" The Problem of Depopulation and Employment In Amami Islands – Japan : Lesson Learn For Indonesia "

This paper will describe about the young population declining problem, especially in rural areas in the Amami islands that have an impact on a lack of manpower in the processing of agricultural land. This condition can lead to the occurrence of phenomena depopulation. Related to these issues, The "One Village One Product" or OVOP program has been implemented in Japan including in Kagoshima prefecture. This program has a vision to revitalizing the remote villages, to solve the problem of depopulation due to migration of village youngsters to the big cities for job seeking. Inspired by the successful implementation OVOP in Japan, many Asian countries, including Indonesia, have started to adopt this program since 2009, considering that the depopulation problem also occurs in some rural areas in Indonesia. Experience and best practices that have been carried out in Japan can be used as a learning process. The data sources of this paper are based on the results of a study conducted in July 2011. This study is using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative method approached by an interview with selected informant in the Amami Islands, and quantitative secondary data such as population trend, outmigrations trend.and the employment population trend in Amami Islands.