Tag - rural-life

 
Menu
Search
 
November 04, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

RURAL LIFE

Despite the advance of synthetic alternatives and declines in the available workforce, some textile workers still see the potential of traditional persimmon dyeing.
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 1, 2025
Sun-dried and sustainable, Japan’s persimmon dye lives on
Thanks to Japan's largest freshwater lake, Shiga Prefecture has long thrived as a production center of persimmon tannin dyeing.
Two robots automating tasks at Arikawa Seisakusho in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Oct 31, 2025
Government to help rural businesses adopt robots amid labor shortage
Aimed at boosting productivity despite labor shortages, a new group will train advisers to help companies introduce and use robotics effectively.
Police investigate the scene of a bear attack that killed one person and injured three others on Friday in the village of Higashinaruse in Akita Prefecture.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2025
Bear kills another person in Japan in record year for fatal attacks
Separate bear attacks in Japan killed one and injured four on Friday, officials said, days after the government vowed to toughen measures against the animals.
A Swedish snowboard instructor works at the Niseko ski resort area on Hokkaido, in Kutchan, in December 2022
JAPAN / Society
Oct 4, 2025
A Japanese ski resort town is roiled by a debate over immigration
Residents are protesting a planned housing facility for foreign workers, exposing the conflict between labor needs and worries over immigration.
Haruo Tsukamoto, a rank-and-file member of the Liberal Democratic Party and a rice farmer in Ibaraki Prefecture, questions if the party still stands for people like him.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 2, 2025
The party that ruled Japan for decades is in danger of crumbling
Long-time supporters are questioning if the Liberal Democratic Party still stands for them even as populist and far-right challengers make inroads.
Originally from Brisbane, Australia, Linda Joyce moved to rural Tochigi Prefecture in 2024 for a career shift from teaching to hospitality and sustainable tourism.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 25, 2025
Linda Joyce: ‘We hope people recognize the benefits of exploring rural areas’
Former teacher Linda Joyce shifted careers to the tourism industry in 2024 and now works at a historic property in rural Tochigi Prefecture.
Juan Ansotegui walks on his property in Villalibado, a hamlet in the Odra-Pisuerga comarca of Burgos, Castile, Spain.
WORLD / Society
Sep 12, 2025
Spain wants to save rural areas — and it's finding creative ways to do it
Public and private actors are experimenting with ways to reverse demographic decline and save the centuries-old histories, traditions and cultures of Spain's rural communities.
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2025
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shirakawago is famed for its verdant landscape and gasshō-zukuri farmhouses, which are hundreds of years old.
People buy groceries from a mobile supermarket in a rural area of Nagomi, Kumamoto Prefecture. The government is considering a new "hometown resident" registration system to help strengthen regional revitalization measures.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2025
Japan eyes two types of 'hometown resident' registration
The system is included in the government's basic vision for regional revitalization, adopted in June.
The area around Shibuya Station in Tokyo. After the end of World War II, population concentration in the capital accelerated while other parts of Japan continue to see population declines.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 18, 2025
80 years on: Tokyo prospers while local revitalization still insufficient
Experts stress the importance of setting up a system in which industrial resources are circulated locally in order to create a sustainable society.
Oita Prefectural Kusu Miyama High School in the town of Kusu, Oita Prefecture
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Aug 4, 2025
Two Oita towns to launch program to nurture aspiring local teachers
As the towns are facing population decline, there are few young aspiring teachers there.
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
Shuhei Nakata, president of Nakata Kogei — a wooden-hanger maker in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture — says a revised work evaluation system and a strict policy against workplace harassment has helped to attract women to the company.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jul 14, 2025
Fukushima looks to local initiatives to combat population decline
The measures will bring the area in line with other parts of Japan that are proactively trying to retain residents.
Expectant parents Masataka and Saki Ohita look at ultrasound images of their unborn twins.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 23, 2025
Childbirth facilities disappearing from Fukushima towns
With just 26 facilities in the prefecture that can handle deliveries, there is concern that the trend could accelerate population decline.
A registration system linking local governments with the so-called connected population — nonresidents who regularly interact with regional areas — is designed to encourage people living in urban areas to play active roles in rural communities amid their shrinking populations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2025
Japan considers new system to connect urban and rural populations
The system aims to help those in overpopulated cities to play more active roles in rural communities with shrinking populations.
Young women are moving from rural regions to Tokyo due to the lack of opportunities for education and employment, as well as the prevalence of stereotypical gender roles in their hometowns, a survey by the Cabinet Office last December found.
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2025
Citing lack of opportunities, young women in Japan are not returning to rural areas
The government also stressed in its 2025 white paper on gender equality the need to eliminate the "fixed sense of gender roles" in rural communities.
The government is looking to ease the overconcentration of businesses in Tokyo to tackle labor shortages in the countryside, ensure nationwide economic growth and realize a sustainable society.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 13, 2025
Government aims to create 10,000 jobs via business relocations from Tokyo
The move is aimed at easing overconcentration of companies in the capital and bridge an urban-rural divide in economic growth.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (right) speaking at the Headquarters for the Promotion of Gender Equality on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 10, 2025
Japan OKs gender policy guidelines featuring aid for women's startups
The initiative contains support for female entrepreneurship through gender equality centers set up by local governments.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visits Jins Park in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 7, 2025
Ishiba vows to set up council for regional revitalization
He hopes to include the plan in a basic concept of his signature "Regional Revitalization 2.0" program.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi (third from left) speaks at a Council for Gender Equality meeting held at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 3, 2025
Japan to promote women's startups as part of push to stop rural outflow
Seeing fewer job prospects for women in the countryside as a problem, the government will improve consulting systems for business startups in rural areas.
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
More Japanese universities pushing toward teaching in English
Waseda University in Tokyo
A narrow Pacific waterway at heart of U.S. plans to choke China’s vast navy
Philippine and Australian troops fire an M777 howitzer during live fire exercises as part of joint military drills in Laur, Nueva Ecija, the Philippines, in August.
Trump would make U.S. Supreme Court history by attending tariffs case
There is no record in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 235-year history of a sitting president ever attending arguments, according to Clare Cushman, director of publications and resident historian at the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Dodgers clinch back-to-back World Series titles as Blue Jays downed in thriller
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and teammates celebrate after winning the World Series against the Blue Jays. Yamamoto was named MVP for the series.
How airlines are refining their in-flight food in Japan's tourism boom
All Nippon Airways' gourmet program, The Connoisseurs, showcases the Japanese concept of "shun" (peak season for ingredients), giving passengers a preview of the refined cuisine that awaits them in Japan.
The unstoppable rise of konbini tourism
Guests typically follow Ryo Ito’s lead as he weaves through the narrow, colorful aisles of convenience stores.
Anime isn’t competing with Hollywood — it’s beating it
After its July release, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle,” an animated feature adapted directly from a TV arc, became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever.
Oasis returns to Japan after 16 years — and fans can still sing every word
Liam Gallagher commanded the stage with effortless charisma during Oasis' Tokyo Dome set on Saturday.
At Japan Mobility Show, BYD gears up to conquer Japan's EV market
BYD Auto Japan President Atsuki Tofukuji unveils the Racco at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER