Post-pandemic developments in lifestyle migration in Japan: From back-to-the-land to urbanrural?

Abstract

This qualitative paper explores the friction at the intersection of individual aspirations to mobile lives and systemic norms shaped by sedentary ideals by approaching counterurbanisation in Japan, more specifically lifestyle migration, through the lens of regimes of mobility (Glick-Schiller and Salazar, 2013). Examining the lived experiences and narratives of Japanese lifestyle migrants in rural areas as well as governmental materials, I propose the term “urbanrural” to portray the new transitional period Japan has entered after the Covid-19 pandemic to analyze the multiple interlinkages between urban and rural areas. Introducing rare findings from fieldwork conducted in Western Japan in 2021, this paper seeks to radically rethink the meaning of population flows in contemporary counterurbanisation by developing a circular model of kankei jinkou (relationship population).