RELOCATION OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE SHIKOKU MOUNTAINS

Abstract

In Japan the emigration from villages to cities has been very marked through the period of the rapid economic development since 1955 to 1973. During this period many villages experienced a very marked depopulation problem. In the depopulated areas relocation of settlements (shuraku) has been put into operation as a project of the countermeasures to remove people of the depopulated and remote settlements into the areas with better public facilities. Many of this project have been put into operation as a matter of policy by the Economic Planning Agency, the Ministry of Home Affairs, etc., and also by the village (mura) authorities. In this study I intend to explain the facts and the problems of relocation of settlements by taking two villages, different in characters, as examples from the Shikoku mountains Kito-mura in Tokushima Prefecture and Hiyoshi-mura in Ehime Prefecture. The reloca-tion of settlements in Kito-mura was put into operation as a model case of reorganization of villages by the Economic Planning Agency in 1971 and 1972, while in Hiyoshi-mura, the village did it by itself in 1973 by the flotation of loan. Kito-mura is located in the eastern part of the Shikoku mountains and one of the greatest forestry regions in western Japan. The forest there are possessed by the large landowners in and around the village, and most villagers have made their living by working in the forests of the landowners, for the villagers lost their common forests during the Meiji era. Five settlements, Nakauchi, Uinouchi, Gonda, Hiso, and Azegano, all small settlements in the mountains which have been deserted by moving out of many families, were asked to evacuate their settlements and move to a newly built settlement called, Asahi-danchi near the village office. The inhabitants who scarcely possessed their land willingly agreed with the relocation of settlements, but some of them dropped off from the project of relocation beccause of the lack of helping-each-other mind or uniting mind. The jobs of the mi-grants are the same as before, and many of them are engaged in forestry works in the remote mountains and living in workmen's temporary huts. Hiyoshi-mura is located in the western part of Shikoku mountains and made a slow pro-gress in forestry works. The inhabitants have long helped each other through the medium of their large common forests. Setsuyasu-buraku was made an object of settlement reloca-tion. This settlement at the remote corner of the village had twenty-five houses in 1960 but only seven in 1973. Finally Setsuyasu-buraku ceased to exist by mass migration to danchi, a housing development, built near the village office. The inhabitants of Setsuyasu-buraku with the strong power of cooperation accepted the relocation of their settlement, but these new comers could not establish good relation with the old people and have not yet joined the existing social system there. The jobs of the migrants are the same as before, and many of them have been work in the forest near the deserted old settlement they used to live. The following are the gains and losses by the relocation of the settlements in these two villages. The relocation has given the migrants some conveniences for social life and has lessened the burden of social services to the inhabitants for village authority. On the cont-rary, the relocation has brought a negative impact on their economic activities if there is no countermove for employment, and have deserted the land use of the former settlments because of the evacuation of inhabitants even if there is some countermove for employment. I think that the existence of some remote settlements is indispensable from the viewpoint of conservation and development of the resources in the remote mountains. Isn't it necessary to reconsider the relocation of such settlements from the national point of view ?