Abstract
The implementation of an place-based rural policy requires changes in the intra-governmental relations and between the public and private sectors and civil society. Over the past decades, Japan has been increasingly devolving and decentralizing public responsibilities and resources to sub-national government levels. There is assumption that such transfers produce more efficiency in terms of public management and create better conditions for economic development. At the same time, these transfer respond to new expectations of citizens and civil society to participate more closely in the democratic decision-making process. Coordination is also needed at the local level to integrate sectoral approaches, to involve private partners and to achieve the appropriate geographic scale. Local public and private actors join a partnership and pool knowledge and resources. This type of local partnership is characterized by the participation of different actors, including municipalities, sub-regional government institution and development agencies. The participation of private actors(private firms, cooperatives, associations, non-profit organizations, farm organizations, other categories organizations, etc,) is also important.
