The population decrease caused by the decline of economic growth has resulted in a marked increase in number of vacant houses in rural areas in Japan. As the method of urban regeneration of rural area and the activation of Machizukuri communities, the...
The population decrease caused by the decline of economic growth has resulted in a marked increase in number of vacant houses in rural areas in Japan. As the method of urban regeneration of rural area and the activation of Machizukuri communities, the utilization of vacant houses has become one of the way to promote a new lifestyle, a new active movement for citizen participation, and a new business model for long term revitalization in rural area. We investigate recent policies and subsidy of local governments of Japan for utilizing vacant houses, and find out strategies to structure the system and human network to speed up the reuse programs, including information supply, mediation, and repair subsidies. We gathered the project data on the Housing Environment Improvement Projects selected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan. We categorized and analyzed the cause of being vacant, roles of initiators, and the method of utilization of vacant houses under the different local conditions in order to understand the efficient process and strategies to utilize the vacant houses. As a result, we could find reasons to generate old vacant houses and a methodology to manage and utilize the vacant houses for the useful 4 different types and the Implement process to realize the utilization.