Funding for our project ended in October 2024. Please find below a summary of the project report submitted to the German Research Foundation (DFG) and a link to the report itself. I would like to thank everyone who was involved and supported our project.
Summary of DFG-funded research project “Urban-rural migration and rural revitalization in Japan”
To counter population decline and labor shortages in rural Japan, central and local governments have launched programs aimed at revitalizing rural areas by attracting new residents to live and work in the countryside. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the perception of rural life and led to an increase in urban-rural migration, the total number of migrants remains small and is unevenly distributed across Japan. Peripheral areas receive fewer newcomers than regions close to cities. This research project compared urban-rural migration in four municipalities in Kyūshū, Japan’s southernmost main island, to find out how urban-rural migration affects rural revitalization. Although all municipalities offer a wide range of quite similar financial incentives and other support programs aimed at encouraging migration, in none of them were numbers of in-migrants high enough to reverse the overall demographic decline. By combining ethnographic research with policy analysis, the research team found that the way central and local governments conceptualize urban-rural migration influences migrants’ self-perceptions and determines their eligibility for support. These classifications are often based on simplistic criteria, such as a migrant’s place of origin, and overlook the complexity of individual migration experiences. We challenge these traditional categories that classify migrants simply according to their place of origin or view migration as settlement by suggesting a more nuanced understanding of urban-rural migration that includes a broader concept of migration embracing more flexible and temporary mobilities. This perspective acknowledges the fluidity of contemporary migration patterns as in each of the four communities, both short-term and long-term urban-rural migrants have made significant contributions. They have started their own businesses, enhancing the appeal of their new hometowns for both locals and tourists, while also generating employment. Beyond their economic impact, these migrants are influencing local culture by introducing new and often mobile lifestyles and new notions of community. Although these changes may be small in quantitative terms, they are notable in terms of the qualitative transformation they bring to rural areas.
When I was thinking about the topic of my Master’s thesis, I had a dream that my research could have a positive impact on the world. I wanted to learn more about the reality of people’s lives and make these findings accessible to a wider audience so that they could read and become aware of them. As a woman, I have thought about motherhood before and wondered what impact it would have on my life. However, from pregnancy to child rearing, from part-time work to parental leave, and from marriage to relationships, many aspects of family life were only ever a topic I heard about without thinking about. So, the desire arose to help close this knowledge gap, not just for me, but for others pondering similar issues.
From mid-August to mid-September 2023, I traveled to the Aso region in Kumamoto. The Aso region is a rural area consisting of a few municipalities clustered around a caldera with an active volcano in the center. It is famous for its wide and flowing grasslands and is popular with cyclists and golfers, but also with researchers like me. I am not the first person from the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna to make this region the focus of my work. I was therefore fortunate to have a support network of colleagues, researchers and other contacts in and around the region that I could rely on and turn to. After twenty-one interviews with mothers in Aso, I felt that my knowledge gap had significantly filled with new insights and realizations. We talked about the many responsibilities and roles that women carry and fulfill in their daily lives, from their work (both paid and unpaid, both inside and outside the home) to their friendships and hobbies. Although I cannot provide full results at this stage, as my analysis is still ongoing, I would like to mention some interesting points that have already come to my attention:
Ms. Fujita (all names have been changed to protect interviewee anonymity), for example, talked a lot about the future and not just her present, which focused on her children, her husband, and her work as a restaurant owner. She wants to create as many memories as possible with her family before her children are grown and off to school or work and before her parents and mother-in-law need her help. The responsibility of raising her children can be hard, but planning small outings with them is also a source of joy and hope. She combines this hope with the ability to cope with future challenges and tough times.
This balance between the joy of having a family and the demanding responsibilities that limit one’s time and choices is described in one way or another by almost all the mothers I spoke to. Mrs. Chiba described it very aptly in the context of her work as a kindergarten teacher: “If I didn’t have a job, I wouldn’t be happy, and if I didn’t have a family, and just this job, I think it would probably have been hard. Yes. I feel like inside of me my work is my ikigai [one’s purpose in life or reason to live], and my family is my shiawase [happiness].” However, she also feels controlled by her work, childcare and her household duties. So much so that in her daily life she feels like she does not have the leeway to think much about more abstract concepts like hope, time, freedom and the future. At the same time, she sees herself as someone living freely, since she chose this life for herself.
Another point that was frequently raised was the fact that you have to make compromises in certain areas of your life in order to prioritize others, especially your family and particularly your children. Ms. Fujita has put her hobbies on hold for the time being until she regains more time and freedom as her children become more independent. Ms. Daichi describes that she has actively decided against club activities as a teacher, although this was her actual goal, for which she became a teacher while her children were still small. She also compromises for the sake of her husband, as he is able to teach club activities, partly because Mrs. Daichi prioritizes childcare duties.
These stories of mothers from Aso show that our lives are multi-faceted. Perhaps we are all simply balancing our joys and hardships, trying to outweigh the negatives with the positives and shifting our priorities as our environment and situation allows. Whatever the case, I believe that learning about other people’s experiences is invaluable and that it is important to share these insights. One thing I know for sure is that my research has helped at least one person, myself. And I hope it might be helpful or at least interesting to others, perhaps even to someone reading this blog post.
And if there is one piece of advice I could give to future field research beginners: It’s always okay to ask! I did my best to ask whenever, wherever and whoever. Of course, I was turned down a few times, but in the vast majority of cases I was kindly supported, informed and helped. I couldn’t be more grateful!
Johanna F. Mayr is currently studying for an MA in Japanese Studies and an MA in German as a Second and Foreign Language at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on topics related to gender, identity and well-being.
In my last blog post, I introduced Minakami, a small onsen town in Gunma Prefecture that, like so many rural towns in Japan, is struggling with various structural problems. In order to revitalize the town’s main touristic area, Minakami Onsen or Yubara, various measures and projects of urban planning were proposed in the Minakami’s 2020 master plan and other plans. Particularly interesting is a current project that relies on the collaboration between of business (san), administration (kan), academia (gaku) and finance (kin), which I will introduce in this article.
At the beginning, two measures were taken to solve the prominent problem of abandoned houses and properties in Minakami Onsen. First, a cleanup campaign was conducted at several deserted sites, bringing lightness to the townscape and new spatial prospects. And second, for smaller vacant commercial or residential buildings, an executive committee was established as an intermediary between owners and potential users. That measure provided facilities for some new businesses in or near the district. The next step was about improving public space to create a more appealing and easy-to-walk touristic area. Under the concept of “5 public places” (itsutsu no hiroba), three places in Yubara and one each at the train station and the michi no eki were selected to help connecting the onsen-gai and the Tone River areas. The keyword of “walkability” emphasizes ease of access and leisure. This project is supported by special funding by Gunma Prefecture. The actual joint development project of the four partners, however, does not focus on the entire Minakami Onsen area, but on a central site in Yubara in the area of the former Hotel Ichiyo-Tei. Here, a public square is planned, with a park linking the onsen-gai with the riverbank and an open area for markets, events and festivals (matsuri). New buildings on the base of remaining structures (sustainable use of „grey energy“) will house a hotel as well as touristic and public facilities. However, the final design of this site has not yet been decided but is depending on the search for suitable operators and tenants and on remaining questions about the urban layout. For example, a new public onsen bathhouse is in consideration, and also the scale of space for parking lots is still an issue of discussion.
The project is a collaboration of “san-kan-gaku-kin” (business, administration, academia and finance) and the project design reflects the specific roles and motives of the four partners involved. The business side (san) is represented by The Open House Group, an expanding real estate investor, active in urban development. Since the company’s roots are in Gunma Prefecture, interest in investing in Minakami is strong. The company has acquired the former hotel Ichiyo-Tei – beside several other real estate in the community, including a ski-resort and plots of land for luxury accommodations. The commitment of Open House proofs that Minakami is an attractive place for investment. And it reflects a general trend of real estate investment in Japan to flee the heated marked in Tokyo and other major cities, and to look for profitable projects in the countryside.
The municipality of Minakami represents the administration (kan). It has chosen the former Ichiyo-Tei as the project’s main site because of its central location and the relevance for strategic communal development, but also because of certain necessities. The site comprises several large buildings and has a long history under the former name “Higaki Hotel”. In 2019, the hotel ceased operations. Due to debts and irregularities on the part of the previous owner, the municipality was left to struggle with the desolate site and considerable financial burdens. In the search for redevelopment opportunities and suitable investors, the Open House Group came onto the scene. This cooperation, and the concentration of the project’s scope to this central area, were strategic moves by the municipality, which had (and still has) to manage its limited resources.
Financial support came from the Gunma Bank which represents the finance sector (kin). The bank’s support is important for the municipality which bears the main burden of demolition, renovation and rebuilding of the hotel’s facilities. The building site itself, however, was acquired by the Open House Group who will be its lessor. This pattern of separate ownership of a real estate’s site and the objects built on it is quite common in Japan. In any case, the realization of this project goes along with substantial investment backup, and with considerable risk as well.
To link this business development with a sound and sustainable local development, a proper framework of urban design and planning is inevitable. For this purpose, important expertise could be secured from the Urban Design Laboratory of the Department of Urban Engineering of Tokyo University which represents academia (gaku) in this project. Sponsored by the Open House Group, the Urban Design Laboratory is supporting the municipality’s planning department with know-how, project design, organization and other activities. The Tokyo University, on the other hand, benefits from interesting opportunities for fieldwork education of its students, and from budget enhancement through third-party funding. The Urban Design Laboratory’s main tasks are to coordinate the central project at the former Ichiyo-Tei with comprehensive local development strategies, and to design a suitable framework for citizens’ participation, including facilitating the concurrent process. While seminar groups conduct on-site research of local histories, the Urban Design Laboratory is also taking part in the formal planning process. It discusses ideas and designs in public workshops, publishes information via various media, and initiates further dialog.
The former Ichiyo-Tei has become the main location for activities of the Tokyo University student group, especially the abandoned accommodation buildings for employees of the former hotel, the „Higaki-dorm.“ The students, who frequently come from Tokyo for the project, have cleaned the desolate site and continue to provisionally renovate the buildings. They are joined by motivated citizens. While being accommodated privately, they can experience local life and develop cordial and trustful relationships. In the autumn of 2022, a market (Marché) was organized by the Tokyo University students at the Higaki-dorm. This form of event with flea-market, food-stands, project workshops and information tables are fashionable in present-day Japan, and it became quite a success in Yubara, too. It was repeated in 2023 and 2024 and expanded to additional sites. Machizukuri events like this attract a large number of visitors and serve as multipliers for information about the project, and as measures for confidence-building.
Arne Bartzsch graduated as M.A. of Information Science and Japanese Studies from Freie Universität Berlin. He is researching topics of cultural information and local development. In Japan, he has taken part in various machizukuri activities. Knowledge transfer between Germany and South Korea about re-unification and transformation was another long-term project.
