CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF COLLECTIVE WATER MANAGEMENT IN RURAL JAPAN

Abstract

Building resilience of rural communities is crucial to minimize damages caused by external factors including climate change. This paper attempts to analyze climate resilience in farmer-based irrigation system in rural Japan. This paper focuses on the Kako area in Hyogo Preefecturre, where farmers had been confronted water shortage for a long time. The Kako Land Improvement Dstrict (LID) is reponsible for water control. This paper is based on the interview with Kako LID officials and the documents kept by the LID office. Examining emergency measures taken against a severe drought in a water users association in western Japan, this paper reveals that former communal values on water allocation still survive even in an apparently modernized and individualized irrigation scheme. When the group encountered an acute shortage of rain, former communal approach in controlling water was re-introduced without hindrance, displaying remarkable resilience of village-based organization in times of emergency and crisis.