Rice terrace and Aoni community with a view of snow-capped Kita Alps
Jiigatake (爺ヶ岳), Kashima Yari (鹿島槍ヶ岳), Goryuu (五竜岳), and Karamatsu (唐松岳) from left to right are seen across the rice terrace and old folk houses of Aoni (青鬼).
Each rice paddy is bounded by Aze, which is a low embankment constructed to keep the water. The fence with green tapes is installed to block the entry of visitors in the paddy area as Aze is not robust enough to allow a large number of people to walk on. It is a common sense for those living in rice growing areas in Japan but not all the visitors share this manner.
So many damages that caused water leakage from rice paddies, mostly by photographers who seek for a best angle for shooting the landscape, have been reported in the past, as a consequence of which villagers are known to be negative to tourism.
Another reason for their negative attitude may be caused by a lack of economic incentive; there is no tourist-oriented businesses or services in the community. Hence, increase of visitors is simply a nuisance for villagers.
Villagers in Aoni are too conservative? Another possible reason could be an inflexible regulation, or an operation of the regulation, of the government-designated conservation area; it is not confirmed but the regulation for the villagescape conservation may discourage villagers, or investors from the outside, to start tourism-related businesses, if considering the fact that other communities in Hakuba quickly adapted to tourism in 20th century.
It may be an interesting theme to study further.
Rice terrace and Aoni community with a view of snow-capped Kita Alps
Jiigatake (爺ヶ岳), Kashima Yari (鹿島槍ヶ岳), Goryuu (五竜岳), and Karamatsu (唐松岳) from left to right are seen across the rice terrace and old folk houses of Aoni (青鬼).
Each rice paddy is bounded by Aze, which is a low embankment constructed to keep the water. The fence with green tapes is installed to block the entry of visitors in the paddy area as Aze is not robust enough to allow a large number of people to walk on. It is a common sense for those living in rice growing areas in Japan but not all the visitors share this manner.
So many damages that caused water leakage from rice paddies, mostly by photographers who seek for a best angle for shooting the landscape, have been reported in the past, as a consequence of which villagers are known to be negative to tourism.
Another reason for their negative attitude may be caused by a lack of economic incentive; there is no tourist-oriented businesses or services in the community. Hence, increase of visitors is simply a nuisance for villagers.
Villagers in Aoni are too conservative? Another possible reason could be an inflexible regulation, or an operation of the regulation, of the government-designated conservation area; it is not confirmed but the regulation for the villagescape conservation may discourage villagers, or investors from the outside, to start tourism-related businesses, if considering the fact that other communities in Hakuba quickly adapted to tourism in 20th century.
It may be an interesting theme to study further.