ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the causes of rapid out-migration in several Japanese mountain communities in Kyoto Prefecture. It analyzes the impacts of this process on social structure and community development efforts within these communities. The chapter examines the capacity of these communities to cope with the problems of depopulation. It discusses the historical process of depopulation and its relationship to the cycle of rapid economic growth from 1956 to 1972 and the economic slowdown after the oil crisis of 1973. The chapter explores the theoretical model of the depopulation process and identify the factors that significantly affect depopulation in mountain areas. It presents two case studies - the Haiya case and the Ashu case - which provide some insight into the impacts of depopulation on community social structures and what some communities have done to cope with depopulation. The "pull factors" of Japan's economic growth and fuel revolution in the 1960s rapidly accelerated the migration of rural population.
