The One Village One Product Movement is

Hello!

Do you have heard the One Village One Product Movement ?

The One Village One Product Movement is one of the regional community development policy ,and was advocated by Morihiko Hiramatsu (The Oita governor those days )in Oita prefecture in1979.It’s called OVOP and known about its activity globally now.

I’m from Oita and have seen advertisements of the OVOP in department stores and events when I lived in Oita. But I’ve never known what the One Village One Product movement is. When I found the OVOP movement by JICA on Internet before a few years, it surprised me the OVOP in Oita has contributed to community development and local industrial promotion in the developing country.

Today I will explain what the One Village One Product movement is .



The OVOP  project in developping country



(The OVOP movement is ...)



 

 This movement is activity that people live in each cities, towns and villages in Oita prefecture find the valuable local resources which it can boast of nationally, and raise that value through processing, sale, marketing, and so on. Mr. Hiramatsu is now 88 years old, he has been visiting other countries for the One Village One Product movement promotion.

(The OVOP movements in Japan)



"道の駅" Ogata town in Oita prefecture



This movement had extended some prefectures in Japan since it started in Oita ,The One Village One Product movement in Hokkaido, The HURUSATO One Village One Product movement in Hiroshima,新ひむかづくりmovement in Miyazaki,シゲおこしmovement　in Tottori,くまもと日本一づくりmovement in Kumamoto、ふくしまふるさと産業おこしmovement in Hukushima.We can sometimes see“農産物直売所”and“道の駅”in some department stores and so on. The foods and ornaments sold there may be one of the activities of the OVOP .



(The income gap between urban and rural after the world war Ⅱ)

After the world war Ⅱ, in 1948,the government had started the project for improvement of life for exhausted farmers and fishermen, and in 1969 had aimed at promotion of local industry and correction the income gap between urban areas and rural areas by Comprehensive National Development Plan(1962). But development of urban areas had progressed, so many people of rural areas had moved from rural to urban .Consequently it had taken the local economic deterioration. Depression due to the oil crisis in1973 had made the income gap between urban and rural be seriously problem. Local communities had come up with measures to deal with economic deterioration.

The condition of Oita was in the similar condition in the 1960s and 70s. The GDP of Oita prefecture was at the bottom in the whole Kyusyu and the mountainous rural regions were isolated and suffered depopulation phenomena and their indigenous industries was stagnated with little hope. Under these conditions the OVOP movement has brought a certain lustering light to the local communities to be able to tackle these difficult conditions.

My blog will show amply activity of the OVOP movement.I hope this blog is useful for you. Thanks!