Kasama City, Japan, builds a livable town that meets residents' needs for living, raising children, working, and a sense of the future
Text by Lin Kuan-hung (Assistant Researcher, Rural Development Foundation), Chen Fen-yu (Researcher and Team Leader, Rural Development Foundation)
Kasama City in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, may be an unfamiliar name to many Taiwanese, and even for Japanese citizens it is a prefecture that has long ranked at the bottom in attractiveness. But what many people do not know is that because Ibaraki is adjacent to Tokyo, its agriculture, fishing, livestock, and aquaculture industries have flourished since ancient times, and its crop cultivation area is second only to Hokkaido in all of Japan, making it one of Japan's top agricultural prefectures. Kasama City's chestnut production ranks first in Ibaraki Prefecture.
Last year, the author participated in a "Japan Regional Revitalization" study tour and visited Kasama City for observation and consultation, touring a regional medical center, a cafe converted from an abandoned sake warehouse, a chestnut orchard, and schools and studios that cultivate local ceramic art talent, and interviewed the mayor of Kasama and others to learn about the efforts the Kasama City government has made in regional revitalization policy in recent years. The author has compiled and introduced the relevant strategies of the Kasama City government in promoting regional revitalization in recent years, to provide reference for Taiwan's promotion of regional revitalization. (This is a two-part article; to read the second part, please click here)
(In order to deeply grasp rural development and regional revitalization within Taiwan's real-world context, "Upstream and Downstream" has partnered with the "Rural Development Foundation" on a "Rural Development Special Series," using a series of articles to explore Taiwan's current situation and Japan's policy trends. To read the full series, please click here)