Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/83084

In this paper, we first examine the role of home-life extension workers, namely, local government officers who had instructed households on improving their living standards in rural areas of Hokkaido through an analysis of their activities. We subsequently attempt to determine the losses for rural communities that resulted from the abolition of the system of home-life extension services in the early 1990s. The study period examined in this paper was divided into four sub-periods, each of which was separately analyzed. The following findings of the analysis shed light on the question of the role of home-life extension workers. First, component activities of the home-life improvement extension service contributed to raising the living standards and status of women in rural areas of Hokkaido through a focus on farmers thinking and acting independently and on collective activities that led to their growth. Second, the impacts of these activities, especially those that promoted improvements in dietary habits, can be linked to the present-day entrepreneurship of female farmers. Third, the development of life-improvement groups and their interactions ultimately fostered networking activities among female farmers that are now apparent throughout Hokkaido. Fourth, during the third sub-period of the study, characterized by the declining importance attached to home-life extension workers, there was an emphasis on responding to external policy-related issues and efforts to grasp home-life issues as a totality diminished. Our findings relating to the second question of losses incurred within rural communities revealed that, with the termination of the system of home-life extension services in the 1990s, the functions of community organizers, which had been augmented over the years when they had been active, faced erasure.