Tourism’s Impacts on Rural Livelihood in the Sustainability of an Aging Community in Japan

Bixia Chen, Zhenmian Qiu, Nisikawa Usio and Koji Nakamura
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Bixia Chen: Faculty of Agriculture, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara Town, Okinawa Prefecture 903-0213, Japan
Zhenmian Qiu: Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-mati, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
Nisikawa Usio: Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-mati, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
Koji Nakamura: Ishikawa Prefectural Natural History Museum, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1147, Japan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Rural tourism, which is often interpreted as rural development initiatives, has been extensively studied in a Japanese context; however, this has been typically observed at a community level, and the host households were assumed as homogeneous. Therefore, this article explores rural tourism’s potential as a tool for territorial development in Japan, and augments established literature by studying how rural tourism contributes to sustainable livelihoods at the household level in an aging community and a developed economy. For this purpose, a qualitative study observed a farm inn group in the town of Noto, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) site in Japan. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) rural tourism in a remote/isolated region has changed the host households’ livelihood assets; (2) the economic benefits from rural tourism are marginal to host households; and (3) the benefits other than income earnings exceed the economic benefits for aging communities. The residents’ quality of life has improved in this super-aging rural community, although the economic benefits are still marginal to most host households. Tourists have brought vitality to these remote villages, and a lack of young residents to inherit these farm inn businesses presents a bottleneck to the industry’s future development. Social capital should be strengthened by forming social networks with the local government and private sectors.

Keywords: agricultural heritage; community participation; farm inn; GIAHS; livelihood assets; territorial development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2896-:d:163887

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