ABSTRACT
The impacts of dam projects on social and economic conditions and on the natural environment create tense relationships between organizations that implement projects and local residents, and this tension has often been expressed in rising social conflicts. Many experts have pointed out that while the construction of dams impact negatively on the economies and public life of regions submerged by the dam, and on surrounding regions. Since the end of World War II, mountainous regions have continually faced a number of problems. In their roles as residential regions, an aging population and depopulation, and as areas for economic and productive activities, the decline of agricultural, forestry and other local industries. Through the rapid growth of Japan’s economy and depopulation of the mountain villages, the impacts of dam projects were not always clearly distinguished from these other trends, but there have been instances where the start of a dam project abruptly revealed these problems.
