The historic region of Ohmi-Hachiman, located in central Japan, is an example of a Continuing Landscape in an Asian setting. With a differing perspective on what may constitute authenticity, a planning exercise is now underway looking for a sustainable future for the city and surrounding countryside that is both a popular tourist attraction and a working agricultural area. Ohmi-Hachiman combines two areas ICOMOS has declared as under-represente d-an Asia heritage site and an agricultural landscape. This region is a Japanese case study that shares many planning and policy traditions with the West. It is the product of a long industrialised and developed nation, yet the site is quintessentially Asian with rice paddies and small villages sharing an ethos with the rest of this part of the world. It is an ethos that includes a philosophical and practical approach to this Japanese Continuing Landscape which dramatically diverges from conventional Western practices and challenges the accepted ideas of authenticity. It is an approach worthy of close scrutiny by those overseeing heritage landscapes in the rest of the world who may also be facing the uncomfortable clash of commerce and conservation.

Similar to other Asian nations, suburban areas in Japan are characterized by dense intermixtures of residential areas and farmlands. These hybrid rural/urban areas are evaluated negatively in modern planning frameworks. However, mixed rural/urban landscapes may prove advantageous when attempting to reconstruct sustainable wastewater treatment systems. This research examines the potential for abandoned paddy fields to reduce nitrogen (T-N) and phosphorous (T-P) loads, an increasingly problematic source of eutrophication in many closed water areas, from households in suburban areas. Our results indicate that abandoned paddy fields remaining in mixed urban/rural areas have significant potential to reduce both nitrogen and phosphorous loads. Accordingly, we suggest that abandoned paddy fields can play an important role in reducing pollution loads in mixed urban/rural areas.

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In Vienna, in 1992 the municipality created a new zoning class, "EKLW: a recreational area Kleingarten for all year living". Wiener Kleingartengesetz (the Viennese Allotment Gardens Act) was then amended so that gardeners could build a larger house in EKLW-type Kleingärten. This study investigates the amendment's influence on the spatial characteristics of Kleingärten focusing on housing renovation. The comparison of traced land use in 2011 with the data of the past study in 1999 demonstrated that EKLW-type Kleingärten actually have larger houses than EKL-type Kleingärten and that the largest variation in house areas were found in the older EKLW-type Kleingärten. The main reasons for this, inferred from interviews with the gardeners, were as follows: that some of small houses built initially for seasonal stays still remain as they have been because the gardeners have used their plots for a long time or have inherited their plots with memories of their family; and that old narrow paths demand extra costs for housing renovations. In contrast, the newer EKLW-type Kleingärten have only houses large enough to live in year round. Thus, both the older and newer EKLW-type Kleingärten are becoming residential places although their speeds are different. Indeed, this housing renovation of EKLW-type Kleingärten has negative effects considering the loss of green spaces inside urban areas. Nevertheless, it can be evaluated positively in that it prevented the release of green belt land and the urban sprawl beyond the Green Belt. Thus, the amendment of Wiener Kleingartengesetz contributed to keep Vienna's urban form compact.