Cosmopolitan Rurality, Depopulation, and Entrepreneurial Ecosyste ...

A fairly common reason for moving/returning to an area like Tōhoku after living in an urban area like Tokyo for several years is the need to care for aging parents or accompany a spouse who needs to provide care or simply wants to be closer to aging parents after many years apart.³⁴ In some cases, although the numbers are relatively small, people have moved from cities to the countryside motivated by back-to-the land sentiments aimed at pursuing healthier lifestyles or to learn organic farming practices.³⁵ Indeed, settlements have been developed where groups of people have migrated from the cities with common interests in traditional and organic farming techniques,³⁶ and there have been entrepreneurial efforts to establish traditional and organic farming practices in a variety of communities not only in Tōhoku but in other parts of Japan, as well as the creation of educational programs to promote awareness among urbanites about preservation and development of ideas and practices related to sustainable lifestyles through opportunities to work and learn via participation in the practice of organic farming as helpers for full-time farmers.³⁷

One such program I have observed in Niigata Prefecture (adjacent to Tōhoku) is known as Panorama Farm (PF). This is a fairly new business aimed at helping local farmers deal with the high costs of rice farming as well as providing labor for rice farming by supporting opportunities to bring urban adults and children to Niigata to experience farm life through work, often for a weekend. One of the ways PF helps farmers is by purchasing rice production equipment—which, including machines such as rice combines, can involve an expense equivalent to at least $125,000 and represents a cost that can take more than 10 years to recoup if a farmer has one hectare of rice paddy (many farms are smaller than this and the average size of a farm in Japan, excluding those that involve livestock, is 1.5 hectares³⁸), leaving no income as a result of labor from rice production for a long period of time. As an alternative to each farm family owning its own equipment, PF purchases the equipment and manages production on over 150 hectares of rice paddies that are owned by local families. The families can buy into the company or lease the