Abstract
Japan is very similar with Korea in aspect of decreasing population of rural areas and increasing demand of urbanites' migrating to rural areas. Therefore, government ministries of Japan including Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have performed policies for popularizing stay in rural area and rural in-migration as a new lifestyle since the early 2000s. The purpose of this study is to find implication for rural repopulation in Korea though reviewing Japan's policy for urban-rural interchange. In Japan, demand of urban-rural interchange was segmented by the length and purpose of stay, and the policy was made by the way of meeting the needs of each segmented group. After two cases of policy implementation in Kochi and Fukushima prefecture were studied, a few implications were discussed. For rural repopulation, comprehensive vision and strategy of urban-rural interchange including from rural tourism to rural inmigration and diverse programs for satisfying various kinds of demand of urban-rural interchange need to be developed.
