Water users association, Nishikanbara land improvement area, Niigata Prefecture, Japan

The Nishikanbara Land Improvement area is located nearly in the middle of the coastal region of Niigata Prefecture. It is an elliptic zone, 15 km from east to west, and 35 km from south to north. The Nishikanbara LID, which was established by combining five existing water users associations in 1951, is one of Japan's largest water users associations. The LID covers five villages, five towns, and two cities. At present (1999), its total farming land area is 19,103 ha and the association members total 14,199. This study finds that in a developed country like Japan, where the government can sufficiently afford to invest in physical captial, design principle seven (minimal recognition of rights to organize) needs some moderation. The non-coercive strategic presence of an external entity (the central, prefectural, and local government) has significantly contributed to irrigators' self-govenance of their common-pool resource in Japan.

This case study is part of  a study to determine whether the institutional design principles of Ostrom where, in fact, related to "governance success" by Cox et al. In that analysis, this case was classified as a success/failure.