Abstract
Abstract The shrinking of Japan’s rural areas, caused partly by continuous out-migration of younger people to the major cities, is an amply discussed topic in Japanese society and popular media. Even though a certain trend of counter-urbanisation exists despite larger depopulation patterns, many of these migrants do not stay permanently and therefore cannot contribute to sustaining rural areas in the long term. Previous studies argue that considering each community’s characteristics is important in order to find possible ways to sustain rural areas and attract new residents. Therefore, this study focuses on the case of Aso City, aiming to clarify the criteria that makes migration to Aso City appealing or unappealing, and to identify the factors responsible for enabling (or complicating) the act of permanently settling there. In order to do so, the author conducted a survey in Aso City using semi-structured interviews. While the beauty of the natural surroundings, quality of life, and social connectedness are the main positive qualities of Aso City, its infrastructure, demographic development, and economic situation are assessed more negatively by its residents. Further, this study shows that the better a person’s local social connections upon arrival, the more likely they are to find a place to live and work, and stay on a long-term basis. In order to attract new residents to rural areas and support their permanent settlement, it is important to help them obtain the resources necessary for settling and assist their transition into the social structure of the community.
Highlights
For several decades, the demography of Japan has been characterised by low fertility rates, resulting in an ageing and—at the same time—declining population, especially in rural areas
In his publication in 2014, the former governor of Akita prefecture 秋田県, Masuda Hiroya 増田寛也, predicts the extinction of 896 cities, towns and villages by 2040. This overly negative depiction of the future of rural regions is being countered by sociologists like Tokuno Sadao 徳野貞雄 (2011; 2014; 2015) or Yamashita Yūsuke 山下祐介 (2014; 2015), who stress that the sustainability of any rural community cannot be depicted “top-down” using national census data, but must be evaluated individually, as every community has particular characteristics, problems and possibilities for sustaining itself
Based on Tokuno and Yamamoto’s research, I presumed that individual achievements, such as higher education and income, could best be accomplished in urban areas, while property size, housing conditions, the quality of the natural environment, as well as social characteristics such as social status, social connectedness, or household size may contribute to a higher degree of personal well-being in rural areas
Summary
The demography of Japan has been characterised by low fertility rates, resulting in an ageing and—at the same time—declining population, especially in rural areas. Other studies focus on possible ways of sustaining rural communities by reintegrating return-migrants (Fujiyama 2015) or attracting new residents (Ishikawa 2011); they fail to question why a person or family would move from cities to the countryside.
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