2016 Volume 62 Issue 4 Pages 324-345
This paper has investigated and clarified the possibility of regional revitalization by researching the spread of domestic migrations to local areas and the realities associated with those local areas. Above all, the attributes immigrants bring to the local region from large metropolitan areas and regional characteristics in move destinations are made clear. Also, this paper looked for the contributing factors of local area migrants as well as the reality of the local area policies on this migration.
The following points became clear as a result of this research.
First, the phenomenon called “return to the country” is very clear. This local move can be confirmed in specific towns and villages and other specific areas. However, migration into local areas equivalent to the “return to the country in a narrow sense” is not seen equally across all of Japanʼs local areas.
Second, young people in their twenties and thirties are at the center of migration into local areas. Included in this is the so-called “U-turn” phenomenon where these young people flowed into large metropolitan areas to enter into higher level education or to gain employment during their time there. On the other hand, a similar phenomenon, called the “I turn”, happens where, for various reasons, people move from a large metropolitan area to local areas.
Third, it can be said that it is difficult to judge whether this “return to the country” is a transient phenomenon or that in the future it will be an ongoing structural phenomenon. It is also not easy to determine clearly as of now whether the “return to the country” seen in Japan is a phenomenon similar to the counter urbanization seen in Europe and America or whether it is a different phenomenon.
Finally, spatial tendencies of areas chosen by incoming migrants as a move destination are not yet fixed. On the other hand, it has been revealed that “policies for inbound migration and settlement promotion” have been enriched. Also “human contact” by local officials responsible for migration, along with the involvement of local residents in each town or village, is an important element on which potential migrants decide upon a local area to move to.
This “return to the country” phenomenon was certainly seen in local regions as explained above. This paper came to the conclusion that the motiving reason can be found in a variety of sense of expectations on local regions and centered on young people.
