Paper Title
Tourist Gaze in Visitation Tours: Social Interactions and Power Relations between Host and Guest in Ama-Cho, Oki Islands, Japan

Abstract
This paper explores social interaction between host and guest in visitation tours to Ama-cho, in the Oki Islands, Japan. Ama-cho is a remote island with a population of about 2,400 in Western Japan. Until the beginning of the 2000s, the island had suffered from financial crisis and population decrease with declining birthrate and a growing proportion of elderly people. However, under the leadership of Mayor Yamanouchi from 2002, the town has been conducting radical reform, through cost reduction in various sectors, investment in processed marine product factories, and educational reform to prevent children and their families from leaving the island and also to attract new students from outside the island. The success of the reform has gained media attention, and currently about 2,500 people per year, including politicians, government officials, teachers and researchers, visit the island to observe the reforms and learn from the key individuals responsible for the change. In consideration of these situations, this sociological paper studies characteristics of “tourist gaze” on the island, and the interpretation of power relations between host and guest. Keywords - Power relations, Tourist gaze, Visitation tours.