| Abstrakt: |
This article discusses the rural communities of Japan. The convenient rural community unit for study in Japan is the mura. This is both a natural and a civil administrative unit. The mura is a rather self-sufficient rural unit containing the mura government hall and offices, a 10 to 20-room elementary school, a dozen or more of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, a post office, small trading shops, buildings and headquarters of farmers' cooperative societies. Geographically the average mura is smaller than an American township but its population is several times as large. The farm households of a mura are usually clustered in several small hamlets or villages called aza. The very small size of farms makes the Japanese mura, or rural community, a compact social unit. While, the industrial revolution has been effecting far-reaching changes in the social organization of Japanese cities, it has so far produced no significant changes in the structure and functions of the Japanese rural community. The social organization of the Japanese rural community has changed a little in many years. |
