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How to define and construct a better relationship of coexistence between humans and nature through interactive museum activities is discussed based on the experiences of Lake Biwa Museum, Shiga, Japan. A better relationship cannot be determined objectively, and there is no justification for imposing one person’s subjective good on others. So the museum has avoided expressions that imply value judgments. Experience-learning programs and interaction using staff communicators in the exhibition rooms may have helped visitors to conceive the formation of a better relationship, but appear to have done little toward arriving at mutual agreement or understanding. Workshops may be an effective means of exploring conceptual agreement and understanding among various people. Although our exploration toward mutually intelligible concepts of a better relationship is still at a quite primitive stage, some concepts such as sustainability appear to have been accepted by most residents of Shiga Prefecture. Thus, the Restoration of Fish Breeding in Paddy Fields project is analyzed as a social innovation generated by collaborative and interactive activities in which the museum has engaged. The original idea behind this project was advanced by a researcher of the museum who learned much about local experiences from farmers around Lake Biwa. The cooperative response of the prefectural government and local communities to the museum’s suggestion appears to be based on rich social capital. Although the museum’s researchers contributed no more than the idea and some related knowledge, other actors such as farmers, prefectural agencies, and researchers in other research institutes organized and advanced the project. The museum is still engaged to the extent of studying the project’s effects or consequences, connecting researchers to the regions involved, and providing project-support participant events. We hope that further innovation along these lines will contribute to a “better relationship of coexistence between humans and lakes.”

Among many museums throughout Japan that address the subject of disaster, the attention was drawn to the Chuetsu Earthquake Memorial Corridor which is composed of four facilities and three parks. One facility in Nagaoka acts as gateway to the Corridor, another in Ojiya is responsible for disaster prevention education, the one in Kawaguchi aims to reveal the connections born between people, and the one in Yamakoshi recounts the history, culture, and reconstruction of the village. Memorial parks were established in Myoken as a “park for prayer,” in Kogomo as a “park for remembering,” and at the Epicenter as a “park for beginnings.” The author thus introduced the significance of involving the local people in the planning process and management of facilities that represent and reflect their own experiences.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an Incorporated Administrative Agency, assisted developing countries in various fields as the executive agency for Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA). JICA provides assistance through technical cooperation, loan aid, and grant aid in an integrated manner. The Agency also assists developing countries through dispatch of volunteers, emergency disaster relief, and citizen participatory cooperation. Examples of assistance to museums in Asia are given in this text. However, in comparison with other sectors such as infrastructure, health, and education, projects and training for museum development remain small scale.

The museum is not only a storage place for tangible objects of the past, or a destination for tourists, it is also a base for the accumulation and dissemination of local culture, and for creating people’s pride in or identity to the community. Only when people have pride in themselves and their own culture, can they challenge and overcome various difficulties. Examples of movements in Africa, especially those in Zambia where the author has been working for more than 30 years, clearly demonstrate that the museum, an institution for constructing cultures, can also be appreciated from the viewpoint of community development. The identity museums to be created should be open-minded and those that admit cultural diversity, otherwise it will result only in creating a nationalistic ideology. The networking of museums, both nationally and internationally, is thus essential.

At the end of this 3-year project (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Core-to-Core Program “New Horizons in Asian Museums and Museology”) to advance the mutual collaboration of museum studies and practices in Asian countries, particularly Mongol, Myanmar, Thailand and Japan, I would like to express my delight at the fruitful gains made through sincere discussions.