Sustainability in Contemporary Rural Japan

Introduction Part I Challenges in Rural Areas 1. Social Sustainability in Post-3.11 Coastal Japan: The Significance of Social Capital 2. Local Schools in Remote Areas: Challenges for Youth, Parents and Community 3. The Heisei Municipal Mergers: Measures of Sustainability, Equality and Identity 4. Agriculture in Japan: Free Trade and the Need for Reform Part II Case Studies Employment in Rural Areas 5. Social Enterprise Businesses in Rural Community Development in Hokkaido 6. Working for Others in Kawakami: Contradictive Expectations, Tensions, and Negotiating Power Relations Sustainability Across Generations: Life Reform, Lifestyle Migration and U-Turn Movements 7. Young Urban Migrants in the Japanese Countryside Between Self-realization and Slow Life? The Quest for Subjective Well-being and Post-materialism 8. Islands for Life: Artistic Responses to Remote Social Polarisation and Population Decline in Japan 9. Reforming Life as Mothers and Wives in Rural Japan: The Post-WWII Life Reform (Seikatsu Kaizen) Initiative in Hamlet M, Tochigi Prefecture Brand Management and Tourism 10. Tourism as a Future for Local Rail Services? An Analysis of Debates in Akita Prefecture 11. Hokkaido’s Overlapping Protected Areas and Regional Revitalization: The Case Study of Toya-Usu Geopark in Shikotsu-Toya National Park