Research on rural areas

	The institute performs research that analyzes the current state and future trends of rural villages, which contain the foundation of the diverse value of agriculture and are intimately linked to agricultural production. It conducts research on policy for the maintenance and revitalization of agricultural, mountain, and fishing villages.

With population aging and decline progressing in rural villages, it is expected that an increasing number of villages will shrink in size and their very existence will be threatened.
Urgent issues in these regions include not only agricultural production activities but also the maintenance and revitalization of the lifestyles of these village societies, including their resources and environments.
Therefore, the institute works to analyze the state of the following initiatives, assessing their outcomes and presenting challenges to be overcome: (1) Efforts to maintain the deteriorating functions of villages through village reorganization and the creation of broad cross-village regional organizations; (2) Efforts to maintain and revitalize local resources and the functions of regional communities by social welfare organizations, NPOs, and a variety of other entities both inside and outside agricultural, mountain, and fishing villages; and (3) Efforts to revitalize agricultural, mountain, and fishing villages in areas struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The institute also performs research to determine policies and systems that ought to be erected in the future to maintain and revitalize agricultural, mountain, and fishing villages.