Compiled by eighteen researchers from different scholarly disciplines who partially live and work in rural Japan, this timely and interdisciplinary volume addresses the bleak topic of shrinkage and depopulation in Japan's rural areas. According to the authors' prediction, the depopulation of Japan will manifest itself in a shrinkage by an average of half a million people per year over the next forty years. The main question that the authors ask is what would constitute a successfully engineered regional or community regeneration against the background of continuing depopulation.
Demographic transformation in Japan has been previously addressed, such as by Florian Coulmas, Harald Conrad, Annette Schad-Seifert, and Gabriele Vogt in their work The Demographic Challenge: A Handbook about Japan (Leiden: Brill, 2008). Ethnographic case studies by Peter Matanle on Sado Island (2006) and by Philip Seaton on Yūbari in Hokkaido (2010) have addressed the implications of population shrinkage in rural areas. However, a merit of this study is the fact that for the first time ethnographically rich case studies that move beyond the mere acknowledgement of depopulation and search for coping strategies are summarized in one publication.
The authors show that depopulation is not a new phenomenon but began in the postwar period after a brief baby boom between 1947 and 1949. Population shrinkage in developed countries is associated with a decline of the total fertility rate, which is defined as the average number of children born to a cohort of women in their lifetime. Since then, Japan's fertility rate has been declining and reached a postwar level of 1.26 in 2005 (p. 425). Combined with increasing life expectancy, high numbers of postwar baby boomers (who are approaching retirement age), and outmigration of younger people to large cities, a decline of fertility has led to population shrinkage. Another form of depopulation occurs when one major industry ceases to exist, such as in Yūbari, a former coal-mining town in Hokkaido, or in Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture, a former steel town. In their analysis of population shrinkage, the authors introduce the two key terms kasochi (depopulated rural areas) and genkai shūraku (communities that have experienced severe depopulation and aging such that more than 50% of the population is aged sixty-five and older). As of 2006, 7,878 genkai shūraku exist in Japan, which underlines the pertinence of population shrinkage occurring (pp. 25–26).
The volume is divided into two parts. Each chapter is coauthored by two or more contributors. The first part addresses the impacts and implications of shrinkage in Japan's peripheral regions. Following an introductory chapter, two case studies situate Japan in a global context and address how depopulation is being dealt with in the Ruhr region in Germany and in rural Scotland. Subsequent chapters present case studies of population shrinkage in Niigata and the remote islands of Okinawa, paradoxically an area where population is expected to grow from 1.39 million people in 2009 to 1.43 million between 2010 and 2030 (p. 169). Christopher Hood investigates the extensions of the Japan National Rail's Shinkansen into rural areas such as Hachinohe (2002) and Shin-Aomori (2011) in the Tohoku area (pp. 135–56), whereas John Knight describes the effects on akiya, empty houses, that fall victim to forest encroachment and damage from aggressive wildlife such as wild boars and monkeys (pp. 159–70).
The second part discusses four different responses in the form of redeveloping, repopulating, recovering, and reinventing peripheral regions. Contrary to the rhetoric of governmental measures that seek to achieve renewed growth in rural regions, one merit of the study is its acceptance of the shrinkage of Japan's rural areas. Governmental responses to the shrinkage of peripheral regions have long centered on infrastructure development projects, such as building airports and high-speed train connections in marginalized areas. Mergers of shrinking cities, such as the Great Merger of the Heisei Era as discussed by Anthony Rausch, have been an additional policy to counter the depopulation of shrinking regions. However, the researchers of the Shrinking Regions Group argue that infrastructure developments have resulted in a relationship of codependency among national, regional, and local actors, which has prevented local actors from seeking independent solutions for how to cope with the profound changes in the shrinking regions. Drawing on case studies such as Yūbari, a former coal-mining town near Sapporo, which underwent a radical restructuring response termed “tankō kara kankō e” (from mines to tourism), the authors further show that attempts to transform shrinking towns into tourist destinations have often failed and that tourism as a means to revitalize rural regions is not sufficient.
Based on the problematic nature of infrastructure developments and tourism as strategies to revitalize declining regions, the authors present four policy recommendations: firstly, the inclusion of local nongovernmental actors in decision-making processes; secondly, the development of professional brand-creation capacities that highlight the cultural assets of shrinking regions; thirdly, the establishment of an independent think tank, which compares and addresses population shrinkage in Asia and Europe and seeks solutions; and finally, doing more research on the relationship between depopulation and reducing human pressures on the environment.
In light of the tragic events of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that occurred on March 11, 2011, in the Tohoku area in northern Japan, the authors offer an epilogue, which seeks to restore hope and outlines ten policy responses to the disaster, such as strengthening community ownership, sustainable local employment, renewable energies, and sustainable agriculture.
The merit of this study is its fresh and unconventional approach towards the acceptance of population shrinkage. As such, the authors' viewpoint is not one of resignation but one of cautious optimism, which is expressed in policy recommendations that are summarized and augmented in the epilogue. However, these policy recommendations are not detailed but rather appear as a list of future tasks whose method of implementation remains unclear. Furthermore, the various parts of the volume appear at times disjointed, although each chapter offers valuable ethnographic insight. Despite these flaws, this study is essential reading for students of sociology, cultural anthropology, and public policy studies. In particular, readers who are interested in the effects of demographic transformation processes and search for sustainable concepts of improving the quality of life for future generations in shrinking rural regions will greatly benefit from this book.
