Introduction

In recent years, with the aggravation of the problems on the environment, resource and population, the Japanese rural problems are becoming diverse. Therefore, rural planning that aims at the creation of rural areas where man and nature can coexist is necessary to grapple with various problems with which we are confronted integrating a wide variety of wisdom and technologies. The mission of our laboratory is to think about the ideal future of the Japanese rural areas while tackling difficult challenges not only the domestic case but also overseas such as human cultural and economic activities concerning agriculture and rural areas and changes of the natural environment caused by those human activities.