The Effective Use of Social Capital for the Declining-population Society

Japan has become a declining-population society. It causes closing of more than 450 schools annually. More than 30 % of closed schools in Japan are not fully utilized at present. The closed schools should be utilized as the social capital and used for not only “public use” but also “business use” for the regional revitalization. Especially, in the hilly and mountainous area, effective measures for closed schools is required to cope with the declining birthrate and aging population, increase employment, promote agriculture, and contribute to the regional market. For the promotion of the business, local governments and the non-governmental business operators should cooperate together to expedite the business use for the closed schools proactively.


Introduction
The vital statistics showed that the population of Japan in 2005 was 127,760,000 and began to decrease.National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimates the population of our country will decrease for the future (Figure 1).It means that Japan has become a "declining-population society".The National Institute also estimates that the population of our country in 2050 will be about 110,600,000 and the ratio of population under15 years old will be only 11 %.
In Japan, the closed schools have recently increased due to the decrease of population.According to the research of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) [1], about 450 public schools had closed annually from 2005 to 2009 (Table 1).Futhermore, it is also estimated that more than 450 schools will be closed annually until 2050.2).The details of its utilizations are sociophysical training facilities (30.8%), social educational facilities (24.7%), governmental offices and others (7.2%), facilities for changing culture and experience (6.2%), cultural facilities (5.1%), social welfare facilities for the aged (4.2%) and so on ( Figure 2 ).As for the utilization of the closed schools, "the public use" cases are quite easy to be converted accounts for the most cases."The business use" cases which contribute to the revitalization of local economy and regional innovation are not so many.Since the legal procedure of the closed-schools utilization was revised by MEXT in June 2008, private use of closed schools became easy.It paves the way for the business use of the closed schools.
In this paper, the results of "research of the closed schools in Hiroshima prefecture in the past five years" and "advanced case research" are described.Based on the research results, it proposes ideal way of utilization of closed schools to contribute to the regional innovation and revitalization.

Research of the closed schools in Hiroshima Prefecture for the past five years
The public schools in Hiroshima pref.which closed from 2005 to 2009 (80 schools) were searched.
Research results are shown in (Table 3).Half of the closed schools are located at "the hilly and mountainous area".64% of the closed schools are constructed by "reinforced concrete".Most of the "reinforced concrete buildings" are located in "urban area" and "islands and seaside area".More than 60% of closed schools are "wooden building" at "the hilly and mountainous area".Many of the closed schools have good access for traffic.Most of the landform of the closed schools is rectangular and easy to be utilized.More than 80% of closed schools had been built before the 1980s.Therefore, countermeasures against earthquake are required for most of the closed schools.There are quite a lot of old closed schools at "Hilly and mountainous area".About 50% of closed schools are used as "evacuation centers, etc.", which means that they are not fully utilized.In Hiroshima pref., the utilization rate of closed schools is low."The private use" which contributes to the regional revitalization is only 8 % (6 cases)."Private use" often means that local governments sold the closed schools to enterprises to secure their finances.Most of the sold sites of closed schools are used for condominium and commercial facilities.
From this research, it is found out that utilization is especially required at "the hilly and mountainous area" because half of the closed schools are located there and its utilization rate is low.

Advanced case research
As the advanced case of private utilization of closed schools, the field research for "Senko School Farm Tottori Co., Ltd" was conducted.
A private plant factory, Senko School Farm Tottori Co., Ltd rents the closed school (the former Hawai Nishio elementary school) from Yurihama-cho, Tottori prefecture by the low rental fee.Senko school farm has a purpose of promoting and stabilizing the employment of the disabled persons.They call this management model "the welfare type agriculture business".In the future, this type of welfare business is scheduled to be developed in Kumamoto & Miyazaki prefectures, too.
The amount for investment was JPY 120,000,000.It was invested for the plant factory (the plastic greenhouses, etc.) and the building reconstruction.All materials are procured from the local communities.All fund raising was covered by the subsidies from the country, prefecture, and city.These governmental subsidies are for the promotion of the employment for the disabled and to also the invitation for more companies (Table 4).This company employs nineteen local disabled persons and aged people.Finally, 35 persons are scheduled to be employed.Table 4 The Investment and Fund Raising Status of Senko School Farm Tottori Co., Ltd The major businesses are the production of leeks in plastic greenhouses at the school yard and cultivation of mushrooms in cold storages of the schoolhouse.The customers are supermarkets, department stores in the Chugoku and the Kansai region, etc. Transportation was implemented by the parent company, Senko Co., Ltd.The target sales in 2010 are JPY 32,000,000 (Sales have been launched since the last of August, 2010).The target sales in 2011 will be JPY 62,000,000 (Table 5).The rental charge for land and school houses have decreased with the support of Yurihama-cho.The annual rental charge for the land is JPY 1,600,000, which is one half of the usual rental fee.The rental fee for the school house is free of charge.Executive salaries are paid from the head office.The characteristic of this management is fewer burdens for various expenses.
The purpose of Yurihama-cho is the local revitalization by utilization of closed schools.Then, Yurihama-cho has given full support for the promotion of this business.By the implementation of this business, the purpose of the public governments and private institutions are achieved cooperatively.
From this advanced case research, the following points for the closed school utilization are found out. 1) Utilization resources are abundant in the closed schools and the closed schools can be utilized for a wide range of purposes.
2) The initial investment can be reduced.
3) In case of rental, the way of utilization is limited.4) The closed schools are the place for community and also the place for memory.Therefore, the local governments and the private institutions should attempt to get local understanding and to build consensus between them.5) The regional contribution such as the employment of the local people and the procurement from the local companies are necessary.
6) The closed schools can be utilized for "Business use ".7) It requires the evaluation of careful business planning and management strategy.8) It is also necessary that the local governments and the private institutions cooperate to achieve this project actively.
Table 5 The Business Overview of Senko School Farm Tottori Co., Ltd

The Course of Action to Utilize the Closed Schools for Regional Revitalization
Based on the research results, the course of action to utilize the closed schools for regional revitalization was described as follows.Figure 3 shows the summary of the course of action.
Figure 3 The Course of Action to Utilize the Closed Schools for Regional Revitalization Firstly, it is required to cope with social environment change (the change for social needs).Specifically, following measures are strongly required; measures for utilization needs for closed schools due to the declining birthrate and aging population, measures for the agriculture promotion needs due to the declining of Japanese agriculture [2] [3], and measures for the heightening awareness of food safety.
Secondly, it is required to promote the utilization of closed schools which are increasing due to the declining birthrate even though they are important social capital.
Thirdly, the judging criteria for the closed schools are the employment inducement (increase of employment numbers), which is very influential to the regional society even though it is small-scale.
Fourthly, especially, the area where half of closed schools are located and most of which are unutilized "hilly and mountainous area" should cope with the utilization of closed schools proactively.
Fifthly, after confirming the circumstances surrounding closed schools, as for the utilization method, "the business use" is proposed.As the examples for business utilization, there are "Retail business (sales function)","Restaurant business (eating and drinking function)", "Agribusiness (production function such as plant factory, etc.)", and "Other service business, etc. (Service providing function)".

Conclusions
This paper proposes an ideal way of the utilization of closed schools for regional revitalization.Main points of this research are as follows: 1) More than 30 % of the closed schools are not utilized.2) From the advanced case research showed that "the business use", which includes "retail business", "restaurant business", "agribusiness", "Other service business", etc., of the closed schools is possible to revitalize the hilly and mountainous area.3) It is also required that the local governments and the private businesses should cooperate together to expedite the business utilization for the closed schools proactively.In order to achieve that, local governments should lend closed schools for free or at a low price and also to review their supporting policy for closed schools.And, the private business operators should contribute to the local market such as promoting local procurement and local employment.

Figure 1
Figure 1 Dynamic Analysis of Population in Japan

Figure 2
Figure 2 Utilization Status of Closed Schools in Japan (FY 2002-2009) 1) Sociophysical training facilities: Sports center, etc. 2) Social educational facilities: Community centers, museum, and lifelong learning centers, etc. 3) Facilities for changing culture & experience: Nature experiencing facilities, Farming experiencing facilities, etc. 4) Cultural facilities:Museum, art gallery, etc. 5) Child welfare facilities: including students' club after school 6) Accommodations: Except facilities for changing culture & experience.

Table 1
Number of Public Closed Schools in Japan(FY 2000(FY  -2009)   )

Table 3 The
Overview of Research of Closed Schools in Hiroshima Pref.for the Past Five Years