| Chapter 1: | Introducing Japan’s Shrinking Regions* |
published its seminal report, World Population Ageing: 1950–2050, which described global trends and included indicators by major regions and countries. From this report emerge four important issues:
The report also reveals that each country is at different stages of the ageing process and that the pace of change differs significantly among countries. Though it is progressing slowly, ageing is largely irreversible.
Nevertheless, the story of rural and regional decline is not complete without the consideration that, from a broader historical perspective, shrinkage itself is not an endpoint; something always follows. Eisenstadt (1988) asserted that even social and community collapse, as devastating as it may seem to one who is involved, almost never means ‘the complete end of those political systems and their accompanying civilizational frameworks,’ a notion that leads to ‘viewing collapse as a part of the continuous process’ that ultimately may lead to some form of revitalisation (p. 242). It is, however, by no means certain that revitalisation will necessarily incorporate a human element, as examples of former settlements and civilisations now overrun by thriving populations of flora and fauna attest. As valuable as Eisenstadt’s view is, experience is often a more awkward and complicated affair that also incorporates a great deal of human agency. Although natural succession may, at first glance, appear to require no input other than neglect, realising the potential of a cycle of rural decline and revitalisation requires foresight, imagination, and