Nov 15, 2021 (The Washington Post) - The global pandemic has prompted a wholesale rethinking of life choices around the world. But in places such as Japan, where rigid work cultures offer few alternative paths, the pandemic has brought a rare opportunity for residents to reimagine how their futures could — not should — look.
In Tokyo and surrounding areas, the rethink is particularly strong among people in their 20s and 30s, according to a November survey of more than 10,000 people by a government office looking at the impact of the pandemic.
These young workers are seeking alternatives to Tokyo’s corporate grind, marked by long hours, cramped subway commutes, meetings with bosses over after-work drinks and strict corporate hierarchies. About one-third of the people in their 20s and 30s living in greater Tokyo said they had taken steps in the past six months to move to rural Japan, according to the survey. Among 20-somethings alone, 44.9 percent said they were interested in moving to rural Japan.
While the figures represent a small sample, they nonetheless point to a trend that is unfolding during an important time for Japan’s rural areas, whose populations are rapidly shrinking with a combination of elderly residents and declining birthrates.
In recent years, national and local governments have been promoting rural revitalization efforts to attract younger residents to the outskirts of Japan, including jobs with companies that would allow teleworking, and offering unoccupied rural homes for sale for as low as $455.
Japan’s new prime minister, Fumio Kishida, is looking to ramp up such efforts. Among Kishida’s major initiatives is investing in programs aimed at closing the urban-rural divide, a plan he has dubbed “Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation.”
“It is our areas outside our major urban centers that are of the utmost importance,” Kishida said in an Oct. 14 news conference, insisting that a “digital transformation” will address quandaries such as depopulation of rural areas.
