Rural depopulation or rural deactivation? Environmental activity gaps and ways of filling them in rural Japan

This paper on depopulated rural Japan redefines rural depopulation as rural deactivation: the reduction of human activity in the village environment (rather than simply the reduction in the number of people living in a village). This ‘environmental activity’ is crucial in controlling plant growth and animal presence in the village and its surroundings and in managing the interface with the forest, but in the era of large-scale depopulation activity gaps emerge and human control over the rural environment wanes. Under these conditions, the appearance of the village changes, a sense of spatial disorder emerges, and a demoralizing uncertainty about the future of the village develops. The final part of the paper looks at attempts to fill these environmental activity gaps (mobilizing villagers, appealing for volunteers, and using assorted non-human actors).