Japan's New Ruralities: Coping with Decline in the Periphery

Seeking to challenge negative perceptions within Japanese media and politics on the future of the countryside, the contributors to this book present a counterargument to the inevitable demise of rural society.

Contrary to the dominant argument, which holds outmigration and demographic hyper-aging as primarily responsible for rural decline, this book highlights the spatial dimension of power differences behind uneven development in contemporary Japan. Including many fi eldwork-based case studies, the chapters discuss topics such as corporate farming, local energy systems and public healthcare, examining the constraints and possibilities of rural self-determination under the centripetal impact of forces located both in and outside of the country. Focusing on asymmetries of power to explore regional autonomy and heteronomy, it also examines "peripheralization" and the "global countryside," two recent theoretical contributions to the fi eld, as a common framework.

Japan’s New Ruralities addresses the complexity of rural decline in the context of debates on globalization and power differences. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, anthropology, human geography and politics, as well as Japanese Studies.

Wolfram Manzenreiter is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. His research interest in the social outcomes of globalization is documented in Sport and Body Politics in Japan (Routledge 2014) and the co-edited volume on Happiness and the Good Life in Japan (Routledge, 2017).

Ralph Lützeler is Assistant Professor at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Austria. His relevant publications include the co-edited volume Imploding Populations in Japan and Germany: A Comparison (2011) and other papers on demographic change and its regional implications in rural and urban areas of Japan.

Sebastian Polak-Rottmann is a PhD student, researcher and lecturer at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Vienna, Austria. His research focuses on private security companies, political participation and well-being in Japan.