MyVision
No.3

2014. 6

Population Decline
and the Strengths ofRegional Areas
What are the advantages of regional areas against the background of ongoing population decline? The
experts interviewed for this issue of My Vision point to lifestyle benefits, including the warmth of
local communities and their function in providing a safety net, the presence of the natural environment, and the maintenance of traditions. They also indicate that advantages can be found in
non-urban areas in terms of the cultivation of individual sensibility, the ability to provide a roundededucation to children, and the opportunity for entrepreneurship.

C O NT E NT S
Expert Opinions

What Advantages do Regional Areas
present in contrast to Cities?
Towards an era of returnto the country

Ensuring economic circulationin regional areas

Tokumi Odagiri

Hiroshi Matsubara

Professor, School of Agriculture, Meiji University

Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
The University of Tokyo

Regional areas are ideal for
fostering human resources
Sukeshiro Terata

Member of the House of Councillors,
former Governor of Akita Prefecture

New industries will emerge
from rural areas
Takashi Uchiyama

Professor, Graduate School of Social Design Studies,
Rikkyo University

Bequeathing quality regional
lifestyles to future generations
Sarah Marie Cummings
President, Bunkajigyobu Company

Expert Opinions

What Advantages do Regional Areas
present in contrast to Cities?
As populations and economic activity become concentrated in major cities, regional areas face the issue of
rapid depopulation, and it is becoming increasingly diﬃcult to sustain local communities.
Clarifying the advantages presented by regional areas over cities will be an important element in reexamining
the allocation of roles between country and city, and in considering future strategies for regional areas.
What are the advantages of regional areas? And how can we draw out these advantages?
In this edition of MyVision, we ask scholars in the ﬁelds of philosophy, agricultural policy, and economic geography, a former prefectural governor, and an individual with extensive experience of regional revitalization, all ofwhom possess a deep knowledge of the issues.

Interviewer: Manabu Shimasawa, NIRA Senior Researcher
Period of interview: February 2014

Towards an era of return to the country

Tokumi Odagiri

Professor, School of Agriculture, Meiji University
In the past several years, a burgeoning interest in rural lifestyles
has developed among Japan’ s younger generation. In Shimane
Prefecture, for example, a growing number of young people fromoutside the prefecture are settling in particularly remote areas suchas islands and mountainous regions. The reason that young people
are turning to the country is their desire for real humanconnections and a place to belong. They see sub-village networks
and communities once felt to be oppressive and backward as
warm, and the image of people working independently in the
country is attractive to them. This is the value and appeal of rural
areas.
In Britain, and particularly in England, the rate of population
growth is higher in rural areas than in cities. People in their 30s
and older are discovering that they enjoy living in the country inan ongoing trend of counter-urbanization. The similar trend which
has sprung up in Japan is still supported by policy measures, but itis hoped that a return to the country will take root as a naturalprocess here also.
In order to realize this, policy measures to maintain lifeline
infrastructure for rural villages will be essential in view of theinevitable decline of the small and medium-sized cities close tothese regional communities. Taking severe financial restrictions
into consideration, it will be necessary to reorganize small
communities into zones with cities of a specific size at theircenters. During this process of reorganization, judgments willneed to be made regarding the infrastructure functions to be
maintained and those to be discontinued based on considerations
specific to that zone. The opinions of the young people who
represent the future of the community should be reflected in thesedecisions.
Another change that we should pay attention to is the fact that inrecent years a new form of regional community has begun to arise.
Multiple sub-village units are coming together and adopting
consensus-type decision-making systems which reflect theopinions of women and young people. The greatest defect ofsmaller communities up to the present has been that decisions
have traditionally been made by older people and males, and thatyoung people and women have been excluded. If we can createhigh-quality communities which young people find value indevoting their lives to, then I believe that a trend of young people
returning to the country will take root. ■Professor Odagiri conducts research on issues of rural regeneration, inparticular in relation to rural communities, specializing in agricultural
policy and the governance of rural areas.

Regional areas are ideal for fostering
human resources
Sukeshiro Terata

Member of the House of Councillors,
former Governor of Akita Prefecture

As we hear of increasing social inequality, we should lookpositively at the fact that houses and fields are unused in Japan’ sregions, offering the possibility of affordable accommodation andfood. While they may not offer an abundance of high-paying jobs
like large cities, low-income earners can live comfortably andraise and educate their children well in regional areas. The valueof these areas is that they are able to function as a safety net. If weenhance support for childcare, educational services for smallchildren, and elementary and secondary education in regional
areas, younger people will also realize their appeal.
Regional areas actually possess considerable advantages interms of the provision of education. Akita Prefecture has led thecountry in a variety of initiatives, including the introduction ofclass sizes of no more than 30 students, and the prefecture’ s

My Vision No.3

students continue to achieve high scores in the national survey ofacademic ability conducted by MEXT. Akita International
University is also highly regarded for its unique educational
approach. Japanese students are obliged to engage in activities
with foreign students and to do part of their study overseas,enabling them to leave Japan to experience different societies anddifferent cultures. These experiences will benefit Japan as awhole, and even if students do not later return to the prefecture, thebenefits they have gained will enrich it in other ways. A
globalizing Japan needs human resources who have a diverse
range of experiences, enabling them to break away from theirpreconceived ideas. Regional areas have the potential to foster
such human resources.
The biggest problem for regional communities as population
decline continues is the lack of the frequent coming and going ofdifferent individuals that characterizes cities. Roles become fixed,
and communities become claustrophobic and restrictive. Input
from outside the regions will be essential in breaking throughthese constraints and creating the possibility of movement withinsociety. In a society that encourages such active movement, therole of local governments will be to foster human resources andensure the safety and security of the lives and property of themembers of their community. ■Based on his previous experience in the administration of Akita Prefecture, the fundamental policies that Mr. Terata advocates include regional
autonomy and the development of human resources able to function ina globalized society.

New industries will emerge from ruralareas
Takashi Uchiyama

Professor, Graduate School of Social Design Studies,
Rikkyo University

Against the background of intense global competition, theimpetus that will give rise to new, sustainable industries that do
not involve fierce competition with imitators will come not fromthe city, but rather from regional areas. Looking at the current
crisis among electronics manufacturers, we realize thattechnological capacity and financial power are unexpectedly
fragile, and corporations can be rapidly overtaken. What ensures
the sustainability of an industry is the strength of regional
communities and regional networks. Industries which feature
relationships of cooperation and mutual support are industries
which will manage to weather even very severe situations.
In the city, to work means to be employed; in the country, towork means to create one’ s own job. This is why we can look
precisely to regional areas for the creation of industries. However,realizing success in creating industries requires input fromoutsiders in addition to the efforts of members of the local
community. In the historical sericulture industry in Japan’ s
mountains, people who played the role of “brokers” formedinterpersonal relationships, and provided support to ensure thateveryone involved in the industry was able to get by even when
they suffered a loss. Today, happily, there are many individuals
among the nation’ s retirees who would like to take on similarroles. Despite this fact, to date we have failed to consider engaging
the cooperation of these individuals in creating regional industries,
and regional areas have suffered for it.
The main impediment to promoting the creation of industries inJapan’ s regional areas is the fact that few towns and villages haveset out precise orientations for their community development
efforts. At present, where regional visions exist, they tend to all besimilar, along the lines of “building a vigorous community.” Thisis utterly without appeal. My suggestion is to make use of the ideasof people living in the city and people who have migrated from thecity to the country. ■Professor Uchiyama is a philosopher. Since the 1970s, he has developed
his thought through consideration of subjects including the functioningof the Ueno Village community in Gunma Prefecture and Japanʼs rural
culture.

Ensuring economic circulation in regional
areas
Hiroshi Matsubara

Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences,
The University of Tokyo

The quantitative reductions represented by declines in the
populations of small and medium-sized regional cities andsparsely-populated areas will necessarily lead towards a decline in
the quality of regional areas. However, some elements, such as
inspiration and ideas, are not affected by quantitative changes. If
these elements could be linked to the resources of nature, history
and culture possessed by Japan’ s regional areas, the economies of
those regions would be sufficiently self-sustaining. For example, it
can be argued that isolated regions are superior from theperspective of artistic fields such as music, film and fine art, which
utilize individual sensibility as their basic material.
The rediscovery and further enhancement of regional resources
is the key to invigorating regional economies. Resources will
necessarily be limited in individual small regions, and external
cooperation will therefore be essential. Yufuin in Oita Prefecture
provides a good example of supplementing elements that do notexist in a specific region by means of cooperation. Originally an
ordinary hot spring resort, Yufuin succeeded in boosting its
economy by skillfully incorporating a “flow of knowledge” madeup of the memories, hopes and opinions of large numbers ofpeople who believed in and supported the town from afar. This
flow of knowledge became a regional resource, and theinvigoration of the town’ s economy resulting from the use of thisresource is ongoing.
If a regional municipality begins to consider the establishmentof links outside the region, it will need to move beyond theconcept of strengthening intra-regional circulation, for example
through local production for local consumption, to examine how
the circulation of goods, money and people in its own region islinked with areas and entities outside the region. This will entail
gaining an objective understanding of factors including the statusof the industrial sectors that drive the regional economy, the statusof competition in manufacturing and the distribution of
manufacturing, and human movement within and outside theregion and the transport systems that support it. Up to the present,
discussion has focused on factors operating within regions
themselves; in future, it will be important to address the policy
issue of invigorating regional economies by shifting the focus toalso take in relationships with extra-regional elements. ■Professor Matsubara writes and conducts research in the areas of thelocation of industry and regional economics, specializing in economic
geography, urban geography, and German area studies.

Bequeathing quality regional lifestyles
to future generations
Sarah Marie Cummings

President, Bunkajigyobu Company

Traditional culture is strongly rooted in Japan’ s regional areas,for example in activities such as sake making and crafts that havea basis in tradition, in traditional streetscapes, and in uniqueregional dishes. These assets differ from those of the U.S., which
does not have such an extended history as a nation. The Japaneseare said to be good at imitation and lacking in originality, but infact they possess tremendous originality. The Japanese Should
recognize the appeal of this culture and make use of it to thegreatest possible extent.
Community development initiatives are conducted, first andforemost, for the benefit of the residents of a specific area, andthey emerge from the impulse to protect the lifestyle that has been
handed down in that area. The valuable aspects of Japan’ s regional
areas, which are not to be found in the cities, have been born fromliving together with nature. A sustainable lifestyle in which one
works the earth and raises food for oneself is a relaxed andattractive lifestyle. A simple lifestyle in which one is able to keepone’ s feet on the ground and bring up strong and healthy children.
The wisdom that has been cultivated in Japan’ s traditional regional

areas and their magnificent natural environments must bepreserved for children who will follow us in 50 or a 100 years’
time.
Cultural stimulation improves the quality of life in regional
areas. Katsushika Hokusai, the famous ukiyo-e master, spent timein Obuse in Nagano Prefecture in his last years, and left a large
number of works there. It is not enough to simply exhibit these ina museum. We worked to hold the International Hokusai
Conference in Obuse because we felt that it was important toconnect the town to the trend towards Hokusai research taking off
throughout the world. In these days of the Internet and social
networks, it has become a simple matter to establish businesses
based on the same type of perspective. We are not aiming totransiently attract large numbers of sightseers, but rather to be, asa cultural center, the site of high-quality cultural exchanges with agoal and a purpose. ■Ms. Cummings is a central ﬁgure in eﬀorts to revitalize the town of Obusein Nagano Prefecture. Presently based in Nagano City, she is involved in
an ongoing project to realize a sustainable agriculture.

This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese.
NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.

About this Issue

Population Decline and the Strengths of Regional Areas
This issue of MyVision takes up the theme ofJapan’s regional areas. “Regional” here refers tocities, towns and villages outside the Tokyo
metropolitan area with populations of no more than
50,000, which will experience a rapid decline in
population in the future.
The decline of Japan’s regional areas is muchdiscussed, but we really should be talking about thenature of the relationship between the nation’s
regions and its cities. Japan’s modernization was able
to proceed at unparalleled speed due to the smoothfunctioning of the division of roles between its
regional areas and its cities. Regional areas supplied
young people as workers for companies in the cities,
while the consequent decline in the labor force in theregions was supplemented by mechanization,
enabling them to play a role as suppliers of agricultural products. This division of roles supported anefficient society.

However, with the ending of the nation’s period ofhigh economic growth, a shift occurred from amindset that sought efficiency in the form of speed,
economy, and convenience, to a diversified sense ofvalue that focuses on the meaning, resonance, andindividual fit of goods and services. In this diversified
society, the role of rural areas will differ from the role
they fulfilled in Japan’s period of high economic
growth. We must consider a new allocation of roles
between the country and the city.
The experts interviewed in this issue sketch a newdivision of roles between country and city, providing
a wealth of suggestions in the process. The newallocation of roles suggested above will be born froma focus on the advantages offered by regional areas.

Reiko Kanda, NIRA Senior Director

National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA)
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