Abstract
This study sought to discover new directions for management and operation national urban parks in Korea by analyzing the reality of the national government parks of Japan where these parks are already well established and managed. In the case of a Japanese national government park, its supporting system was established after the park was built. The means of management also shifted their direction from putting more priority to the administrative body to the residents. The management practices are changing process of its character with focus on residents as the main entity of activity from their existing position of participants. In other words, the national government parks of Japan are going beyond the previous practice of providing maintenance activities to providing experience, interpretation functions to these activities. Especially, they were establishing local networks to plan and execute programs in collaboration with the park management and NPOs. However, they fall short of tangible outcomes despite their continuous efforts to expand the community involvement and reduce the cost in maintenance. To facilitate the effective management of the urban parks in Korea in the near future, much thought needs to go into the management practices ensuring conservation of resources in the land of Korea, as well as people's use of recreation, community revitalization, and development and transfer of advanced technology to provide appropriate preparations to create urban parks in Korea.