{"id":3242,"date":"2019-11-15T07:30:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T13:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/?p=3242"},"modified":"2019-11-14T11:32:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T17:32:47","slug":"japan-society-event-embrace-rural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/japan-society-event-embrace-rural\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Society Event: Embrace Rural"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hEcqwa\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49002656397_a9e8186764_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In late October,\u00a0I attended a talk about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.japansociety.org\/page\/programs\/innovators_network\/events\/embrace-rural\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">economic development and innovation in rural communities<\/a>\u00a0in Japan and the US.<\/p>\n<p>What got me interested in this topic was\u00a0a video I watched about a rural Japanese town where pretty much the only people left were older residents;\u00a0many young\u00a0people had moved to big cities.<\/p>\n<p>Despite everyone being 65+, the residents still try to maintain\u00a0an active way of life. The video comes from two researchers focused on a study centered on &#8220;active&#8221; aging \u2014 &#8220;active&#8221; being a term created by\u00a0the World Health Organization. You can read more about &#8220;active aging&#8221;, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/ageing\/projects\/age_friendly_cities\/en\/\">Global Age-Friendly Cities Project<\/a>,\u00a0and also download the brochure on their website.<\/p>\n<h5>Being Old in Rural Japan<\/h5>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GDyPwiVObzg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>:\u00a0The story portraits two single-living seniors: the 84-year-old Shimako, a former farmer wife, with a husky deep voice, who still grows vegetables. She regularly meets her neighbors for tea chats and joins the village choir and gymnastics course. Her biggest passion however is gateball, a very popular senior team-sport in Japan, similar to croquet. And there is the 93-year-old Genichi, the oldest man in his village with driving license, who hates sport but loves composing short poems (tanka) on daily events. As he enjoys his freedom in old age, deciding for himself when to get up and when to work, he refuses to live with his son&#8217;s family. Also he still cultivates his agricultural field for self-subsistence.<\/p>\n<p>I thought it was a fascinating video. It&#8217;s about 35-min long, in German with English subtitles.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Talk\u00a0Overview<\/h2>\n<p>The talk was co-organized by New Food Economy; Design and Urban Ecologies, Parsons, The New School for Social Research; and Slow Food New York City. Presented at the Japan Society as part of their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japansociety.org\/page\/programs\/innovators_network\/projects\/innovative-model-rural-revitalization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Innovators Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hE8CbS\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49001915198_694c90646b_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our first speaker was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japansociety.org\/content.cfm\/richard_mccarthy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Richard McCarthy<\/a>, from Slow Food USA. He went to Japan to discuss and explore rural strategies through the Innovators Network. There was a moderated discussion following the presentations, led by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newfoodeconomy.org\/author\/kate-cox\/\">Kate Cox<\/a>, New Food Economy editor.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Rural Japan and Kuni<\/h2>\n<p>The Japanese speaker,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.japansociety.org\/content.cfm\/tsuyoshi_sekihara\">Tsuyoshi Sekihara<\/a>, is\u00a0an artist who is involved in rural Japanese development. He was sharing the concept of Kuni and how it developed.<\/p>\n<h4>Kuni Manifesto<\/h4>\n<p>It&#8217;s easier to show the manifesto rather than explain it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hEbqdv\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49002460261_decdbefe51_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Explanations of Kuni:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hEcquX\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49002656327_edf35ca115_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hE8BQG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49001914028_48d6fda356_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Rural US and the Aspen Institute<\/h2>\n<p>I learned a few interesting facts from the Aspen Institute speaker, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/our-people\/janet-topolsky\/\">Janet Topolsky<\/a>, focused on Rural Development Hubs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>About 49 million Americans live in rural communities<\/li>\n<li>Over\u00a050% of the Native American population live in rural communities<\/li>\n<li>The top industries in rural areas are: education, health, and manufacturing, in that order<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/publications\/rural-development-hubs-strengthening-americas-rural-innovation-infrastructure\/\">Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America\u2019s Rural Innovation Infrastructure<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"GsnIok8RCr\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/publications\/rural-development-hubs-strengthening-americas-rural-innovation-infrastructure\/\">Rural Development Hubs Executive Summary<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/publications\/rural-development-hubs-strengthening-americas-rural-innovation-infrastructure\/embed\/#?secret=GsnIok8RCr\" data-secret=\"GsnIok8RCr\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" title=\"&#8220;Rural Development Hubs Executive Summary&#8221; &#8212; The Aspen Institute\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/flic.kr\/p\/2hEbqoA\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49002460846_84c20bcfa0_c.jpg\" alt=\"Japan Society: Embrace Rural\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Observations<\/h2>\n<p>Seems like there are a lot of business opportunities in rural areas for creative entrepreneurs. Rural areas tend to get overlooked. Traditionally, businesses focus on scaling up. Rather than focus on scalability, the speakers suggested focusing on penetration. That is, what percentage of a population is using your business.<\/p>\n<p>Marketplace, on NPR, recently discussed the lack of broadband access in rural Georgia.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A lot of rural America is a desert when it comes to high-speed internet access. And that\u2019s a drag on economic growth: Communities without broadband have a hard time attracting new residents and businesses&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"mp_205366\" title=\"Marketplace Embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/2019\/10\/23\/rural-broadband-is-a-problem-and-georgia-is-mapping-it\/\/popout\" width=\"100%\" height=\"240px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Another problem rural communities have is\u00a0dwindling\u00a0populations. Here&#8217;s a recent CBS Sunday Morning video about the population struggles of small towns in Japan, now facing extinction, as the country&#8217;s overall population decreases from a peak a few years ago. For instance, in the town featured in the video, the school&#8217;s 6th grade class now only has 6 students, down from dozens.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x7iFZrhVKoQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The video above reviews some of the more creative and technological solutions Japan has invented. Ideas range from repurposing malls to senior centers, to high-tech mausoleums, to robots \u2014 Japan likes robots \u2014 officiating weddings due to a shortage of monks.\u00a0Lot of\u00a0interesting concepts to think about.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Now that I think about it, this story of rural villages populated by an aging population reminds me of Tokyo Story, by Yasujiro Ozu.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R65wTHVUCGk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In late October,\u00a0I attended a talk about\u00a0economic development and innovation in rural communities\u00a0in Japan and the US. What got me interested in this topic was\u00a0a video I watched about a rural Japanese town where pretty much the only people left were older residents;\u00a0many young\u00a0people had moved to big cities. Despite everyone being 65+, the residents &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/japan-society-event-embrace-rural\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Japan Society Event: Embrace Rural&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,420,80],"tags":[552,551,550],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3242"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3391,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions\/3391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}