The rapid aging of and decrease in the population of many of Japan's rural areas is ironically having the knock-on effect of accelerating environmental degradation, and achieving sustainable regional development could help solve the ecological problems as well as the social and economic woes confronting these areas. Indeed, this key message in the latest edition of the government's white paper on the environment has a point. What's needed will be steady implementation of the proposed measures to achieve the desired goal, including financial and regulatory steps to assist local initiatives for renewable energy development.

Talk about environment problems tends to focus on the effects of the concentration of people, money and resources in big cities, such as mass energy consumption, waste production and air pollution from cars and trucks. It is feared these challenges will intensify as population flight to metropolitan areas continues.

On the other hand, many parts of rural Japan that have suffered the exodus of people and businesses are experiencing different forms of environmental woes. One such example, as the annual report points out, is the worsening conditions of the satoyama traditional landscape in which forest and farmland have long maintained a balanced coexistence — thanks to the nurturing eye of local residents. The rapid aging of local farmers and exodus by younger people to cities have led to the collapse of such landscapes in many areas, causing a loss of biodiversity on one hand and an increase in the damage caused by wild animals.