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2. The Social Impact of Rural–Urban Shift: Some Akita Examples
- State University of New York Press
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25 Chapter 2 The Social Impact of Rural–Urban Shift Some Akita Examples John A. Mock Over the past century and a half, there has been a marked shift in population in Japan from rural to urban settings creating one of the most urbanized societies in the world. Obviously, the basic rural–urban shift started more than a century ago but the modern manifestation, with industrialization, has continued effectively up to the present and shows little sign of decreasing. This chapter seeks to compare aspects of the impact of the rural–urban population shift in five different townships in Akita Prefecture, the next to the most northern prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast of the island of Honshu – . There are three major goals in this analysis. The first is to describe some of the patterns of depopulation, the aging of the population, and changes in the labor activities over the past eight decades. The second goal is to examine some of the apparent reasons for depopulation, particularly the notion that economic factors are always the primary movers in rural–urban migration at least in an industrialized society like Japan. The third goal is to examine some of the effects of depopulation on the social order, on residents’ perceptions and, to a lesser extent, on the environment. Evidence from Akita suggests that while economic factors are undoubtedly important, social factors —notably status, occupational choice, the concepts of “convenience” and “modernity,” how “cool” the location is considered, and indeed, a wide variety of national and prefectural policies—may be more important than simple income. These notions appear to be reinforced by the similarities of the experiences of the Akita townships and the very long term patterns that appear to be holding true in Akita and elsewhere. Background The structure of the machi and mura (current small townships) in Akita prefecture is the result of amalgamation of mura (smaller villages). This process of consolidation has been going on for some time with the previous wave of restructuring occurring about 40 years ago. This consolidation coincided approximately with the postwar population peak which was also the historical high for all of these townships. The term townships is used at the beginning of this chapter because of the structure of the units even though they display considerable variation. While there is usually a sho – tengai (shopping street) in some of the older village structures inherited by the towns, these shopping streets, or downtown areas do not always continue to be central to the consolidated towns and are often deteriorating rapidly. This is the result of the consolidation of villages into towns where there may or may not have a town center. Further, again while quite variable, the area of many of these towns is very large and the population density, figured as the total population as a function of total area, is quite low because a lot of very low density area is included in all of the towns. This is misleading because the vast bulk of the area is much more sparsely settled than the official numbers would suggest. Unfortunately, it is not possible to track density of various areas of the original villages accurately with the township-based modern census data. However , all five of these towns have one or more fairly dense areas surrounded by large areas of very sparse population. Since the previous consolidation, most of the towns and cities in Akita Prefecture have both been steadily losing population and the average age of the remaining population has increased markedly. As a result of the decline and aging of their populations, the towns have been experiencing a number of similar changes, most of which are perceived as negative. All of this is set in a context where the national birth rate of Japan has dropped below replacement rate and the projection, in the absence of any significant migration, is for the population to decline (see fig. 2.1). The projection shown below is a straight-line projection where current variables are held constant, then projected until 2100. Given this premise, a rather spectacular reduction in total population is projected. Similarly, with a very low birth rate and a very long life expectancy the percentage of the population over 65, nationwide, is projected to increase for the next half century, then stabilize at a very high level (see fig. 2.2), almost a third of the total population for Japan as a whole. Akita is projected to have a higher percentage...