The Baby Farmers – Revitalising rural Japan

THE WORLD will watch as Japan takes a lead in confronting the dilemma of an ageing (and shrinking) population. Studies show lower birth rates in major cities, so Japan has embarked on a programme to encourage young people to opt for rural living . . .

Countries with shrinking populations will watch with interest Japan’s strategy to arrest the decline in its population under an initiative launched by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Equally interesting is the Japanese thesis that urbanisation can undermine a nation’s fertility. Hence, the invigoration of rural Japan is an integral part of its re-population strategy.
In the absence of policy intervention, Japan’s population will shrink to 87 million in 2060,
according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
Japan’s population of 127 million started to decline from 2004, but it is only in this decade that the drop has escalated. In 2013, the decline was a record 244,000. Japan is the fastest-
ageing society in the world today.
The ageing of the population has been blamed for an array of Japan’s economic problems – from deflation to devaluation of its currency, the yen.
The Abe Government is making an attempt to slow the decline, aiming to maintain a population of at least 100 million in 2060.
A key plank of the Government plan is what it calls a procreation-friendly social framework, according to a publication published by Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat.
Japan will summon its considerable resources in research and development capacity, backed by family-friendly policies, to lift the country’s overall fertility rate.
The birth rate was 1.43 in 2013, but to maintain current population size, that rate has to be lifted to 2.04.
As well, employers are being urged to deploy policies that will encourage and assist women in combining a career with raising a family. For its part, the Government will increase the capacity of childcare centres by 400,000 children in three years.
Changing and upgrading the role of women in Japanese society and the workforce is a theme that Prime Minister Abe has reiterated both in domestic and international forums.
The twin effort of bringing economic activities to regional Japan and luring city-dwellers to live outside the big cities is central to Japan’s population strategy.
Appropriately, 33-year-old Shinjiro Koizumi, second son of former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has been appointed to the role of overseeing Japan’s regional development — in addition to his job as a Parliamentary
Secretary in the Cabinet Office.
Writing in a Government publication,
Regional Empowerment for Japan’s Growth, Kozumi, a post-graduate from New York’s
Columbia University, wrote:
“My generation has inherited the challenge of a shrinking and ageing population.
“Our job is to tackle that challenge head on. Our predecessors in the Meiji period and in the postwar era built rebuilt a modern nation by
importing Western expertise and technology.
“But no nation has ever experienced the kind of population shrinkage and ageing that is
occurring in Japan.
“So we have no one to turn to for guidance this time around. In our nation-building for the 21st century. We need to blaze our own trail.”
The rationale is that city-dwellers tend to have fewer children than people who live in regional areas. And many of those currently living in the cities would prefer to live in a less-urban setting if work was available.
The migration of young people raises the average age in non-urban regions and lowers it in metropolitan regions, says the Government. Childbearing rates for women of the same age brackets tend to be lower in big cities than in rural areas.  And this, the Japanese Government concludes, is reason to believe that
urbanisation can undermine a nation’s fertility.
It also notes that the differences between urban and non- urban are especially pronounced in Japan. Greater Tokyo, including the capital’s neighbouring prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa and Saitama, alone accounts for more than a quarter of the Japanese population.
“So measures for revitalising non-metropolitan regions are the centrepiece of the Abe Government’s programme for tackling Japan’s demographic challenges,” says the Cabinet Secretariat publication.
These measures include initiatives to
increase the competitiveness of Japanese agriculture, incentives and deregulation in support of regional entrepreneurship, and the establishment of a nationwide network of village hubs
offering medical care and other crucial services.
There will be more investment in transport infrastructure to facilitate better interconnectivity between regional centres.
It was in this spirit of enlivening rural
Japan’s economy that Jetro, Japan’s investment and trade agency, held a Japan-Victoria Business Forum in Melbourne August.
The forum, attended mostly by small to medium-size Japanese companies, was also aimed at attracting investment from comparable
companies from Australia.
The carefully selected range of companies represented the diversity and interests of
regional Japan — while also reflecting key sectors of the economy that the Government is keen to promote.
For example, two of the presenters were Maruei Co, which produces Japanese green and other teas, and Hiramatsu Seafood
Company. Under its regional revitalisation strategy, the Japan Government looks to set up export promotion groups for areas such as beef, Japanese tea and fishery products. Tourism, is another promotional industry.  All Nippon
Airways, part of the delegation to Melbourne, is due to resume its services to Australia soon.
The Japanese Government wants to harness the rich and unique local cultures of regional Japan as tourism resources. Its ambition is to develop world class tourist attractions.
It plans to further ease visa issuance requirements, accelerate and facilitate immigration procedures and expand services to meet the demands of international tourists.
The services sector, including restaurants, is also being promoted to support the tourism
industry.  The Japan Food Services Association and Enoteca, a wine company, were part of the delegation. Also represented were high tech companies covering new industries such as life sciences, regenerative medicine and sustainable agribusiness .
The Kaiteki Co, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, has developed water-saving agricultural technologies. An offshoot, Kaiteki fresh, has established several projects in Victoria – the latest being Bunyip Farm, set up in July to produce salad greens for the Victorian market.
Kaiteki’s principle is about sustainability in food production for the future – addressing the issues of water shortages, nitrogen cycle problems, worsening climate change and an
increasing global population.
The regional revitalisation plan is part of
Japan’s overall growth strategy, under Abenomics.  Implementation of the strategy comes under the Headquarters for Overcoming Population Decline and Revitalising the Local Economy in Japan, set up recently under the supervision of the Cabinet Secretariat.