Japanese rural resettlers: communities with newcomers as heterotopic spaces

Abstract

The increasing number of young urbanites settling into the countryside of Japan compels urgent research on communities with newcomers and newly emerging lifestyles. This article explores the daily practices of newcomers to rural areas to understand the complexity of the transformation of rurality in contemporary post-growth Japan. This study was conducted in 2011–2015 and draws upon ethnographic data from rural communities. The article details three distinctive lifestyles practiced by rural newcomers: self-sufficiency in food, agro-entrepreneurship, and an “average” way of life. This article analyzes contemporary rural Japan through the lens of heterotopia as a specific characteristic of modern space where seemingly incompatible sites are set side by side. Highlighting the complexity of contemporary rural spaces allows for challenging the norms of conventional perceptions of rurality.

Keywords:

• Rural newcomers
• heterotopia
• post-growth Japan
• lifestyle

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This research was conducted as a part of Ph.D. studies funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

Technical note

All names in this article are pseudonyms. Interviews took place in 2012 (Ryōta Uno), 2012–2013 (Yuko Akihara), and 2013 (Masashi Kishida). This research complies with the norms and regulations of Research Ethics established in Waseda University.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ksenia Kurochkina

Ksenia Kurochkina received BA and MA degrees in International Business in the St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance in Russia and MA and Ph.D. degrees in International Relations/Japanese Studies at Waseda University, Japan. Kurochkina’s primary research interest is contemporary rurality in Japan and Russia. In March 2020, Kurochkina defended her Ph.D. thesis, “Resettlement of Young People to the Countryside in Japan: Alternative Life Choices in a Changing Society.” Since April 2021, Kurochkina has been an associated researcher at the Sociological Institute, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.