Japan Research
[日本語]
Urban Migration
This is a topic that I’ve learned is extremely difficult to solve, but that is why I am interested in it.
When travelling rural Japan, you often see these ghost towns where the populations are decreasing, and young people are migrating to large cities like Tokyo and Osaka, like moths, attracted to the lime light. They know its bad for them, but they just can’t help it- the cities have the intensity of people and the cultural relevance for the younger generation.
So I crafted a formula, on my flight back from New York. I put it into Chatgpt to see where the problems may be. And obviously, the problems of population decline is not a single faceted problem, nor is my problem to solve- there are many reasons why this is happening. And probably rightfully so. The other assumption to overturn is: what if population decline is not inherently a bad thing? What if it is a healthy response to a type of airdropped capitalism, that this country subconciously rejects?
What if Japan, is ahead of the global curve, and knows something intuitively the rest of the world does not? Japan, might be one of those rare cultures where the collective responds to problems that are invisible, whereas the USA, will continue to grow the population, regardless of the unsustainable future they are creating for their children.
The other big thing to question, is that because the cities like Tokyo have become so sophisticated, the interlayering of trains, restaraunts, shops, and interesting areas are so convenient, yet complex- How is it possible, that one can live in such a city, and then go back to life in the countryside? The infrastructure for a highly technological mega-city has been conveniently created, and maintained frequently, at an extremely high level of modern craftsmanship.
And yet still, underneath of it all, there are traditional neighborhoods, and areas that are so finely curated. I digress, because personally, I might not be able to move to a small town again. And so the question is- is it really a problem of these population declining ghost towns? Or is it a response to a highly evolved technological world, one where hyper-reality is so dominant, that living in a kind of dystopian mega-city is like plugging into a very convenient motherboard, or matrix?
From my notebook en route from New York to Tokyo - 25.06.15
Solving Issues of Rural Population Decline Using Swarm Behavioral Theory
The problem is not ready to be solved yet, and not ready to be rolled out of my notebook, because the first problem is RICE. If, even in the urban mega centers, the salary to support the common individual is not enough, not even enough for people to think about a future, we can’t even begin to talk about sub-urban towns and relocation of populations, because even the salaries in Tokyo are not enough to support population increase.
Over weeks of thinking, I’ve realized the single biggest problem here that needs to be solved first, is SALARY - RICE!
REFORM