The Japanese Hamlet

TAMA Shinnosuke

doi:10.11472/nokei.73.45

<p>Social scientists in Japan in the early years after WWII considered the social relationship in hamlets dating back to the Edo period to be the main obstacle in the development of citizenship in rural areas. On the other hand, many policy makers and academics refer to this relationship's function in agricultural production nowadays. This paper criticizes the conventional views of the hamlet and examines the originality and universality of hamlets from the viewpoint of security and safety in a Japanese climatic and geographical context. The theory that any modernizing society is in an inevitable process from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft has had a strong influence on the view that hamlets are the main obstacle to civilizing rural life in Japan. From the 1970s, however, it has become recognized that relationships in hamlets still maintain relevance for agricultural production and rural life. It has become popular for policy makers and agricultural economists to look at relationships between landowners and land users in the hamlets. Cooperation within the hamlet to maintain security and safety during emergencies is a basic function. This is more important than a hamlet's role in agricultural production because the main threat to rural life in Japan has been natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. Focus among policy makers and scholars on the functions of agricultural production in hamlets is an extension of the interest that arose during the production-oriented system established during WWII. This paper argues that the function of security and safety is not only an original feature of Japanese hamlets, but that reconsideration of this feature is also important for a Japanese society that is shifting from a production-oriented society to a lifestyle-oriented one.</p>

The Japanese Hamlet

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