<b>Analyzing Current Trends in Academic Perspectives and Social Concerns on Landscape Matters</b>

Abstract

The Landscape Act was enacted in 2004, the Cultural Properties Protection Law was revised to select important cultural landscapes in 2005, and the Act on Maintenance and Improvement of Traditional Scenery was enacted in 2008. The features of these legal enforcements are to require municipalities to make plans regarding landscape formation and to require local residents and businesses to cooperate in creating fine sceneries. It is important for Japanese society to enhance social concerns on landscape matters as well as advance academic research for settling the regional problems. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the relation between academic perspectives and social concerns on landscape matters by clarifying the current trends on both sides. This paper also aims to discuss the future directions of landscape research. The data sources are academic research papers and Japanese national newspapers published from 2008 to 2013, which covers the period after the laws listed above came into force through the first decade of enactment of the Landscape Act.Through this study, the following two points are noted. The first is that most newspaper articles focus on the conservation or utilization of the landscape regardless of landscape type. For example, articles on rural landscapes describe several conservation methods such as utilizing landscape measures or promoting the agricultural industry. The second is that there are three types of relationships between research papers and newspaper articles: the features of the landscape matters described in both sources, the advancement of academic research that contributes to settling the regional landscape issues, and the subsequent publication of related newspaper articles, although the issues addressed in newspapers cover a much broader area than the focus of academic papers.