Depopulation, Aging, and Living Environments (eBook)

Kenji Tsutsumi, Dr. Lit., is a Professor in the Section of Human Geography, Graduate School of Letters, Osaka University. He is a socioeconomic geographer, and his main research fields are depopulation, regional change, regional planning, regional social capital, and theory of spatial peripheralization. He often visits mountainous villages, islands, former coal mining regions, and even locally decaying sites in large cities. He holds two posts as Professor at his school and was one of the first teachers in the Erasmus Mundus Program there. He is now also a Professor for the Programs for the Leading Graduate Schools, established and sponsored by the National Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology-the 'Cross Boundary Innovation Program' at Osaka University. In 2008, he was chosen as a contributor to the work of 'The Shrinking Cities Project' by Philipp Oswalt and in 2014 as a contributor to The International Encyclopedia of Geography, edited by the American Association of Geographers. In addition, he is a representative of a junior sports club and is an instructor of one of the Japanese martial arts, Giwakempo (having a 6th-grade black belt), as a local leader for child education.

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This book provides perspectives on depopulated areas and regional social capital from positivistic field surveys. Among the developed countries of the world, Japan has a very small amount of national land, with almost 70% of it being in mountainous locations. Concentration of populations and economic capital into large metropolitan areas along with many depopulated and population-aged regions in the mountainous parts can be seen in the country. A very clear regional disparity has arisen in Japan, especially since the era of its high economic growth. This book also offers critical suggestions for the shrinking societies of the developed world in the era of Society 5.0, the fifth stage of society where economic development is achieved and social issues are resolved by the fusion of cyber and physical space. To begin, the book refers to an outline of depopulation and depopulated areas in Japan. Then, it deals with issues of depopulation, out-migration from a mountainous village, revitalization of local industries, and maintenance of daily living functions in these areas. This book is suitable for students and scholars of the social sciences, regional planners, staffs of government offices, members of NPOs, general citizens, and the many other people who are interested in sustainability of a region and a community in a shrinking social environment.