ABSTRACT
Tourism is often considered a valid strategy for “building back better” and providing new opportunities for recovering localities. However, when disasters occur in rural or peripheral areas, the socio-economic and demographic conditions in these regions can affect the way in which tourism as a recovery strategy is welcomed by local populations. Following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, many affected municipalities turned to tourism in order to revitalize their economically declining towns as part of the post-disaster recovery. By rejuvenating these regions, the touristification of Tōhoku has also been promoted as a broader tool of social justice that can help stabilize local economies and bring tangible social and physical benefits that these towns have long been lacking. In this chapter, we explore the impact of tourism in post-disaster areas from the perspective of the local populations, and study the degree to which these strategies are recognized and experienced as socially just. We found that despite contact with visitors offering opportunities for empowerment, integration of tourism into the physical rebuilding process permanently alters the atmosphere in these towns, compromising local residents’ place attachment and leading them to feel like visitors in their own homes.
