ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|76 pages
Transformations in the primary sector
chapter 2|21 pages
From agribusiness to deer hunter
chapter 3|17 pages
Corporatization as hybridization in rural Japan
chapter 4|17 pages
Sea pineapples in troubled waters
chapter 5|19 pages
Reclaiming the global countryside?
part II|74 pages
Political innovations in rural Japan
chapter 6|21 pages
Local renewables
chapter 7|16 pages
Empowering rural cooperation
part III|70 pages
New residents in the countryside
chapter 10|19 pages
Has the island lure reached Japan?
chapter 11|16 pages
Fluidity in rural Japan
chapter 12|18 pages
Nai mono wa nai—challenging and subverting rural peripheralization?
part IV|50 pages
Conceptual interventions for a new understanding of rural Japan