Tokyo” by identifying a distinct and recurring pattern in its urban structure: the self-reliant superblock. This typology has a dual organization in which a high-rise perimeter encircles a low-rise interior; an arrangement often likened to an egg with a “hard shell” and a “soft yolk”.

Based on fieldwork in Tokyo’s Nezu and Aoyama neighbourhoods, I trace the regulatory history behind this specific urban model through the Fire-Resistance Promotion Project in 1980s, road-width dependent zoning measures, and slant-plane restrictions. I argue that these regulations encouraged high-rise and fireproof construction along major roads. Originally conceived as firewalls, these buildings later evolved into a “hard shell” that insulates the interior of the superblock from the noise and hustle of the city.

This edge acts as more than a protective barrier, as it is also where offices, commercial activity, and transport infrastructure, alongside everyday necessities such as convenience stores (conbini), laundromats, and local shops, concentrate. Such an arrangement creates a self-sufficient ecosystem in which residents can live in the quiet, serene, and human-scale “yolk” of the neighbourhood while accessing the intensified commercial functions of the city just a few steps away, at the edge.

This paper suggests that Tokyo presents an important lesson for global urbanism: high-density infrastructure does not have to destroy intimate community life. By concentrating density and commerce along a linear edge, Japanese urbanism supports a socially and economically sustainable urban model grounded in walkable everyday amenities and clustered employment, all while preserving the quieter residential inner-city neighbourhoods.

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Tourists' risk perceptions in multiple risk-prone destinations in Japan strongly influence their behavior during emergencies. This paper examines the risk perceptions of both inbound and domestic tourists in Kagoshima City, with a focus on the actions and responses of local stakeholders.

Paper long abstract

In risk-prone tourist destinations, tourists’ perceptions of risk play a crucial role in shaping their behavior during emergency situations. In Japan, regions as Kagoshima City, where natural risks and hazards pose recurring threats, understanding how both inbound and domestic tourists perceive and respond to risk is essential for effective tourism management. This paper examines tourists’ risk perceptions in Kagoshima City, with a particular focus on risk-seeking behavior and individual disaster preparedness during visits. It further explores the role of local stakeholders in shaping these perceptions and guiding tourists’ actions in emergency situations.

Kagoshima City was selected as a case study due to its exposure to multiple risks, most notably the active volcano Sakurajima, which simultaneously represents a major tourist attraction. The coexistence of attraction and hazard adds complexity to tourists’ risk perceptions, as visitors are often drawn to Sakurajima despite its inherent dangers.

Fieldwork was conducted during the summer of 2024, encompassing the Hyūganada Earthquake and the subsequent Nankai Trough Megaquake advisory period. This provided a unique opportunity to observe tourist and stakeholder responses during a time of heightened seismic concern, following official warnings issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining surveys, observations, and interviews with local stakeholders, including tourism operators, emergency response personnel, and municipal authorities. This approach enabled a comprehensive analysis of tourist behavior under varying levels of perceived risk and of stakeholder risk communication practices directed at the tourism sector.

The findings reveal both similarities and differences in risk perception between inbound and domestic tourists, as well as gaps in existing risk communication strategies during critical periods. Tourists’ risk perception were found to be strongly shaped by the availability, clarity, and credibility of information provided by local stakeholders. Language barriers, both oral and written, emerged as a key factor influencing tourists’ understanding of potential hazards and appropriate responses. The paper discusses implications for tourism management and crisis communication in Japan, offering recommendations to enhance tourist risk perception and safety while maintaining the destination’s image as a safe place to visit. Initial lessons learned and post-megaquake advisory measures are also presented.

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Focusing on the “Takenoko” tribes in Harajuku around 1980, this paper clarifies how they were influenced by other subcultural tribes, unintentionally invented a defiant subculture of handmade fashion, and eventually chipped away the spatial structure of fashionable shopping street.

Paper long abstract

Previous studies on Japanese youth subcultures have centered on their inner system of values against the mainstream society and the structural background preconditioning their styles. Especially the chronicle genealogy and transition of the postwar subcultural “tribes (zoku)” have been discussed (Mabuchi 1989; Namba 2007). While not a few tribes had their own territory to gather in the urban space, their influences toward other tribes sharing the same space or on the city itself have not been sufficiently clarified. Focusing on the “bamboo shoots tribe (Takenoko-zoku)” in Harajuku around 1980, this presentation examines how they co-mingled with other subcultural tribes based in the same street and transformed the pedestrianized area of fashion district.

With its trendy boutiques and cafes, Harajuku had become famous for the weekend temporal pedestrianization in the late 1970, which the police and shop owners implemented ostensibly for the shoppers’ convenience, implicitly aiming to evict the motorcycle gangs from the street. The developers designed the area as a theater stage for the fashionables to show off their clothes and compete with each other for their “elegance.” Harajuku gained the high-class and sophisticated atmosphere and excluded the economically disadvantaged teenagers from the area.

Some skateboarders, with imported outfits and equipment, were the first to dance on the street of Harajuku to show off their techniques to the passersby and called “the board tribe.” Then other teenage groups called “rock’n’roll tribes” followed the idea of dancing, but they utilized their parents’ old clothes to achieve the trendiness for free. Emulating these tribes, the “Takenoko” tribe made their gaudy yet unique costumes from cheap materials and quotidian items.

As a result, the initial frequenters of Harajuku grieved that the shopping street had become “lame” because of the “corny” low-income teenagers. A part of the pedestrianized area in Harajuku, however, was transformed into a mecca of unstylish performances where people gathered regardless of whether they could afford a product in the boutiques. Through mutually influencing each other, the tribes unintentionally invented the defiant subculture of handmade fashion and chipped away the spatial structure of fashionable shopping street.

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After the 2024 Noto Earthquake, Wajima initiated the Traveling Morning Market to send vendors to events across Japan. Our study employs the concept of foodscape to examine how this mobile market can support post-disaster recovery, rethink cultural heritage, and establish new rural-urban relations.

Paper long abstract

The Noto Earthquake on January 1, 2024, caused devastating damage and the loss of more than 700 lives. In Wajima, the harbor area and the Morning Market (asaichi), which was the city’s major tourist attraction, were largely destroyed, and rebuilding efforts are expected to still take many years. As one recovery initiative, members of the Morning Market Association launched the “Traveling Morning Market.” Through this project, vendors travel with their stands to events or pop-up stores at locations across Japan. By doing so, the Traveling Morning Market not only raises awareness for the disaster and its aftermath but also offers a chance for local vendors and producers of local food to sell their items during the ongoing rebuilding process.

We investigated this new approach of post-disaster recovery and tourism mobility through qualitative interviews with organizers, vendors, food producers, and customers to capture its development, potential, and challenges. We employ the concept of “foodscape” to explore the social relations and cultural practices involved into the project of the Traveling Morning Market. Foodscape is defined as “a dynamic social construction that relates food to places, people, meanings, and material processes” (Johnston & Baumann, 2014, p. 3). It serves here as a lens to capture the Traveling Morning Market beyond distribution and sale of local food, but moreover its role as a nexus point, in which cultural heritage, identity, and post-disaster recovery come together to shape a new community and their representation.

Furthermore, this case study adds to the discourse on rural revitalization in Japan. With many regions suffering from a declining and aging population, markets like that of Wajima risk to disappear soon, and with them not only local chains of supply and production, but more importantly social networks and cultural heritage. Thus, we ask in how far the idea of a “Traveling Market” could be a valuable approach in supporting rural communities and to establish new links between countryside and cities, such as through “relational population” (Dilley et al., 2024) and by updating the concept of “antenna shops” (Thompson, 2004).

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Tracing the 1970s shift from traditional to industrial salt production, this paper reveals how material standardization catalyzed broader territorial transformations along Japan's Setonaikai coast, reshaping governance, labor, and the relationship between communities and their landscapes.

Paper long abstract

This paper investigates the historical transformation of Japan's coastal territories through the lens of salt production, focusing on the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai). It examines state-driven industrialization from traditional, nature-integrated methods to large-scale chemical processes implemented in the 1970s. I argue that this shift in salt's material properties acted as a catalyst for broader territorial transformations, influencing political governance, industrial planning, labor organization, and cultural practices across the region.

The research traces an ideological rupture caused by the transition from folkloric to industrial salt production, which fundamentally redefined how coastal landscapes were perceived, measured, and valued. Traditional production relied on empirical knowledge accumulated over generations, seasonal rhythms, and ritual practices embedded in community life. The new government-controlled approach prioritized productivity through automated processes that disregarded climatic conditions entirely. This mechanization standardized salt, eliminating its natural variability and transforming it into a uniform commodity. The consequences extended far beyond the material realm: traditional salt fields were systematically abandoned, social cohesion within coastal communities eroded, and the intimate connection between people and their landscapes was severed.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research, this paper reveals how salt shaped local economies, labor relations, and cultural practices along the Setonaikai coastline. It uncovers persistent tensions between tradition and modernity, examining how the disappearance of salt production dismantled not only an industry but an entire way of life. The nutritional, economic, and symbolic significance of salt in Japanese society makes it a particularly revealing lens through which to examine these broader processes of industrial modernization. Situated within architectural history of environment and global urban histories, this research contributes to understanding Japan's rapid industrialization and its environmental consequences. By positioning salt as a material agent actively shaping landscapes and culture, rather than a passive commodity, the paper challenges conventional industrialization narratives. It offers new insights into the environmental and cultural costs of twentieth-century technological progress, bridging the gap between cultural knowledge systems and industrial development while illuminating patterns relevant to global discussions on heritage, sustainability, and territorial transformation.

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This paper examines how, in the face of demographic change, cities develop approaches that create new spaces and opportunities for intergenerational exchange and sustainable forms of governance. Special attention will be drawn to the "open park" in Kyoto.

Paper long abstract

Despite its high concentration of universities and students, Kyoto City has experienced profound demographic change, as population aging, outmigration of university graduates, and the suburbanization of families have eroded the tax base and intensified pressure on municipal finances and public services. In response, the city has sought alternative approaches to urban governance that extend beyond conventional state-centered models.

One such response has been the development of new governance arrangements involving non-state actors. In 2021, Kyoto City launched a pilot program inviting private organizations to assume management responsibilities for selected public parks. While this initiative may be interpreted as reflecting broader trends of neoliberal decentralization and responsibility shifting, it has also created new opportunities for collaboration among public authorities, civil society actors, and local communities. Public parks, in this context, have become sites for experimenting with more inclusive and flexible forms of governing shared urban resources.

An initiative that emerged from this pilot program is a monthly “open park” event jointly planned and organized by multiple stakeholders in a public park in Kyoto. The event aims to establish the park as an open community space, promote interaction across generations, and ensure free and unrestricted access to the park. By encouraging participation from residents of different age groups and backgrounds, the initiative positions the park as a platform for intergenerational exchange and collective engagement.

This paper examines how the “open park” initiative facilitated experimentation with new forms of local participation and collaborative governance, with a particular focus on intergenerational interaction. It asks how, and to what extent, the initiative succeeded in creating a shared community space accommodating diverse interests, and how these practices reshaped governance at the neighborhood level. I argue that the configurations emerging from the “open park” represent a meaningful shift in participatory urban governance in Kyoto. The analysis draws on qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews from two fieldwork phases, as well as news reports, pamphlets, and policy documents.

By highlighting emerging practices of collaborative governance and intergenerational exchange, this paper contributes to scholarship on civil society, machizukuri, and urban governance in Japan.

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This paper examines how New Year shrine rituals shape the management of multi-shrine systems in contemporary Japan. From a human geographical perspective, it shows that rituals function as spatial constraints and that shrines operate as socio-spatial infrastructure under uneven demographic change.

Paper long abstract

This paper aims to clarify how New Year shrine rituals (saitan-sai) function as temporal and spatial constraints shaping the management capacity and spatial organization of multi-shrine systems (kenmu) in contemporary Japan, from a human geographical perspective.

In recent decades, population decline and aging have intensified the challenges of maintaining local religious facilities across Japan. At the same time, some areas have experienced population growth through suburban housing development. In such areas, shrine events often attract large numbers of participants, indicating that shrines function not only as religious institutions but also as public and communal spaces. Participation in shrine activities is not necessarily motivated by religious belief; rather, shrines serve as key nodes sustaining local community relationships.

This study focuses on Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture, selected because it is one of the few municipalities in the region experiencing sustained population growth. The city is characterized by the coexistence of expanding residential areas and long-established rural settlements, making it suitable for examining shrine management under uneven demographic conditions. Fieldwork was conducted in mixed residential–agricultural areas and predominantly agricultural districts.

The analysis employs a mixed-methods approach, including participant observation of New Year rituals, interviews with shrine priests, shrine parish representatives (sōdai), and local residents, as well as GIS-based spatial analysis of population change and shrine distribution. By incorporating both clerical and community perspectives, the study examines shrine management as a socio-spatial practice.

The findings demonstrate that population growth does not automatically lead to increased participation in shrine rituals grounded in religious faith. Instead, the fixed timing and spatial sequencing of New Year rituals impose significant constraints on priests’ mobility, limiting the feasible number and spatial range of shrines managed by a single priest. Furthermore, locally embedded norms concerning shrine continuity restrict the consolidation or reduction of ritual sites, even under demographic change. By foregrounding ritual practices as spatial constraints, this paper contributes to human geography by demonstrating how shrines operate as socio-spatial infrastructure under uneven regional change.

Keywords

Human geography; shrine management; New Year rituals; community space; demographic change