Suzu City Research Articles

Multiple hazards and population change in Japan’s Suzu City after the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

Multiple hazards and population change in Japan’s Suzu City after the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

ART FESTIVALS AND RURAL REVITALIZATION: ORGANIZING THE OKU-NOTO TRIENNALE IN JAPAN

Organizing rural art festivals is considered an effective intervention in support of rural revitalization in the face of aging and population decline in Japan. Several studies have identified the impacts of art festivals on economic and social rural development internationally. Little research, however, has focused on the management process of such festivals. The objective of this paper is to identify and examine the management processes crucial to an arts festival’s success, especially in terms of preparation, organization and community outreach. We focus on the first edition of the Oku-Noto Triennale, which took place in Suzu City, a remote coastal area of rural Japan in 2017. The Triennale was held from September 3, 2017 to October 22, 2017 with 39 groups of artists. Data for this study was primarily obtained through qualitative interviews with Suzu’s City Office, the coordinator of theArt Front Gallery, a Tokyo-based art gallery, and community members involved in the festival. Our case study revealed thatseveral factors were found to be crucial to the festival’s success. The organizing team’s flexibility, for example, assigning additional municipalities’ employees to site operations, was pivotal. Experienced actors, such as outside professionals and residents with prior experience organizing previous projects, who could address and overcome the difficulties they faced during the preparation, also deserve mention. The festival also succeeded due to the involvement of residents. In total, 1,176 people were involved as registered supporters, and 434 residents were involved as local volunteers during the festival (counted in working-days). The organizing team worked hard to convey the underlying concept of the art festival to the local residents. By organizing the festival, the residents met and formed bonds with new people and also strengthened their ties with one another.

Measurements of Atmospheric Sulfur Dioxide and Sulfate Particles in Suzu City, the Noto Peninsula: On the Influence of Trans-Boundary Pollution and the Smoke of Sakurajima

Measurements of Atmospheric Sulfur Dioxide and Sulfate Particles in Suzu City, the Noto Peninsula: On the Influence of Trans-Boundary Pollution and the Smoke of Sakurajima

市域全体で一日常生活圏域とする地方小都市における高齢者の生活圏域の実態と圏域設定の妥当性に関する事例考察

1. Purpose of research The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior of the elderly in the small local city in which a daily living area is to be established, and to also study the appropriateness of establishing this area. 2. Research method The research target is the entire official senior care service area (five districts) in Suzu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, which has four junior high school districts. To understand the actual conditions of the elderly's living areas, elderly subjects selected from the five districts were surveyed by interview concerning their attributes, home address, and destinations when going out. Specifically, a total of about 15 support or care-required elderly subjects who use day services and 15 healthy elderly subjects who participate in elderly club activities were selected from each district. They were interviewed about the location of their home and destinations when going out (supermarkets, local clinics, hospitals, beauty salons, banks, restaurants, day care centers and senior social clubs etc. Data were gathered from 87 elderly subjects who require care or support and 142 healthy elderly subjects, for a total of 229 subjects. 3. Results and Discussion Overall, it was observed that the elderly's living areas have a “unipolar propensity.” That is, the elderly's destinations tended to be clustered in the uchiura (inner harbor) region. Therefore the way the living areas are spread out in the uchiura (inner harbor) districts and sotoura (outer harbor) districts differs greatly. In short, in the uchiura districts, the distance to each facility is relatively short, so the living areas of the elderly are relatively small. On the other hand, the distance to each facility in the sotoura districts is relatively long, so episodes of walking to go to destinations are few, and the living areas of the elderly are quite broad. Next, we studied the appropriateness of establishing one daily living area in the entire city area. From the standpoint of population size and the living areas' “unipolar propensity,” we believe this establishment is appropriate. However, from the standpoint of average time and distance of the elderly's living areas, establishing one area in the entire city is somewhat too vast. Going forward, there is a need to study efficient placement of facilities in the entire city area based on the decline in the elderly population. Taking into account living areas' “unipolar propensity” due to Suzu City's monocentric urban structure, if facilities are established in the outskirts of the urban center, the elderly can receive services within their living areas, as they have to date. This is also efficient in terms of time and distance. However, there is the need to also consider the limits of time and distance.

Analysis of Japanese Municipalities With Geopark, MAB, and GIAHS Certification

We analyzed the discussions of Japanese municipalities in their process for obtaining certifications for the Geoparks by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) by the UNESCO, and the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage systems (GIAHS) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The official records at the municipality diet were analyzed in a quantitative manner from 2011 to 2013. As the first step, we analyzed the eight municipalities of Noto and Sado for the GIAHS, the cities Itoigawa and Hakusan for the Geopark, and Katsuyama Yamanouchi village from Nagano for the MAB. As individual examples, we analyzed City of Suzu with GIAHS, Itoigawa (Geopark), and Yamanouchi town (MAB) with the text-mining approach. For the GIAHS, it was clear that the larger municipalities with city status tended to discuss certification issues more frequently than the smaller towns and villages. Terms such as conservation and certification tended to be used with GIAHS at the Suzu City. The term brand was used with GIAHS and MAB but not for the Geopark. The findings using quantitative methods are at initial stage for analysis of municipality strategies and require further future research.

Factors associated with survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in remote time-distance region: Potential benefit of conventional bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) on bystander's own initiative

Hideo Inaba1,∗, Taiki Nishi1, Takahisa Kamikura1, Akira Yamashita2, Yoshitaka Hamada3, Yoshio Tanaka1, Masaaki Hshimoto4 1 Department of Emergency Medical Science, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan 2 Department of Internal Medicine, Noto General Hospital, Nanao, Ishikawa, Japan 3 Emergency Medical Center, Noto General Hospital, Nanao, Ishikawa, Japan 4 Department of Neurosurgery, Suzu City Hospital, Suzu, Ishikawa, Japan

Roles and Challenges of Regional Employment Policy in Aged and Depopulated Areas : A Case Study of Communities in Suzu City in Ishikawa Prefecture

Roles and Challenges of Regional Employment Policy in Aged and Depopulated Areas : A Case Study of Communities in Suzu City in Ishikawa Prefecture

奥能登珠洲における小・中学生への祭礼文化の継承の実態に関する研究

Traditional festivals in rural regions were the pride of the region and the nucleus of the community, and played a major role in the continuation of regional society. However, declining fertility rates have meant that retaining supporters and passing on the traditions have become increasingly difficult. The purpose of this study is to understand the realities of how traditional arts in local traditional festivals are passed on to elementary and middle school students, and to clarify the issues required, using Suzu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan as its subject. We interviewed the principals of nine elementary schools and four middle schools in order to understand the situation of activities concerning traditional arts such as drums and flutes at each school. Next, we conducted a questionnaire for all elementary and middle school students, collected 976 responses (97% return rate) and used cross tabulation to analyze the relationship between passing on traditional arts and personal attributes. As a result, it was made clear there were differences in the inheritance process depending on region and family/sibling structure.

過疎・高齢化地域における環境資源量の把握とその継続的な利活用に向けた一考察

The still-water side as regional environmental resource has various functions as irrigation water, habitat of living thing, and so on. Although most of still-water sides in rural area have been managed by human as irrigation reservoir, these areas have continued depopulation and aging. In this study, all still-water sides were extracted under different scale maps in Suzu City, Ishikawa Prefecture. In addition, we grasped management of still-water sides by questionnaire survey and considered the actual situation. In conclusion, sustainable management of still-water side including irrigation reservoir which have various functions, is required for official support.

過疎化地域における民間非営利活動の特性と組織の継続要因

過疎化地域における民間非営利活動の特性と組織の継続要因

Characterization of halotolerant and oligotrophic bacterial communities in Asian desert dust (KOSA) bioaerosol accumulated in layers of snow on Mount Tateyama, Central Japan

Microbial particles transported by Asian desert dust (KOSA) possibly impact ecosystems and human health in downwind environments and are commonly called “bioaerosols.” The microbial communities associated with KOSA mineral particles (KOSA bioaerosol), which were collected from the snow cover on Mt. Tateyama, were investigated by means of a culture-amendment technique combined with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis using 16S rRNA genes. After the stratigraphy of the snow layer formed on the walls of a snow pit on Mt. Tateyama, samples were collected from 2 layers, which included KOSA particles and one which did not. The snow samples with KOSA particles indicated microbial growth in the 100 and 10−1 dilution media and in the medium with NaCl below 10%, while the snow sample without KOSA particles showed no microbial growth in the culture media. The PCR–DGGE analysis revealed that the bacterial compositions in the snow samples including KOSA mineral particles were mainly composed of the members of the phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutus, and Proteobacteria. In particular, the 2 phylotypes appeared in the microbial cultures were similar to the members of the B. subtilis group, which has been detected in bioaerosol samples collected from the atmosphere over KOSA arrival (Suzu City) and source (Dunhuang City) regions. Presumably, halotolerant and oligotrophic bacterial communities are associated with the KOSA particles that descend to the snow cover on Mt. Tateyama.

奥能登珠洲における地域づくりに向けた祭礼の衰退原因の分析

Loss of Kiriko festivals can entail negative effects to the historical and cultural significance of the event, as well as to the local community. The purpose of this paper is to identify the underlying causes of decline of Kiriko-festivals in Okunoto-Suzu, Ishikawa. Okunoto-Suzu is one of the most rapidly depopulating areas in Japan seen to endanger the biological and cultural diversities. Interviews were conducted from May 13-September4 in 2009 to ten (10) community directors in Suzu city about their perceptions on the causes of the decline of Kiriko-festival. Results show twenty-three (23) factors of decline categorized into six (6) types. The four (4) causes decline are the following; changes in social infrastructure, changes working habits, loss of interest to regional festival and change in lifestyle. Differences of each interviewed communities based on the decline types were also established. It is believed that the social change and modernization occurring in Okunoto-Suzu area led to the significant decline of historical and cultural celebration of Kiriko festivals. Efforts have to be made to conserve the local history and culture specifically the Kiriko-festivals for the people of present and future generations.

Phylogenetic analysis of atmospheric halotolerant bacterial communities at high altitude in an Asian dust (KOSA) arrival region, Suzu City

The microbial communities transported by Asian desert dust (KOSA) events have attracted much attention as bioaerosols because the transported microorganisms are thought to influence the downwind ecosystems in Korea and Japan. However, the atmospheric microbial community has not been investigated at high altitude in the KOSA arrival area. In this study, to estimate the viability and diversity of atmospheric halotolerant bacteria, which are expected to resist to various environmental stresses as well as high salinities, bioaerosol samples were collected at 10 and 600 m above the ground within the KOSA arrival area, Suzu City, Japan, during KOSA events. During the sampling period, the particle numbers at 600 m were higher than those at 10 m, suggesting that large particles of aerosol fall from the high altitude of 600 m to the ground surface. The microorganisms in bioaerosol samples grew in media containing up to 15% NaCl concentrations demonstrating the viability of the halotolerant bacteria in bioaerosol samples. The PCR-DGGE analysis using 16S rDNA revealed that the bacterial species in NaCl-amended cultures were similar to the bacteria detected from the genomic DNA directly extracted from the bioaerosol samples. The 16S rDNA sequences of bacterial communities in bioaerosol samples were classified into 4 phylotypes belonging to the B acillus cereus or B acillus subtilis group. The bioaerosol samples collected at 600 m included 2 phylotypes belonging to B. subtilis, and one phylotype among all 4 phylotypes was identical between the samples at 10 and 600 m. In the atmosphere at 600 m, the halotolerant bacterial community was expected to remain viable, and the species composition was expected to include a few species of the genus Bacillus. During this investigation period, these atmospheric bacteria may have been vertically transported to the ground surface, where the long-range KOSA particle transport from China is frequently observed.

Direct Samplings, Separated Culture, and Identifications of KOSA Bioaerosols over Noto Peninsula, Suzu City

Direct Samplings, Separated Culture, and Identifications of KOSA Bioaerosols over Noto Peninsula, Suzu City

Phylogenetic Diversity and Vertical Distribution of a Halobacterial Community in the Atmosphere of an Asian Dust (KOSA) Arrival Region, Suzu City

Phylogenetic Diversity and Vertical Distribution of a Halobacterial Community in the Atmosphere of an Asian Dust (KOSA) Arrival Region, Suzu City

A GROUND RADAR SURVEY OF MEDIEVAL KILN SITES IN SUZU CITY, WESTERN JAPAN*

A ground‐penetrating radar study of medieval kiln sites located near Suzu city, on the Noto peninsula, was conducted prior to excavation. Archaeological site plans estimated from time slices of the closely‐spaced parallel radar profiles are compared with excavations and a proton magnetometer survey. The results indicate that non‐destructive remote sensing with radar can help to determine effectively the presence and general structural features of intact kiln floors.

北陸地域にみられるビーチロックについて

Beachrocks were found at two localities in the Hokuriku region, Central Japan. One beachrock locality is Oniu on the Echizen coastal area, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture. Another beachrock locality is Awazu-cho, Suzu City in the northeasthern part of the Noto Peninsula. The beachrock is composed of granule, sand-size particles and shells. It can be stated that the beachrock corresponds with the intertidal beachrock reported by TAKENAGA (1965). The 14C age of the beachrock, collected at the sea level altitude of 1.2m in the Echizen coastal ares is 3, 950±80 y.B.P. The 14C age shows that this beachrock could be formed during the Jomon-transgression. Furthermore, the locality of the beachrock in Suzu City may be regarded as the northernmost position of such rock in Japan.

Fluidized Bed Incineration of Municipal Waste

The fluidized bed incinerator delivered to Suzu City Scavenging Centel in the first equipment of this type manufactured by Ebara for treating municipal waste.Testing was started in May 1978 and it was commissioned in June 1978.The report covers:1. Outline of apparatus (specifications of equipment and flow sheet)2. Test report (test conditions and other items analyzed)3. Environmental protection (HCl. NOx)