著者

中島 正博

出版者

広島市立大学国際学部

雑誌

広島国際研究 (ISSN:13413546)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, pp.93-104, 2014

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Remote islands in Japan have been suffering from aging society and depopulation. The aim of this paper is todescribe the efforts for community regeneration of Ogi Island in the Seto Inland Sea and to find unique characteristics of the islanders as a whole. The Setouchi International Art Festival was conducted in 2010 and 2013 in seven remote islands in the Sea. The Ogi Island residents evaluated the Art Festival higher than people from other remote islands, as Ogi people themselves enjoyed hosting so many tourists from all over Japan. In the second Art Festival three young families decided to move to Ogi Island. Young people's immigration has been the first step for the Ogi residents to stop or reduce depopulation. The immigration of the families led to reopening the Ogi primary and secondary schools, closed a few years ago due to lack of students. The second aim of this paper is to find why the Ogi island people succeeded in the first step of community regeneration. Through four years of observation and association with Ogi island people, I found that cultural openness is one key to community regeneration, although it is still in an early stage. The cultural openness was shown by the island's people and their activities before, during, and after the Art Festival.