ABSTRACT
For this book, a number of small and medium enterprises in rural regions in Japan were selected as objects of research. Japan is typical of countries which are experiencing rapid depopulation and aging and its economy has been stagnated for a long time. Over the last couple of decades, regional disparity has become a particularly serious social issue, with many rural villages facing a crisis of collapse. Ironically, many people feel that the government policy of deregulation to encourage industrial development accelerated this regional disparity. In other words, Japan is not unusual in there being many contradictions and problems associated with its attempts to achieve social sustainability.
