{"id":418,"date":"2021-07-09T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/?p=418"},"modified":"2023-02-06T09:42:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T08:42:39","slug":"regional-revitalization-breakthrough-or-old-wine-in-new-bottles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/2021\/07\/09\/regional-revitalization-breakthrough-or-old-wine-in-new-bottles\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional Revitalization: Breakthrough or Old Wine in New Bottles?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Tu Thanh Ngo (Frank Tu)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policies to revitalize rural areas are nothing new in Japan. Revitalization policies date back to the 1930s when the Farm, Mountain and Fishing Village Economic Revitalization Campaign (1932\u20131941) was initiated that was followed by a series of laws and policies, such as the Promotion Services for Home Living Improvement (1940s\u2013late 1950s), the Basic Agricultural Law (1961), the Mountain Village Promotion Act (1965), the Emergency Act for the Improvement of Depopulated Areas (1970) or the Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas (1999) [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a new policy has been introduced in 2014 by then Prime Minister Abe Shinz\u014d that became the epitome of rural revitalization. According to a Chiikiryoku <\/em>Advisor for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, \u201cRegional revitalization (chih\u014d s\u014dsei<\/em>) was born under the Abe Cabinet\u201d (personal online communication, 16 June 2021). According to Hijino (2017) and Yoshizawa (2019), the Abe administration did not only introduce the term chih\u014d s\u014dsei<\/em>, but also framed rural revitalization as a flagship policy. The term chih\u014d s\u014dsei<\/em> refers to a policy titled \u201cMachi, hito, shigoto s\u014dsei<\/em>\u201d and its policy framework \u201cMachi, hito, shigoto s\u014dsei s\u014dg\u014d senryaku<\/em>\u201d [Comprehensive Strategy for Communities, People and Work] [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Comprehensive Strategy\u2019s intention is to centralize all strategies used for rural revitalization, decentralization of population in Tokyo, and anti-depopulation under one single framework [2]. The Comprehensive Strategy consists of four objectives [3]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Create a stable economic environment in rural areas<\/li>
  2. Strengthen the ties between rural and urban areas to attract new in-migrants<\/li>
  3. Provide support for marriage, childbearing, and child-rearing in rural areas<\/li>
  4. Create a safe living environment <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    AFS international students volunteering in Iwate Prefecture, 2012. This is a program to connect international students with rural Japan.<\/strong><\/em>
    Copyright \u00a9 Ngo Tu Thanh (Frank Tu) 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    In essence, the Comprehensive Strategy \u201caims at reversing the population flow into the greater Tokyo area\u201d [4]. To be specific, by the end of the first five-year phase, the government expected to reduce the number of in-migrants to the Tokyo region by 60,000 people and to increase the number of out-migrants from the Tokyo region by 40,000 people [5]. In addition, the Comprehensive Strategy is expected to \u201cmake it easy for young couples to live and work full-time with support from the local government\u201d [4] by creating 300,000 new jobs in rural areas [5]. On how to achieve the goals that the Comprehensive Strategy sets out to do, the MIC advisor quoted earlier wrote: \u201cFrom my point of view, regional revitalization needs to consider transportation, living standards – including education, income, etc.\u201d (personal online communication, 16 June 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Improving transportation infrastructure is a way to revitalize rural Japan (Towada, Amori, Japan)<\/em><\/strong>
    Copyright \u00a9 Ngo Tu Thanh (Frank Tu) 2012<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    However, as mentioned above, policies to revitalize rural Japan existed long before Abe\u2019s Comprehensive Strategy. Thus, although all existing policies have now been centralized to constitute one<\/em> regional revitalization policy framework, is this new policy a breakthrough or just merely old wine in new bottles? This is what we want to find out through our project that studies the implementation and the impact of the Comprehensive Strategy in four municipalities in Kyushu. In addition, we will also pay attention to how the implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy differs across different levels of government (national, prefectural and municipal). \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    [1]
    Feldhoff, T. (2013) \u2018Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownership of assets as a development potential for rural Japan?\u2019, Urban Design International<\/em>, 18(1), pp. 99\u2013109.

    Nakama, Y. and Uchida, K. (2010), \u2018Seikatsu Kaizen Fuky\u016b Jigy\u014d no Rinen to Jittai: Yamaguchi ken wo jirei ni\u2019, N\u014dringy\u014d Mondai Kenky\u016b<\/em>, 178, pp. 1\u201313.

    Smith, K. (2003), \u2018Building the model village: Rural revitalization and the Great Depression\u2019, in Farmers and village life in twentieth-century Japan<\/em>. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, pp. 126\u2013155.

    [2]
    Hijino, K. V. L. (2017), Local Politics and National Policy: Multi-level conflicts in Japan and Beyond<\/em>. London and New York: Routledge.

    Yoshizawa, Y. (2019), \u2018Ch\u016b\u014d Seifu ni okeru \u201cChih\u014ds\u014dsei\u201d no Seisaku katei to seifu kan kankei\u2019, Seiji Keizaigaku Kenky\u016b Ronsh\u016b<\/em>, 4, pp.1-20.

    [3]
    Office of the Prime Minister (2014), Machi, Hito, Shigoto S\u014dsei S\u014dg\u014d Senryaku ni tsuite<\/em>, Shush\u014d Kantei<\/em>. Available at: https:\/\/www.kantei.go.jp\/jp\/singi\/sousei\/pdf\/20141227siryou5.pdf<\/a>.

    [4]
    Kumagai, F. (2020), Municipal Power and Population Decline in Japan: Goki-Shichido and Regional Variations<\/em>. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

    [5]
    Nakamura, Y. (2015), \u2018Chih\u014d S\u014dsei o meguru S\u014dg\u014d Senryaku to Chih\u014d Jichitai: Kokusaku kara Jichi e no Tenkan wa Kan\u014d ka\u2019, Utsunomiya Daigaku Kokusai Gakubu Kenky\u016b Ronsh\u016b<\/em>, 40, pp. 43\u201348.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Tu Thanh Ngo (Frank Tu) Policies to revitalize rural areas are nothing new in Japan. Revitalization policies date back to the 1930s when the Farm, Mountain and Fishing Village Economic Revitalization Campaign (1932\u20131941) was initiated that was followed by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allgemein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/userblogs.fu-berlin.de\/urban-rural-migration-japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}