<論文>農山村におけるコミュニケーションとインターネット : <地域社会>と<仮想社会>  [in Japanese] <ARTICLE>Communication and the Internet in Japanese Rural Communities : 'Local Community' and 'Virtual Community'  [in Japanese]

There are many studies and arguments about today's changes in our society and our communication owing to the Internet and 'the Cyber Space'. They tend to think that the Internet as a new medium produce 'new' style of communication, and it should be related to business or the culture of urban life and the young. But we need to observe the other fields in today's Japanese society, for example rural communities and our everyday life. Then we can consider the changes and what the 'new' communication is. This article is a report of my fieldwork about one 'local community' starting to use the Internet recently. 'Cyber Nakatsugawa Elementary School' opened in the internet as a virtual School on the Web May 1996. Nakatsugawa is a small mountain village by the Shimanto River in Kochi Prefecture. In Nakatsugawa Village there was an elementary school, but it was closed for the time being because of the decrease of children. The depopulation of the villages in almost all Japanese mountain areas is getting worse and has become the serious problem. Many small villages are threatened with extinction by the depopulation. In this situation the school has an important role for the community. So the people and the parents in Nakatsugawa village opened 'Cyber Nakatsugawa Elementary School' as a spiritual school of the community. Some volunteers cooperate with them and I am taking part in this project. 'Cyber Nakatsugawa Elementary School' has made a relationship between the people living in Nakatsugawa village and the people coming together through 'The Cyber Space' the internet. They communicate with each other by using the network, and sometimes they meet together at Nakatsugawa. This kind of relationship has been producing new style of using network, for example the people who cannot use computer, especially aged people, can join the network thanks to the power of the local community that maintains warm hearted and face to face communication.