ABSTRACT
As we leave the last decade of this century, Japanese archaeologists find themselves in a serious crisis and struggle to find a solution. Over the last twenty years or more, the number of excavations has increased rapidly in Japan; this has occurred in tandem with urbanization and industrialization. During 1996, there were approximately 30,000 proposals for development and construction that would have affected archaeological sites in Japan. These proposals resulted in more than 12,000 archaeological excavations carried out after site assessment. Ninety-five per cent of these excavations were so called ‘rescue excavations’ undertaken just prior to construction and development. The cost for all the excavation during this year was over 125 billion yen (approximately 550 million British pounds using the December 1997 exchange rates). Rescue excavations, required by governmental administrative systems, are the major focus of archaeological heritage management (AHM) in Japan. As of 1996, there were more than 6,000 archaeologists, often referred to as ‘rescue archaeologists’, working at these activities in Japan, representing approximately 90 per cent of all Japanese archaeologists, including those working for universities, research centres and museums.
