Creating the Age of Life Civilization

Organizer: YASUDA Yoshinori, Professor

　It is now obvious that the rice farmingfishing strategy is at the core of Japanese civilization. Over the past four years, a collaborative research project investigating the system of cyclical relationships between forests, oceans, and villages that constitutes the rice farming-fishing civilization was carried out in conjunction with industries and government. This collaborative research took place in the Sanriku coast area where the characteristic cyclical system of relationships between forests, oceans, and villages has been sustained and the phrase “the forest is the partner of the ocean” was coined. At the same time, (at personal expense) the research group visited Ise and Miyazaki, areas associated with the mythology of the rice farming-fishing civilization; and Yamagata, representing the syncretization of Shinto with Buddhism. As a result, the importance that the rice farming-fishing strategy holds for understanding the history of Japanese civilization was recognized.
　The newly proposed project intends to develop a detailed city plan for regional re-invigoration on the basis of a lifestyle which links forests, oceans, and villages, as well as the philosophy of rice farmer-fishers. This project is also regarded as the final stage of applying earlier research results to particular regional developmental programs, considering the benefits of the rice farmingfishing tradition for the future of Japanese society. A detailed plan will be developed under industry-government-academic cooperation, by inviting individuals working actively for regions as guest speakers, and through discussions among local/regional revitalization specialists working in the varied fields of economics, sociology, political and administrative sciences, forestry, agronomy, regional policy, landscape engineering, and environmental economics. Simultaneously, this project aims to establish a model for life and civilization, which could serve as a grand design for the future of Japan in the twenty first century.