by Jasmin Burghartz

Across Japan, rural prefectures are searching for new residents. Decades of population decline, rapid ageing, and the migration of younger generations to metropolitan areas have left many communities struggling to sustain local economies and social life. Yet this demographic challenge is not only about shrinking populations. Rural regions have also experienced the disproportionate outmigration of young women, creating imbalances that affect labor markets, family formation, and the long-term vitality of local communities. In response, prefectural governments have increasingly promoted urban-to-rural migration as a solution, presenting the countryside as a place where people can build more fulfilling lives.

One way prefectures promote rural migration is through dedicated migration websites. Alongside practical information on housing, jobs, and financial support, these websites feature interviews with people who have already relocated. Their stories present rural life as an attractive alternative to the pressures of Japan’s major cities, characterized by meaningful work, close-knit communities, and a slower way of life. While they are undoubtedly promotional, they also offer valuable insights into the lifestyles and values that rural revitalization campaigns aim to promote. The interviews with women are particularly interesting because they bring together two broader developments. On the one hand, lifestyle migration is commonly understood as a voluntary move motivated by the search for a different quality of life rather than economic necessity (Klien 2020). On the other hand, expectations surrounding childcare, care work, and family responsibilities continue to shape women’s lives in Japan despite broader social and economic change (Ono 2015).

The migration stories published by Kōchi Prefecture offer an opportunity to explore how these two dynamics intersect: the pursuit of a new lifestyle and the persistence of gendered expectations. Kōchi Prefecture is a particularly suitable case in this context. Located on the island of Shikoku, it is one of Japan’s fastest-ageing and most rapidly depopulating prefectures (Statistics Bureau 2025). At the same time, Kōchi has invested heavily in attracting newcomers through relocation support and an extensive online platform featuring interviews with migrants. These interviews do more than document individual experiences, they present an image of the kind of life that rural Japan seeks to make attractive.

In the interviews, migration is rarely presented as an economic decision. Instead, the women describe leaving urban life because they wanted something fundamentally different. Long working hours, exhausting commutes, and rigid corporate structures are contrasted with greater autonomy, stronger community ties, and the opportunity to organize everyday life differently. Lower living costs are occasionally mentioned, but they remain secondary to broader aspirations for a more meaningful and self-determined life. Migration is therefore presented less as a change of location than as a conscious reorientation of lifestyle. A similar pattern can be observed in the descriptions of work. Rather than abandoning professional ambitions, the women often redefine them. Entrepreneurship, freelance work, portfolio careers, and the combination of several occupations appear as opportunities to pursue personally meaningful work while contributing to local communities. Professional success is measured less through upward career mobility than through autonomy, flexibility, and a stronger connection between work and everyday life.

Yet these narratives also reveal that changing one’s lifestyle does not necessarily mean leaving gendered expectations behind. Instead, they suggest that traditional roles are not simply rejected but renegotiated. For women with children, rural migration is frequently associated with creating a better environment for family life. One interviewee describes moving to Kōchi to raise her children closer to nature while gaining greater freedom in shaping their upbringing. At the same time, childcare and care work remain central to her everyday life, even as migration enables greater professional flexibility through self-employment. Here, migration expands personal agency without fundamentally replacing established caregiving roles. Other stories point towards different forms of transformation. One woman embraces activities such as hunting, while others pursue entrepreneurial projects or careers that challenge more conventional expectations of femininity. Nevertheless, these narratives consistently emphasize women’s contributions to community life, social relationships, and local revitalization. Rather than disappearing, gender expectations appear to be reshaped to fit the ideals of rural living: women are portrayed as independent and self-determined, yet also as active carers, community members, and contributors to local society.

Taken together, the interviews suggest that rural migration is neither portrayed as a complete break with traditional gender roles nor as their straightforward continuation. They do not depict rural migration as either a complete break with traditional gender roles or their straightforward reproduction. Instead, they present gender as something continually negotiated. Women gain greater freedom to shape their careers, everyday routines, and personal identities, while expectations surrounding family, care, and community remain remarkably resilient. Migration thus creates new possibilities without entirely escaping existing social norms. At the same time, these interviews should not be read as neutral accounts of everyday life. Published on an official migration website, they form part of Kōchi Prefecture’s strategy to attract new residents. At the same time, this makes the interviews valuable sources for understanding how rural migration is presented to potential newcomers. The interviews not only showcase successful migration experiences; they also construct an image of the “ideal” rural migrant. In doing so, they communicate a vision of rural Japan in which personal fulfilment, community engagement, and gendered expectations coexist. Looking beyond their role as success stories therefore offers valuable insight into how rural revitalization is imagined and marketed in contemporary Japan.

---

References

Klien, Susanne. 2020. Urban Migrants in Rural Japan: Between Agency and Anomie in a Post-Growth Society: SUNY Press. https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781438478074/html.

Ono, Mayumi. 2015. „Descending from Japan: Lifestyle mobility of Japanese male youth to Thailand.“ Asian Anthropology 14 (3): 249–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2015.1117220.

Statistics Bureau. 2025. „Current Population Estimates as of October 1, 2024.“ (Last accessed 31 March 2026). https://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/jinsui/2024np/index.html.

Jasmin Burghartz is a student in the MA program Global East Asia at the Freie Universität Berlin.