Urban-to-rural lifestyle migrants in Japanese island communities

Island Art Sustainability Education: A case study of Osakikamijima, Japan

“…-69 -strategies now focus on attracting urban migrants and developing cultural tourism activities to breathe new life into peripheral islands facing depopulation and aging (Zollet & Qu, 2023;Qu & Zollet, 2023b, Zollet & Qu, 2024. In addition, understanding sustainable development issues and possible responses to them in small islands in a changing world is also key topic in Island Studies (Wallner et al, 1996;Douglas, 2006).…”

“…Education is crucial because island depopulation has resulted in many island communities having a disproportionately high percentage of elderly people. Outmigration and aging have resulted in the progressive closure of primary and secondary schools, hospitals, and other infrastructures, further exacerbating the exodus of young people and families, including for educational purposes (Zollet & Qu, 2023). Providing high-quality and locally-relevant education on islands, therefore, is one key aspect of supporting revitalisation by incentivising young people to stay or even move to islands.…”

“…Successful arts-and creativity-based initiatives tend to follow a neo-endogenous revitalisation model that combines the reintegration of extra-island resources and the cooperation of the island community (Qu & Zollet, 2023a). This process is often facilitated by the growing number of newcomer residents and return migrants (Hiraoka et al, 2022;Zollet & Qu, 2023;Qu & Zollet, 2023c), who act as a bridge between local communities and outside resources and networks and promote socially embedded entrepreneurship. These newcomers are not only contributing to the local development of the tourism industry but also to the sustainability _______________________________ Shima Volume 18 Number 1 2024 -71 -of the community through the enhancement of local infrastructure and services for islanders (Qu & Zollet, 2023b;Qu & Zollet, 2023c).…”

Adventures in Small Tourism

“…In the last decade, however, the growing importance of micro-entrepreneurship for community revitalization and resilience building has become more and more apparent. It is possible to identify three broad categories of in-migrant micro-entrepreneurs based on their migration pathways: (1) Regional Revitalization Corps program (Chiiki Okoshi Kyōryokutai in Japanese) members, who moved to a rural community through a government-funded community development scheme (Zollet andQu 2019, 2023); (2) young and/or middle-aged in-migrants moving to rural destinations independently and with no previous connections to the community; (3) in-migrants with previous family ties to the community (e.g., their family was originally from the island, but they were not born there), including return migrants. Within these three categories, the motivations for moving to the community and opening businesses vary, with some being more lifestyle-oriented and others more economy-oriented.…”