Urban-rural migration and rural revitalization in Japan

世界各地的国内移民流动通常是从农村流向城市地区，将人们从农村推向城市。日本的情况尤其如此，几十年来，农村地区一直面临着移民、去工业化和人口老龄化的问题，因此，人们对农村发展的讨论相当悲观。然而，最近，越来越多的人对从城市搬迁到农村地区感兴趣，实际上也有越来越多的人这样做。许多学者认为，受过教育和有创造力的人的迁入对乡村振兴有积极影响，从而对日本农村社区的未来也有积极影响。然而，支持这一假设的经验证据很少。该项目结合社会人类学和政治学，以日本最南部的主岛Kyūshū为重点，旨在通过实证研究城乡移徙和乡村振兴之间的相互联系，以及当地做法、城乡移徙和更大的社会、政治和经济结构之间的相互联系，了解城乡移徙对乡村振兴的影响。为了促进关于日本农村地区未来的辩论，该项目将分析流动如何改变日本的社会结构和秩序、中心与外围之间的权力不平等以及日本的中央与地方关系。项目数据将通过人种学实地调查、正式和非正式访谈以及对不同利益攸关方制作的文件和视觉材料的内容分析来定性地提供。数据分析的目的在于理论构建。城乡移民并不是日本独有的。在许多后工业社会，寻求轻松的夕阳岁月的退休人员或更年轻的人，他们争取更可持续的生活方式，搬到农村。日本的独特之处在于，由不同利益相关者发起的计划和补贴，旨在吸引人们搬回日本农村，进而重振当地经济和农业。我们将比较1)肯塔基州(Kyūshū)不同地区规模相似的市政当局如何适应中央政府的计划，以及2)这些计划对各自市政当局的迁入、迁入经历和当地乡村振兴实践的影响。为了了解城乡移徙的不同轨迹，我们还将根据中央和地方政府行为者、私人、民间社会或商业行为者发起的不同类型的城乡移徙进行比较。简而言之，这个项目将阐明移动性如何有助于日本农村空间的重新配置。

Internal migration flows worldwide are usually directed from rural to urban areas, pushing people out of the countryside towards cities. This is particularly true for Japan, where rural areas have faced out-migration, deindustrialization and population aging for decades, and thus, rural development has been discussed in a rather pessimistic way. Recently, however, an increasing number of people is interested in relocating from urban to rural areas and a growing number actually do. Many scholars suggest that in-migration of educated and creative people has a positive impact on rural revitalization and thus on the future of rural communities in Japan. However, there exists only little empirical evidence for this assumption. At the interface of social anthropology and political science and with a focus on Kyūshū, Japan’s most southern main island, this project aims to understand the impacts of urban-rural migration on rural revitalization by empirically studying interlinkages between urban-rural migration and rural revitalization as well as between local practices, urban-rural migration and larger societal, political and economic structures. In order to contribute to debates on the future of rural areas in Japan, the project will analyze how mobilities change social structures and orders, power inequalities between centers and their peripheries and central-local relations in Japan. Project data will be produced qualitatively via ethnographic fieldwork, formal and informal interviews and content analysis of documents and visual materials produced by different stakeholders. The data analysis aims at theory building. Urban-rural migration is not unique to Japan. Retirees seeking relaxed sunset-years or younger people, who strive for more sustainable lifestyles, move to the countryside in many post-industrial societies. What is particular about Japan, are the programs and subsidies initiated by different stakeholders to attract people to move (back) to rural Japan and in turn to revitalize local economies and agriculture. We will compare 1) how municipalities of similar size in different prefectures in Kyūshū appropriate central government’s programs and 2) how these programs impact on in-migration, in-migrants’ experiences and local rural revitalization practices in the respective municipalities. In order to understand the different trajectories of urban-rural migration, we will also compare 3) different types of urban-rural migration according to their initiation by central and local government actors, private, civil society or business actors. In a nutshell, this project will shed light on how mobilities contribute to reconfigurations of rural spaces in Japan.