Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownership of assets as a development potential for rural Japan?

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Original Article

Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownershipof assets as a development potential for rural Japan?

Thomas Feldhoff

Department of Human Geography and Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies,Goethe University Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 31 (Jur. 814), Frankfurt am Main 60325, Germany.E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract In the context of a decline in its overall population, Japan’s non-metropolitan areas are mostseverely affected by the ongoing demographic change. The fast-spreading ‘marginal settlement’ (genkai shuraku)phenomenon, which refers to communities that have reached the limits of their manageability due todepopulation and ageing, requires a fundamental shift in Japan’s policy response to trends of regionalabandonment and collapse. The article analyses current and future economic and socio-demographicchallenges facing shrinking communities in Japan, and assesses the development and institutional context ofgovernment policies related to depopulating mountain areas in particular. It argues that shrinking communitiesshould abandon the expectation of externally induced local revitalization and concentrate on asset-basedcommunity development. Community ownership of assets is discussed as a creative and innovative means tofacilitate local engagement, foster local place attachment and thereby strengthen the resilience of ruralcommunities and their independence from central government control.URBAN DESIGN International (2013) 18, 99–109. doi:10.1057/udi.2012.26; published online 21 November 2012

Keywords: shrinking communities; demographic change; regional development policies; asset-basedcommunity development; Japan

Introduction

A 11 June 2007 article in Forbes Magazine ‘GhostCities Of 2100’ addresses shrinking cities as aphenomenon in the past, present and future(Eaves, 2007). With regard to the future, theauthor concludes that ‘whether from naturalcatastrophes, economic collapse or the slowencroachments of sand or water’, it seems likelythat at least some of today’s cities will disappearby the year 2100. Indeed, the decline andabandonment of urban settlements in the past isa well-known phenomenon in many parts ofthe world (Hohenberg and Lees, 1995; Slater,2000). Since about 1800, however, virtually nomajor city has been permanently lost or aban-doned, although the twentieth century was aperiod of particular destructiveness.

This is about to change. At the beginning of thetwenty-first century, even as the global urbanpopulation continues to grow, shrinking cities and

towns are a phenomenon in many regions world-wide. A rapidly growing body of literature atteststo this phenomenon, which is new in so far as inmost cases the change has no negative externalcauses limited in terms of time and space, such aswars, epidemics, natural catastrophes or famines(Oswalt, 2005, 2006). Rather, urban shrinkage isunprecedented as it occurs in times of peace andof economic prosperity. Moreover, it occursparticularly in affluent, developed countries inthe Western world. It comes as no surprise, then,that the current literature on the causes andconsequences of urban shrinkage as well as policyresponses is mostly concentrated on cities inEurope and the United States (see, for example,Bucher and Mai, 2005; Ferry and Vironen, 2011;Pallagst et al, 2009; Pedroni, 2011; Wiechmannand Pallagst, 2012). Most recently, Pallagst et al(2012) addressed shrinking cities from a globalperspective by presenting a number of casestudies from around the world, considering

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specific economic, social, environmental, culturaland land-use issues. With regard to the causes,Rieniets (2005, p. 30) referred to the ‘demogra-phically relevant behavior of the affected societyitself’. Declining fertility rates are coupled withrising longevity. At the regional and local levels,internal migration is another important determi-nant of growth, stagnation or decline. Those citiesthat fail to hold their populations are in a verydangerous social and economic situation. Themajor reason lies in the circular causation ofurban depopulation, which tends to becomecumulative and to gather speed. The shrinkageof cities is a multilayered process that not onlycovers the loss of population, especially of youngskilled labor force, due to natural decreases andlabor-oriented out-migration, which is the com-mon definition of de-urbanization (Heineberg,2005). Shrinkage is also related to demographicageing, the loss of jobs and unemployment, theloss of purchasing power and regional develop-ment potential, processes of social and spatialfragmentation, decreasing municipal incometaxes, public and private infrastructure mainte-nance problems. Urban shrinkage is, thus, notonly a quantitative phenomenon. The qualitativeeffects are even more problematic with regardto endogenous potentials such as innovation andknowledge, which are critical for economicgrowth from the viewpoint of ‘new economicgeography’ or ‘new growth theory’ (Capello andNijkamp, 2009). This is a major challenge forregional and urban planning as well as regionaleconomic policy, as processes of shrinkage tendto foster regional and social inequalities. Thedegree of social acceptance of growing disparitiesamong and within cities and regions is not leastdetermined by normative decision making inurban and regional planning about the re-organi-zation and re-evaluation of space, even includingthe option of abandonment of settlements whereregeneration is very likely to fail.

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon, andJapan, receiving too little attention in this fieldof study, can be seen as part of it. In the context ofa decline in the overall national population, inJapan, mountain villages are most severely affectedby depopulation and ageing (Matanle et al, 2011;Matanle and Sato, 2010). The fast-spreading‘marginal settlement’ (genkai shuraku) phenomen-on refers to rural communities that have reachedthe limits of their manageability due to dramaticdepopulation, and where people aged 65 yearsor older make up more than half the total

population. This challenge requires a fundamen-tal shift in Japan’s policy response to trends ofregional abandonment and collapse. Formerdevelopment strategies based on the MountainVillage Promotion Act (Sanson shinko ho, 1965) orthe Emergency Act for the Improvement ofDepopulated Areas (Kaso chiiki taisaku kinkyu sochiho, 1970) obviously failed and the government hasto take into account new challenges such asglobalization and trade liberalization, social anddemographic change. The article thus aims todescribe current and future economic and socio-demographic challenges facing shrinking com-munities in Japanese mountain areas, and toanalyze the development and institutional contextof related regional development policies. It arguesthat regional communities should abandon theexpectation of externally induced revitalizationand concentrate on asset-based communitydevelopment (ABCD). In Building Communitiesfrom the Inside Out, Kretzmann and McKnight(1993) summarized lessons learned by studyingsuccessful community-building initiatives inhundreds of neighborhoods across the UnitedStates. They sketched out a community-buildingpath that is asset-based, internally focused andrelationship driven, implying that any genuinelocal revitalization project must be citizen-led,with outside actors playing supporting roles. Thispolicy approach is a major challenge to Japanesestate–society relations traditionally shaped fromthe top down. Shibata (2008) argued that Japan’sspatial planning policy system evolved withinJapan’s modern nation-state building processafter the Meiji Restoration (1868). The authoritar-ian government also used planning to demon-strate the power of the national elite and toconstruct dependency, and this has left a lastinglegacy on state–society relations (Sorensen andFunck, 2007). Asset-based development approachesrequire local communities to become more in-dependent from central government influenceand to integrate the people into locally baseddevelopment policy and planning processes andthereby strengthen civil society.

Demographic Change and ‘MarginalSettlements’ in Japan

Like most other OECD countries, Japan is facingan ageing population. By international compar-isons, the rapidity and scale of demographicageing in Japan are unprecedented. Twenty-three

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per cent of the total population were 65 yearsand over in 2010, and this share is estimatedto hit a world record high of more than 40 percent in 2050. Along with ageing, Japan is facinga population loss of approximately 25 millionpeople by the year 2050. Because of the dramaticchanges of the social and economic system afterWorld War II, affecting education and genderrole norms, individual career and lifestyleaspirations, Japan has become a forerunner inthe trend towards very low fertility since themid-1970s (Feldhoff, 2011).

The demographic shift will change the coun-try’s social fabric but also its urban and rurallandscape dramatically. The modernization ofJapan since the 1868 Meiji Restoration has broughtcontinuous rural to urban migration. Metropoli-tan regions and the national capital, Tokyo, havein particular benefitted from the in-migration ofyoung people, most intensively during the era ofJapan’s high economic growth in the 1950s and1960s. In contrast, rural and remote areas haveconstantly lost their populations and now havevery high proportions of older people (Figure 1).Continued demographic ageing and shrinking areexpected to further widen regional disparities.

Most severely affected by population losses andageing, economic shrinkage and social declineare small towns or villages in hilly and mountai-nous regions experiencing combined naturaldecrease and net out-migration. Hilly and moun-tainous regions cover 70 per cent of Japan’s totalland area. Only one quarter of the total land areahas a slope of less than 15 degrees, and most ofthe mountains rise out of foothills to reach plateaulands with an unfavorable climate (Kolb, 1971).As a consequence, Japan’s early cultural devel-opment was conditioned by the fact that thepopulation was concentrated in the villages andtowns in the lowland areas. The modernization,industrialization and urbanization of Japansince the Meiji Restoration of 1868 resulted inan unprecedented concentration of wealth andpower in the metropolitan areas in the PacificCoast Industrial Belt – the melting of ‘urban’ and‘rural’ in the ‘Tokaido Megalopolis’, stretchingalong corridors between major cities includ-ing Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, Hiroshima,Kita-Kyushu and Fukuoka.

In summarizing the highlights of the regionaldimension of demographic change in Japan, it isessential to make the following points. First,divergent processes of urban growth and shrink-age can be observed, with urban growth being

centered on very large cities, with the capital cityleading the way. The long-term trend towardsliving in the national or regional metropolisescontinues. Second, demographic ageing andthe phenomenon of urban shrinkage are closelyintertwined processes. Particularly, rural andremote areas with structural weaknesses as wellas old industrial areas, dominated by an indus-trial mono-structure of sectors such as mining,metal manufacturing or shipbuilding that can nolonger compete in the global economy, are mostlyaffected. Thanks to substantial governmentalsubsidies and assistance, the quantity andquality of public infrastructure services in suchcities has been much better for a long-lastingtime than one would expect. However, thesituation has started to change dramatically asthe central government has cut tax transfers andsubsidies in the aftermath of the decentralizationand regional policy reform (Machida, 2007).

Figure 1: Regional development policies are affecting thelivelihoods of many older people in rural Japan.Source: Photograph by Yoshiko Matsumoto.

Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownership of assets as a development potential for rural Japan?

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Traditionally, many households in mountai-nous communities made a sustainable living fromtheir land and forestry, and they also producedcharcoal as a way to generate additional income.Besides participating in charcoal manufacturing,those who were not landlords worked in multipleoccupations to augment their incomes, perform-ing day labor for neighboring farmers, piecework,silkworm rearing and domestic service. Althoughtraditional economic activities are ever diminish-ing, mountain areas are still important withregard to agricultural production. Both the num-ber of farm households and the cultivated landunder management in these areas account for40 per cent of the national total. Thus, not onlyrural communities but the agricultural sector as awhole is at risk of further diminishing with thedemographic shift towards very old populations.

According to population statistics, currently 43per cent of all local authorities are eligible forsupport under the Mountain Village PromotionAct (Sanson shinko ho) (Table 1). This affects just 3per cent of the overall population, while the areacovers 47 per cent of the country. Many of thesecommunities are nowadays regarded as ‘marginalsettlements’ (genkai shuraku), which are vulnerableto extinction through depopulation because peo-ple aged 65 years or older make up more thanhalf the total population. These settlements havereached the limits of their manageability becausetheir reduced vitality and low population densityhave led to underdeveloped local infrastructureand limited availability of public and commercialservices (Figure 2). These circumstances add diffi-culty to the daily lives of the people, who areoften older, possess little economic surplus andare in need of support. ‘Marginal settlements’ aretypically remote from urban economic centers andthey are physically isolated, which also negatively

affects access to opportunities and services (Ma-tanle et al, 2011, p. 18). These processes exhibitcharacteristics of circular and cumulative causationas contexts are very difficult to resolve.

Shrinking Regions Development Laws

How do national and regional actors adopt theirpolicies to the changing circumstances thatdepopulation brings to Japan’s regional commu-nities in order to preserve less favored areas likehilly and mountainous areas in particular? Finan-cial resources have for a long time been and arestill redistributed from metropolitan regions tothese areas to compensate for local shortfalls andthis ultimately causes a cost nationally. Startingfrom the mid-1960s, in response to increasedlobbying and demands by local authorities, the

Figure 2: Images of abandonment and urban decay in ruralJapan.Source: Photographs by the author.

Table 1: Number of local authorities, population and areaeligible for support under the Mountain Village Promotion Act(as of 1 April 2012)

Mountainvillages

Nationaltotal

Percentage

Municipalities 734 1719 43Total Area (million ha) 17.85 37.79 47

Forest area (million ha) 15.10 25.12 60Forest area as percentageof total area

84.6 66.5 —

Population (million) 4.32 127.77 3

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, http://www.maff.go.jp/j/nousin/tiiki/sanson/s_about/genzyo/index.html, accessed 6 August 2012.

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Japanese government has enacted a series of lawsthat have specifically recognized and addressedregional depopulation. Their aim was to improvethe economy and the welfare of local communitiesin response to trends of out-migration anddepopulation.

Specifically targeting hilly and mountainousareas, in 1965 the Mountain Village PromotionAct (Sanson shinko ho) came into force. The mainobjectives were (Mountain Agenda, 2002, p. 40).

K To improve communication among mountainvillages, and between mountain and lowlandpopulations, through transportation and tele-communication infrastructure;

K To ensure that mountain land, forest and waterresources are effectively exploited throughsuch measures as road construction, electricpower generation, and improvement of agri-cultural land;

K To strengthen local industries and increaseemployment in mountain areas through mea-sures such as the establishment of modernforest management and farming systems,development of processing industries foragricultural and primary forestry products,introduction of tourism, the cultivation ofmarkets for unique local products;

K To control erosion and prevent natural hazardssuch as landslides and avalanches, by main-taining and conserving forests and key infra-structure;

K To increase access to social services by buildingschools, hospitals, clinics, cultural centers andother facilities, in order to generally improveliving and working conditions.

This integrated approach was implementedthrough sectoral policies and programs involvingdifferent ministries and government agencies. Theconstruction industry became heavily involved inthe various processes of development in Japan’sregions, from the development of regional publicinfrastructure to providing a significant sourceof employment opportunities for rural people(Feldhoff, 2007).

The Mountain Village Promotion Act, togetherwith the Remote Island Promotion Act (Rikoshinko ho, 1953), the Temporary Act for thePromotion of Coal Producing Areas (Santan chiikishinko rinji sochi ho) (1961), the Three Measuresfor the Development of Tohoku (Tohoku kaihatsusanpo) (1959), Special Policy for Heavy SnowAreas (Gosetsu chitai taisaku tokubetsu sochi ho)

(1962), indicate the growing concern for thedeclining economic conditions in the rural areasresulting from isolation, poverty of local re-sources, climatic disadvantages or decliningindustries. However, local revitalization projectswere developed and implemented top down,‘from the outside in’ the communities, ignoringthe abilities and insights of local residents.They were generally under-financed and didnot directly address the community-specificproblems associated with the deteriorating socialand demographic conditions, which were aconsequence of the out-migration from theaffected areas (Kakiuchi and Hasegawa, 1979).The first legislation that addressed directly to theproblems of depopulation on a national scalewas the 1970 Emergency Act for the Improvementof Depopulated Areas (Kaso chiiki taisaku kinkyusochi ho).

Since 1970, a succession of laws has providedmore financial assistance to depopulating orshrinking regions (kaso chiiki).

K 1970–1979: Emergency Act for the Improve-ment of Depopulated Areas (Kaso chiiki taisakukinkyu sochi ho).

K 1980–1989: Depopulated Areas Special Promo-tion Law (Kaso chiiki shinko tokubetsu sochi ho).

K 1990–1999: Depopulated Areas Special Revita-lization Law (Kaso chiiki kasseika tokubetsu ho).

K 2000–2009: Special Law Promoting Indepen-dence in Depopulated Areas (Kaso chiiki jiritsusokushin tokubetsu sochi ho).

K 2010–2015: Revised Special Law PromotingIndependence in Depopulated Areas (Kaiseikaso chiiki jiritsu sokushin tokubetsu sochi ho).

The 1970 Depopulated Areas Emergency Mea-sures Law (Kaso chiiki taisaku kinkyu sochi ho),which remained valid for 10 years, had fiveprincipal objectives (Mutai, 2008): to supportthe independence of kaso areas; to improve thewelfare of residents; to increase employmentopportunities; to limit or reduce regional wealthgaps; and to support the continuing existenceor the formation of a beautiful countryside. Thegovernment has set forth criteria for determiningeligible development areas, and most of thesecriteria are related to population decline andageing. In order to reduce regional disparitiesand improve social conditions in depopulatedareas, special measures contained within the lawcovered both political and fiscal policies in theform of subsidies to fund improvements in



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infrastructure for transportation and communica-tion. Since this initial law, the government hasregularly renewed and updated the legislation,targeting depopulated areas every 10 years inresponse to various initiatives by concerned ruralgroups.

In 1980, the government enacted the Depopu-lated Areas Special Promotion Law (Kaso chiikishinko tokubetsu sochi ho), also with a 10-year timelimit, whose objective was to improve the condi-tions of rural life by improving transportationinfrastructure in particular. In 1990, the 1980Shinko ho was again modified and updated as aspecial revitalization law (Kaso chiiki kasseikatokubetsu ho), again with a 10-year time limit.Compared with earlier laws, this emphasizedcommunal autonomy in the creation of localincome and the promotion of comprehensivecommunal development, a form of ‘soft’ devel-opment, to accompany such ‘hard’ developmentas infrastructure and public institutions (Matanleet al, 2011, p. 248).

Kaso chiiki, as defined under the 2000 SpecialLaw Promoting Independence in DepopulatedAreas (Kaso chiiki jiritsu sokushin tokubetsu sochiho), which remains in effect until 2021, are depop-ulated rural areas that ‘have experienced a signi-ficant population loss, whereby the area hasexperienced declines in its vitality and is in alower level in terms of production functioning andinfrastructures related to daily living, compared toother areas’ (Matanle et al, 2011, pp. 17–18).According to these definitions, 51.7 per cent ofJapan’s land area was officially designated asunder- or depopulated (Lutzeler, 2008, p. 63). InApril 2010, the law was revised once more for aperiod of 6 years and renamed the Revised SpecialLaw Promoting Independence in DepopulatedAreas (Kaisei kaso chiiki jiritsu sokushin tokubetsusochi ho). The previously mentioned term genkaishuraku introduced into official government poli-cies here refers to the worst affected kaso commu-nities, which have reached their limits. Overall, theemphasis of spending, totaling 86.1 billion Yenover the 1970–2010 period, has shifted over theyears (own calculations based on MIC, 2011):

K Early on, spending in transport, informationand communication infrastructure was nearly50 per cent; villages throughout Japan weresupported to invest in ‘hard’ developments,which were expected to stimulate regionaleconomic growth and stop the ongoing out-migration and population loss.

K Since the early 1990s, more emphasis has beenon improving the living environment andhealth care provision. The service sector wasidentified as a potential growth industry suitedto rural areas, and thus the governmentpromoted rural tourism development and thecultivation of specialty agricultural productsas a means of local economic revitalization(Matanle et al, 2011, p. 249).

K Efforts at advancing local industries remainedat the same level from the early 1980s on (about28 per cent of total spending).

K Infrastructure spending is still at more than37 per cent of total spending, including about3 per cent for information and communicationinfrastructure investment.

To secure support for the recovery of areasdevastated by the 11 March 2011 Great EastJapan Earthquake and the subsequent tsunami,the government in June 2012 enacted another5-year renewal of the kaso law (until 31 March2021).

In 2000, the government established the DirectPayment to Farmers in Hilly and MountainousAreas Scheme (Chusankanchiiki to chokusetsushiharai seido) in order to address the problemsof mountainous regions suffering from depopula-tion as a consequence of unfavorable economicconditions and agrarian abandonment. Thispolicy was introduced during a period when thecentral government was initiating decentraliza-tion as a basic stance guiding central governmentand local administration relationships. The directpayment provides an incentive to continue farm-ing activities in such less-favored areas in thelonger term because recipients commit to con-tinue farming for more than 5 years and to carryout activities that bring multifunctional benefits(for example, maintaining the rural landscape,preventing soil erosion, preserving water re-sources and bio-diversity, supporting environ-mentally friendly farming activities, promotingrecreational activities) and strengthen rural com-munities (OECD, 2009, pp. 93–95).

Obviously, village survival might not have beenseriously doubted so long as special subsidies andprotections continued to be assured by thenational government. A specific form of subsidyfor depopulated areas is the kaso-sai, where theterm sai signifies ‘debt’. Kaso-sai is a special deficitbond issued by and limited to a local governmentthat is designated as a kaso municipality. Thesemunicipalities were supported by large transfers

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of resources from richer cities via conditionaltransfers (national government disbursements)and unconditional transfers (local allocation tax)from the central government. Nevertheless,Japan’s post-war reality was that most ruralvillages have failed to regain social and economicvibrancy. The economic growth that was intendedfor Japan’s regions has failed to materializeand heavy regional infrastructure investmentnot had any real success in reducing regionalspatial disparities. Furthermore, public workshave aggravated regional economies’ dependencyon central government-controlled constructionworks (Feldhoff, 2007).

Under conditions of economic stagnation,restrictive public finances and increasing welfarecosts, the Trinity Reforms of Japan’s local taxationsystem in 2003 targeted these redistributions andmeant a massive drop in income from centralgovernment transfers for many municipalities:cuts in conditional transfers, cuts in unconditionaltransfers and transfers of tax-raising authorityfrom the central to the local governments(Machida, 2007). Those with weak local tax bases,small populations in rural areas that rely heavilyon these transfers were without doubt the losers ofthis decentralization approach. With regard tofuture policy directions, Matanle and Sato (2010,p. 208) stressed that ‘y effective management ofthe outcomes arising from depopulation maybe the most constructive response to prevailingcircumstances’. Creative, tailor-made local strate-gies and actions as well as new forms of govern-ance are in question. Particular attention needsto be paid to the identification of communityactors capable of engaging with Japan’s traditionalelite-dominated and clientelistic public sector inorder to put communities more in control of theiraffairs.

Future Policy Directions

The Japanese government is committed to identifyfuture rural policy directions for the sustainabledevelopment of rural areas using the variouspotentials of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.It is argued by the OECD (2006), however, thatagriculture is only part of rural and that ruralpolicy should be broadened to include a focuson other sectors of the economy, like serviceprovision, tourism and manufacturing. This‘New Rural Paradigm’ argues against a sectoralapproach but in favor of holistic, territoriallybounded, place-based development strategies.

Three interrelated concepts that offer opportu-nities for securing the future of the rural economyare widely discussed in the rural developmentliterature (OECD, 2006), and all three havealready made their ways into government policiesand strategies in Japan.

The first concept is that of ‘re-localization’, thatmeans going back to domestic, local agriculturalproduct, processing, distribution and consump-tion patterns to enhance the viability of regionalor even local food systems and invigorate localagriculture. ‘Local consumption of local produce’is a Japanese government campaign to promotethe consumption of agricultural products pro-duced locally and also to bring about bettercommunication between producers and consu-mers. This campaign is directly linked to ‘FoodAction Nippon’, a national movement that aimsto increase the food self-sufficiency ratio bycreating or reviving a traditional Japanese dietarypattern low in meat and meat products, fats andoils consumption. It is promoted cooperativelyby more than 5000 ‘promotion partners’ from awide range of fields, including farmers, foodmanufacturers, distributors and governmentagencies. The campaign is built on five basicactions: Eat seasonal foods; eat foods that arelocally produced; increase the amount of rice andvegetables; reduce wastage of food; educatepeople, based on the campaign to promoteshokuiku (food education) as an important meansof providing food-related knowledge and raisingawareness about food. The government alsopromotes active use of local products in schoollunch, based on the School Lunch Program Act.One of the specific goals of the school lunchprogram has always been to give students hands-on education about the importance of food.

The second concept of ‘multi-functionality’ ofagriculture links together the dimensions ofagricultural and rural change. Generally, theimportance of the agricultural sector in the ruraleconomy has diminished to the point whereagriculture is no longer the main driver of therural economy. Farm households are becomingmore interested in diversification into new sec-tors. The production of (renewable) energy, land-scape preservation, leisure and tourism offercomplementary opportunities to create thrivinglocal economies. In order to promote the idea ofmulti-functionality across the three main sectorsof economic activity, the Japanese governmenthas coined the term ‘the sixth industry’ (dai roku-jisangyo). ‘The sixth industry’ approach to rural



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revitalization is expected to synergistically createnew added-value through effective use of agri-cultural, forestry and fishery products, as well asland, water and other assets in farming, mountainand fishing villages, by integrating production,processing and distribution activities. Pilot pro-jects are under way with regard to the processingand marketing of local products, the promotionof tourism making use of local assets and theutilization of renewable energies (MAFF, 2009).Under the Inaka de Hatarakitai scheme, the govern-ment provides farm-work-related training pro-grams to encourage people to return or relocate torural areas for work. Providing financial incen-tives, the Direct Payment to Farmers in Hilly andMountainous Areas Scheme is also about foster-ing activities that bring multi-functional benefitsfor rural communities.

The local availability of assets leads to thethird concept, which is actually not new but couldgain some new momentum to reconfigure state–society relations to more closely suit the needs ofcommunities. Building on the pioneering work byKretzmann and McKnight (1993), Bryden (2010)suggested that giving local communities theopportunity to capture the gains from publicgoods as well as private assets could improve theprospects for local livelihoods and quality of life.Drawing on the experience from a couple ofEuropean countries, he demonstrates that com-munity ownership of assets can be an importantmeans to facilitate local engagement, foster localplace attachment and thereby strengthen ruralcommunity resilience. Consequently, rural com-munities should abandon the expectation ofexternally induced revitalization and capitalizeon ABCD. That implies a fundamental shift fromconcentrating on local deficiencies to concentrat-ing on local assets and capacities. This includesboth tangible assets (for example, natural endow-ments like land and landscape, water or wind)and intangible assets (for example, culturalendowments like heritage or folk culture, tran-quility or biodiversity as environmental assets aswell as the human capital). According to Woods(2010), the particular benefits of this approach,starting local revitalization projects from theinside of the community, are

K Reduced dependency on external investmentand reduced vulnerability to external decisionmaking;

K Increased retention of wealth generated in thelocality;

K Maintenance of local culture and traditions,and environmental sustainability;

K Empowerment of local communities with con-trol over development paths and projects.

The challenges are in defining the common‘community interest’, because rural communitiesare more diverse than popularly assumed, andin bringing communities together in inclusivepartnerships, because different people have dif-ferent community attachments. Woods (2010)argues that this requires a model of ‘reflexivedevelopment’, one that is flexible, responsiveand ultimately sustainable. This involves com-munity leaders and other actors building acollective understanding of community assetsand their potential and agreeing consensualways to make use of them; and repeatedlyreferring back to the community and reflectingon progress. Empowering citizens is, thus, verymuch a process of engaging and understandingthe community, and learning as a communityin problem-solving. This is particularly helpful inthe inevitable process of re-adjusting a shrinkingcommunity’s physical and built environment tobetter fit the needs of their smaller populations.The ‘compact city’ and the ‘slow city’ conceptsin combination with the Universal Design Policyare promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infra-structure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) toensure better access to services and facilitiesand to raise the efficiency of infrastructureprovision. The recent central government-drivenamalgamation of numerous smaller municipali-ties into larger cities (Heisei no dai-gappei) alsoprovided incentives for a substantial reshapingof existing settlement patterns (Shimizu, 2007).The idea is that larger municipal entities savemoney by pursuing a spatial concentration ofessential public infrastructures and services, evenif it means partial or complete abandonment ofsettlements. To put Universal Design into prac-tice, various efforts are being combined, such asremodeling existing buildings and infrastructuralfacilities, introducing new standards for transitvehicles and other transportation services, public–private partnerships in product development,educating entrepreneurs, public administrationstaff and residents (MLIT, 2005; Figure 3). Givingattention to the diverse needs of older people inparticular can support them to live independentlyin their community longer.

Recent studies on retirement migration (forexample, Murakami et al, 2009) illustrate that

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there are ‘opportunities presented by an ageingpopulation, if policy initiatives take a strategicapproach and allow these opportunities to devel-op’ (Age Concern, 2008, p. 6). Several localitieshave initiated strategies to sustain their popula-tions by attracting the current generation ofretirees, referred to as the baby boomer genera-tion. On the basis of a case study of Date City(Hokkaido), Feldhoff (2011) provides some policylessons for public bodies with regard to retireerecruitment as a strategic approach to foster localcommunity resilience. The promotion of uniquecharacteristics and qualities of communities facil-itates collective identity formation leading to agreater sense of well-being among the elderly.Strategic retiree-attraction policies are good exam-ples of more localized, partial and market-orientedinitiatives to improve local competitiveness.

This policy approach is, of course, a majorchallenge to Japan’s basically paternalistic state–society relations, which are traditionally shapedfrom the top down. Even with regard to the localfood movement in Japan, Kimura and Nishiyama(2008) criticized the fact that, although initiallystarted as a grassroots movement, many localfood initiatives are now organized and misusedby the government as a tool to appease consumersworrying about food safety and security, and notto change structures in the agricultural sector.Reflexive development requires local communities

to become more independent from central govern-ment influence and to integrate the people intolocally based development policy and planningprocesses. That is very much in contrast to formergovernment programs, which were not centeredon a participatory holistic approach. Nationalpolitics, at the same time, remain important forsecuring supportive policies for community leveldevelopment, and community asset groups haveto organize themselves to engage effectively withgovernment bodies. Efficient and reliable mechan-isms for inclusive planning and governance, stablestructures and partnerships, however, are yet to bedeveloped and implemented.

Conclusions

The current processes of demographic ageingand population decline will reach into all facetsof contemporary rural life, and that makes policyresponses very complex. The New Rural Para-digm advocated by the OECD and leading ruraldevelopment experts tries to include all relevantpolicy areas to achieve rural sustainability anda co-operative climate between national, regionaland local actors. In fact, the importance of theagricultural sector in the Japanese economy hasalready diminished dramatically and that is whythe OECD (2009) recommended a clear distinction

Figure 3: Universal Design Policy: ‘Constructing a participation society from the perspective of users’.Source: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (2005).



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between rural policy and agricultural policy. InJapan, however, there are major path dependenciesand powerful interest groups (that is, agriculturalcooperatives), which make profound change diffi-cult to achieve. Two major obstacles to an inte-grated, coordinated and consistent policy approachcan be identified: first, systemic power relationsdeeply embedded in the tradition of central stateauthoritarianism and, second, a lively inter-section-alism among rival ministries and governmentagencies developing and implementing their spe-cific policies and programs, which are frequentlycompetitive and counter-productive.

A new institutional framework is in need todeliver the necessary changes – with regard tonew modes of governance, farm sizes, the protec-tion of farmland resources, food production,processing, distribution and consumption, andstrengthening rural communities. Re-localization,multi-functionality and community assets arecomplementary approaches to enhance the liva-bility of its rural areas. The greatest opportunityis community-driven development of multifunc-tional mountain areas from the bottom up,supporting a widened employment base withhigher economic activity rates and attractingpeople. Shrinking regions still have more changeto accomplish, and it is a major policy task toenable this change and to release local commu-nities from their long-lasting culture of centralgovernment dependency.

The specific look at transformation processesin shrinking mountain communities is closelyinterconnected with other issues:

K The highly political problem of ‘equality’ in arapidly diversifying society (kakusa shakai);

K The future of public service delivery andperformance;

K The strengthening of regional innovation sys-tems;

K The role for modern information and commu-nication technologies;

K Renewable energy projects as a strategy tofoster economic growth and to build resilientcommunities;

K The effects of climate change on people livingin mountain areas.

This is obviously a vital arena for interdisci-plinary research, demographic, economic andsocial transformations and the need for politicalaction. The aim of future research is to scrutinizethe normative value of key elements associated

with the New Rural Paradigm and, more speci-fically, the reflexive development model andidentifying major obstacles to its implementationby looking at Japanese rural development practiceand asset-based community initiatives on theground. Much of rural Japan is uncertain aboutthe future, and communities need to experimentand learn the way forward.

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Shrinking communities in Japan: Community ownership of assets as a development potential for rural Japan?

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