Rural Revitalization in Japan

Spirit of the Village and Taste of the Country

Bibliographic Data

ID8374243
AuthorsJohn Knight (0000-0001-9113-0510, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume34
Issue7
Pages634-646
Publication date1994-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Survey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-4687 • E-ISSN: 1533-838X
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/2645373
OpenAlexW2082280719
LanguageEN
Citations received40

This article examines the mura okoshi undo (village revival movement) in contemporary Japan. The public rhetoric of this movement is that of rural self-reliance, of valiant villages drawing on their inner resources in a struggle for survival in the face of large-scale demographic and economic decline. On closer inspection, however, many of the villagers actually involved in the movement turn out to be return migrants, and further, village revival initiatives are encouraged by municipal authorities-that is, this movement for self-reliance is officially endorsed. One of the key analytical questions that arises from this situation concerns the nature of the agency of the movement. In what follows, I attempt to show how the rhetoric of selfreliance obscures a complex agency of rural revitalization that can only be understood in relation to patterns of migration and state encouragement. A brief introduction to the economic and demographic circumstances of social decline in rural Japan serves to show the context in which the village revival movement has developed. An outline of the movement is then presented with reference to examples from Oita and Wakayama prefectures. Finally, through a detailed example of the movement in a specific municipality, based on ethnographic fieldwork that I conducted in the late 1980s, an account of an actual local movement in action is given

Economic growth · Economics · Political science · Taste · Financial Crisis of the 21st Century · Psychology · Regional Development and Environment · Rural development and sustainability

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