In the first part of their conversation, Ellen talks with Hiroshima University professors Simona Zollet and Meng "Mo" Qu about community revitalization in rural Japan amid rapid aging, depopulation, and urbanization, and the relational dynamics between Japan's rural and urban areas. Simona and Mo describe Japan’s rural depopulation, strict immigration policy, and demographic imbalance in which nearly 30% of the national population is 65+, while in some rural communities, older adults exceed 60% of the population. Stay tuned for the second half of the conversation in next week's episode, where Simona and Mo describe Japan's Local Revitalization Cooperator Program, an initiative that funds urban residents to live and work in Japan's depopulating rural communities. Episode Highlights:03:03 Meet Simona and Mo 09:04 Tokyo’s Magnetic Draw 11:34 Japanese Rural Communities at Risk 17:05 Tourism as a Lifeline 20:59 Revitalization vs Development More Information:Professor Simona Zollet is an Assistant Professor at Hiroshima University's Department of Integrated Global Studies and her work focuses on creating more sustainable farming landscapes through organic agriculture and agroecology, as well as developing new ways to connect producers (farmers) and consumers (eaters) and rural and urban areas within local food systems. She also researches the socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of rural communities and peripheral areas (such as islands) in Japan and Europe (mainly Italy). This includes examining rural in-migration (people moving from urban to rural areas), small business creation and social entrepreneurship, the use or creation of local food and farming heritage in innovative ways, and policies related to rural revitalization. https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en/igs/zollet https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simona-Zollet-2 Meng Qu, Ph.D. (Integrated Arts and Sciences), is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University. He serves as Associate Editor for Tourism Geographies and Folk, Knowledge, Place. His research focuses on regional revitalization through cultural tourism, creative tourism, and regenerative tourism, examining international art festivals, regional cultural creation, socially engaged art, creative in-migrants/entrepreneurs, and sustainability as key analytical perspectives. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from creative and tourism geography and rural studies, he currently leads a comparative project on community-embedded art and rural revitalization across the Asia-Pacific and the EU, while also contributing to research on social change in island communities in the UK, Canada, and Japan. https://www.qu-meng.com/ Island Revitalization Documentary Series: https://www.sicri.net/islandrevitalization Featured Publications Qu, M., & Zollet, S. (2023). Rural Art Festivals and Creative Social Entrepreneurship. Event Management. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599523X16830662072107 Qu, M., & Zollet, S. (2023). The Power of Small: Creative In-Migrant Micro-Entrepreneurs in Peripheral Japanese Islands during COVID-19. In Adventures in Small Tourism: Studies and Stories. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.7682663.13 Qu, M., & Zollet, S. (2023). Neo-endogenous revitalisation: Enhancing community resilience through art tourism and rural entrepreneurship. Journal of Rural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.11.016Zollet, S., & Qu, M. (2024). Creative newcomers and local food culture: Revitalization, sustainability, and place-making between rural and urban. Food, Culture & Society, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2024.2443331Zollet, S., & Qu, M. (2024). Revitalising rural areas through counterurbanisation: Community-oriented policies for the settlement of urban newcomers. Habitat International, 145, 103022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103022Zollet, S., Makino, E., & Qu, M. (2025). Urban-to-rural migrants and lifestyle entrepreneurs: Opening spaces of possibility for sustainable and resilient rural communities. In K. Tanaka (Ed.), Japan sustainability. Lexington Books.Questions, comments, want to get in touch? Email us at sidebyside@umn.edu.
