한국일본학회

The revitalization of depopulated regions is a very prominent question for Japan and Korea. This is because people and resources are relocating to urban areas such as metropolitan areas and this causes falling growth rates. Especially, the main shopping market of small- and medium-sized cities, including those in rural areas and districts, is confronted by a population outflow and reduction in sales. Neglecting this issue as it is can be expected to make it more difficult to balance the development of regions. In this regard, the marugame market, which is cited as a successful revitalization case, has important implications for Korea. This case demonstrates that initiatives taken by inhabitants to revitalize business are more decisive than a centrally driven plan. In other words, administrational capital and financial capital only present an alternative problem. However, human (human capital+relational capital) and content (regional capital+business capital) are the key to success of regional revitalization. Therefore, administrational interventions should preferably be kept to a minimum level without direct support for regional revitalization. Instead, it is necessary for the central government to provide indirect support such as to compose and manage citizen organizations. Otherwise, regional revitalization is quite likely to fail.