Reflections on the Development of Taiwan's Coastal Settlements: Seen from the Perspective of Japan's Regional Revitalization 2.0

Reflections on the Development of Taiwan's Coastal Settlements: Seen from the Perspective of Japan's Regional Revitalization 2.0

Japan has dedicated itself to revitalizing local development to resolve economic slumps for more than 25 years, and to implementing regional revitalization aimed at activating local economies and driving local development with new momentum from the investment of public resources, as well as to further resolving issues of depopulation, an aging society, and imbalance between urban and rural areas in Japan. Taiwan also has started to implement regional revitalization policies, and we also expect to apply the capacities, resources, and experience accumulated from community development since 1994, to develop a robust foundation for Taiwan's regional revitalization. Facing the challenges in Japan of development of regional revitalization, the Nomura Research Institute (NRI) proposed Regional Revitalization 2.0 to address the national crisis triggered by long-time metropolitan-regional interdependency. The NRI proposed two regional economic revitalization concepts: a ''regional economic hub'' and an ''extensive metropolitan region'', hoping to revert the magnetic effect and achieve the goal of a population of over 100 million in 2060 as well as ongoing economic growth. In contrast, we should further understand the steps and approaches to implement Taiwan's Regional Revitalization 1.0. Therefore, the study attempted to plan the development step of coastal settlements that accord with Taiwan's features, and then, based on our research project on the interdisciplinary research of ocean culture and regional development model (IROCRD), we obtained the status of Taiwan' coastal settlements, made reference to the Japanese model, as well as applied the concept of learning by doing to induce three steps. In practice, this study further proposed three tasks to connect ''the three steps'' and emphasized the engagement of stakeholders in the three tasks to build consensus on cooperation. Consequently, we attempted to reach consensus, integrate, and fully use regional resources accumulated over the years to progressively shape the individual self-supporting and cooperation model via the process of implementing regional revitalization.