The Accumulations of Social Capital and Human Well-Beings: a Cross Cultural Comparison between Indigenous Communities in Taiwan and Mountain Villages in Japan

The purpose of this study is to continue the pervious study carried out between 2011 and 2016 and explore the relationship between the accumulation of social capital and well-being by the cross-cultural comparison between the Atayl and the Japanese who are residing in remote mountain areas. The previous study finds that the construction of Shihmen Dam and national water resource management plan have negative impacts on a total ecosystem that consists of biotic, abiotic, and cultural component in the upstream reservoir and the well-being of the Atayal who reside in the area. Many mountain villages of Japan that have similar ecological conditions as the indigenous communities of Taiwan also face a downward well-being in the context of the nation’s development. These villages are called “limited villages.” To solve the problems of limited villages, the Japanese government has cooperated with the local communities and enterprises to form the cooperative economic bodies of mountain villages (also called satoyama capitalism). Notably, the cooperation of the government, local community and enterprise has successfully solved some problems of limited village. As such, a three-year research will be conducted to study the developmental problems and related coping strategies in Taiwan’s indigenous communities and Japan’s limited villages. Field sites will include two Atayal communities (Shihlei and Xiuluan) in Taiwan and two limited villages (Kamikatsu-cho and Umaji-mura) in Japan. The approach of formative research will be applied to help the Atayal communities adopting the concept of satoyama capitalism to create their own cooperative economic bodies and improve the well-being of community members.