As Japan moves to revive its countryside, pandemic chases many from cities

Pasona

04/11/2020 24:25

* Pandemic helps some people, businesses move away from
Tokyo
    * Outflow of population from Tokyo exceeds inflow - govt
data
    * Suga seeks to revive the economies of rural areas

    By Tetsushi Kajimoto
    TOKYO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - When the coronavirus outbreak
caused rice and instant noodles to disappear from supermarket
shelves in Tokyo this year, Kaoru Okada, 36, decided to leave
the capital because he was worried about food security.
    Okada settled in the central Japanese city of Saku, Nagano
prefecture, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Tokyo,
maintaining his online retail and export business while growing
vegetables in shared farms and threshing rice.
    "I moved out of Tokyo in June as soon as the domestic travel
ban was lifted, thinking now is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity," Okada told Reuters. "Living close to a
food-producing centre and connections with farmers give me a
sense of security."
    As the pandemic has pushed many companies to allow
telecommuting, it has also caused population to flow out of
Tokyo - the first time that has happened in years, the latest
government data showed.
    The shift could boost Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who
made revitalising Japan's decaying rural regions a core plank of
his socioeconomic platform.
    In September, 30,644 people moved out of Tokyo, up 12.5%
year-on-year, while the number moving in fell 11.7% to 27,006,
the data showed.
    It was the third straight month the those moving out
outnumbered those moving in, the longest run on record, led by
people in their 20s and 30s.
    Mizuto Yamamoto, 31, now uses telecommuting to skip Tokyo's
jam-packed morning trains.
    An employee at staffing firm Caster Co, he moved about 150
km (93 miles) west of Tokyo to Hokuto in the mountainous
Yamanashi prefecture last year with his wife and 2-year-old son.
    "It was good to move to quiet areas like Hokuto surrounded
by rivers, the Southern Alps and Mt. Fuji," Yamamoto told
Reuters. "There's no crowd of people, which reduces the virus
risks."
        
    NOT CLINGING TO TOKYO
    Premier Suga, from rural Akita prefecture in the north, made
the revitalisation of Japan's countryside one of his key goals.
    Despite a lack of jobs and infrastructure to support them,
local governments and businesses have been trying for years –
largely in vain - to draw more people to rural areas.
    Hidetoshi Yuzawa, an official in Iida, Nagano Prefecture,
said Nagano is among the most popular places to migrate because
of how much support, including mentors, it offers newcomers. 
    With help from Iida, Mio Nanjo, a 41-year-old pastry chef,
is renovating a traditional house into a cafe, which she plans
to open in the town of Matsukawa next spring.
    A single mother of three, Nanjo moved from an area southwest
of Tokyo this summer after the pandemic shut down the
confectionery where she was working and her son lost his job at
a truck maker.
    "The move allowed me to start all over again," Nanjo told
Reuters. "There's no point of clinging to Tokyo, where there are
crowds and many people commit suicide."
    Jobs are also leaving the city. 
    A major staffing firm, Pasona Group Inc  2168.T , said in
September it would move its headquarters and 1,200 employees to
Awaji island off Kobe, western Japan, the home of 68-year-old
chief executive Yasuyuki Nambu.
    The lockdowns this spring were a decisive factor, Nambu
said, adding that the trend would continue as companies and
employees changed their mindsets about work-life balance.
    "Regional society is stress-free, and you can live a life
rich in delicious foods and activities such as fishing and
farming," Nambu told Reuters.
    Other firms, such as Caster, have already based their
business model on telecommuting, making it easy to hire workers
by offering jobs wherever they are, said Shota Nakagawa, 34, CEO
of the company in the southern Japanese city of Saito.
    "Workers can avoid commuting on rush-hour trains and
companies can spare transportation costs and reduce office
space, all of which will improve profits," Nakagawa said.
    But in Saku, Okada, the online business owner, has no
intention of living there forever - although that doesn't mean
he'll move back to Tokyo.
    "As long as I can work anywhere, I will keep hopping to find
a place best suited to my life at the time," he said.

 (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
 ((tetsushi.kajimoto@thomsonreuters.com;))