Local governments are ramping up efforts to preserve terraced paddy fields, mountains, reservoirs and other traditional features of agricultural and mountain villages by designating them "important cultural scenery."
They also want to utilize the campaign for regional promotion to combat population drain.
"We would like to use the campaign to create momentum to keep this beautiful scenery," Chikuma Mayor Hirotoshi Miyasaka told some 150 farmers and other residents taking part in a symposium in January to call for the preservation of terraced fields in the Nagano Prefecture city.