Sustainability in contemporary rural Japan: challenges and opportunities

180 Pages·2016·3.212 MB·English

by  Assmann, Stephanie

Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Japan
Rural communities in Japan have suffered from significant depopulation and economic
downturn in post-war years. Low birth rates, aging populations, agricultural decline and youth
migration to large cities have been compounded by the triple disaster of 11 March 2011, which
destroyed farming and fishing communities and left thousands of people homeless. This book
identifies these challenges and acknowledges that an era of post-growth has arrived in Japan.
Through exploring new forms of regional employment, community empowerment, and
reverse migration, the authors address potential opportunities and benefits that may help to
create and ensure the quality of life in depopulating areas and postdisaster scenarios. This
book will be of interest not only to students of Japanese society, but also to those outside Japan
who are seeking new approaches for tackling depopulation challenges.
Stephanie Assmann is a professor in the Research Faculty of Media and Communication,
Hokkaido University, Japan.
Routledge Studies in Asia and the Environment
The role of Asia will be crucial in tackling the world’s environmental problems. The primary
aim of this series is to publish original, high quality, research-level work by scholars in both
the East and the West on all aspects of Asia and the environment. The series aims to cover all
aspects of environmental issues, including how these relate to economic development,
sustainability, technology, society, and government policies, and to include all regions of Asia.
1. Climate Change Governance in Chinese Cities
Qianqinq Mai and Maria Francesch-Huidobro
2. Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Japan
Challenges and Opportunities
Edited by Stephanie Assmann
Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Japan
Challenges and opportunities
Edited by
Stephanie Assmann
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Stephanie Assmann
The right of Stephanie Assmann to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
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identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sustainability in contemporary rural Japan: challenges and opportunities/Stephanie Assmann.
pages cm.—(Routledge studies in Asia and the environment; 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sustainable development—Japan. 2. Rural development—Japan.
3. Japan—Social policy—21st century. I. Assmann, Stephanie, 1970– editor.
HC79.E5S866455 2016
338.952’07—dc23
2015019528
ISBN: 978-1-138-82608-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73958-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I
Challenges in rural areas
1 Social sustainability in post-3.11 coastal Japan: the significance of social capital
ALYNE E. DELANEY
2 Schools in remote areas: challenges for youth, parents and community
JOHANNES WILHELM
3 The Heisei Municipal Mergers: measures of sustainability, equality and identity
ANTHONY S. RAUSCH
4 Agriculture in Japan: free trade and the need for reform
STEPHANIE ASSMANN
PART II
Case studies: employment in rural areas
5 Social enterprise businesses in rural community development in Hokkaido
ROSARIO LARATTA
6 Working for others in Kawakami: contradictive expectations, tensions, and negotiating
power relations
MENG LIANG
PART III
Sustainability across generations: life reform, lifestyle migration and U-turn
movements
7 Young urban migrants in the Japanese countryside between self-realization and slow life?
The quest for subjective well-being and post-materialism
SUSANNE KLIEN
8 Islands for life: artistic responses to remote social polarization and population decline in
Japan
ADRIAN FAVELL
9 Reforming life as mothers and wives in rural Japan: the post-WWII life reform (seikatsu
kaizen) initiative in Hamlet M, Tochigi prefecture
NORIKO YAMAGUCHI
PART IV
Brand management and tourism
10 Tourism as a future for local rail services? An analysis of debates in Akita prefecture
PETER ACKERMANN
11 Hokkaido’s overlapping protected areas and regional revitalization: the case study of Toya-
Usu geopark in Shikotsu-Toya national park
THOMAS E. JONES
Appendix: list of Japanese terms and translations
Index
Figures
1.1 Port subsidence, Toguhama District
1.2 Volunteers cleaning a house site near the proposed Harbour Square (2011)
1.3 Festival volunteers: volunteers carry the portable shrine from Suwa Shrine, Shobutahama District
2.1 Tohoku
2.2 Population and households of Yoriiso (1935–2014)
2.3 Children enrolled in Yoriiso
2.4 Population of Kamikoani Village and Yagisawa
2.5 Children enrolled in Yagisawa
2.6 Fancy dress parade at the annual sports day
7.1 New lifestyle workshop
8.1 Aerial view of Inujima Art Project Seirensho (2008)
8.2 View of Art Base Momoshima in the island’s former junior high school
8.3 Artist James Jack at work on his installation “Boat to Khayalan Island”
8.4 Mouhitori’s installation in the former hospital of Momoshima
10.1 The Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway at Kami Hinokinai
10.2 Riding the Akita Nairiku Jukan Railway
10.3 Nairikkun
11.1 Millions of annual visits to Hokkaido’s national parks (1971–2012)
11.2 Residents’ awareness of which areas are designated as national parks
11.3 Tomato producer displaying the geopark logo on its packaging
Tables
2.1 Typology of communities according to Ōno (2008)
2.2 Communication and mobility in Yagisawa (1970)
3.1 Prefectural Merger Rates (March, 2010)
11.1 Number of casualties due to twentieth century eruptions by Mt. Usu
11.2 Administrative overview of the existing national park and new geopark
11.3 UNESCO geopark qualification criteria under INoG program
11.4 Overview of the four municipalities administrating Toya-Usu geopark
Contributors
Peter Ackermann is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg,
Germany. His main areas of research include language and communication and the
formation and transmission of individual and social values in diachronic and synchronic
perspective. Retired in 2012, Peter Ackermann is now living in Berne, Switzerland.
Stephanie Assmann is specially appointed Professor in the Research Faculty of Media and
Communication, Hokkaido University, Japan. She is the author of Value Change and Social
Stratification in Japan: Aspects of Women’s Consumer Behavior (Institute for Asian Affairs
Hamburg, 2005) and the co-editor of Japanese Foodways, Past and Present (University of
Illinois Press, 2010, co-edited with Eric C. Rath). Her research interests include the study of
consumer behavior with a focus on foodways and fashion as well as gender and social
stratification.
Alyne E. Delaney is Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research
interests include social organization, commons governance, risk and resilience. Her most
recent publication on coastal Miyagi is entitled “Taking the High Ground: The Impact of
Public Policy on Rebuilding Neigh borhoods in Coastal Japan after the 2011 Great East
Japan Earthquake and Tsunami” in Michèle Companion (Ed.) Disasters’ Impact on
Livelihood and Cultural Survival: Losses, Opportunities, and Mitigation (2015).
Adrian Favell is Chair in Sociology and Social Theory at the University of Leeds. A 2006–7
Japan Foundation Abe Fellow, he is the author of Before and After Superflat: A Short History
of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990–2011 (2012), and has also published essays in Art in
America, Bijutsu Techo, Impressions, Artforum and ART-iT online. He is currently working
on a book about “post-growth” art and architecture in Japan with Julian Worrall. For futher
information, see www.adrianfavell.com.
Thomas E. Jones is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Governance Studies in
Tokyo’s Meiji University. Jones gained his PhD from Tokyo University before working as a
researcher for a regional NPO in the Japan Alps. His research revolves around
environmental governance, nature-based tourism and regional revitalization.
Susanne Klien is Associate Professor, Modern Japanese Studies Program at Hokkaido
University. Her research interests include immaterial culture in contemporary rural Japan,
subjective well-being and alternative lifestyles. Her recent publication includes
“Reinventing Ishinomaki, reinventing Japan? Evolving creative networks, alternative
lifestyles and the search for quality in life in post-growth Japan” (Japanese Studies, 2016).