Money is made in cities. Wealth is accumulated in cities. Rural communities get left behind. Japan is no exception: the country has been suffering from rural depopulation since the 1970s; spearheading the global trend.
In the latest findings shown by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, more than half of the towns and villages in Japan are suffering from depopulation. The situation is compounded by the ageing population in Japan. Current research suggests that the world’s rural population is predicted to fall from the current figure of 47% to 30% by 2050.
One of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals states that there must be a balance between urban and rural environments, “because only then can greater sustainability in all such environments be achieved.”
Following on from the exhibition, “The Future is Rural,” curated by Yuki Sumner for the London Design Biennale in June 2023, this symposium will showcase artist-led activities and grassroots initiatives aimed at revitalising rural Japan and beyond.
The symposium will also present research being conducted in parts of rural China, Mongolia and Pakistan, highlighting some of the tensions that exist between urban and rural conditions in these contexts, as well as the challenges that rural communities face, where they often have to deal with forces much bigger and more powerful than them.
The whole event will question what the best approach could be when readdressing the structural imbalance that exists in the relationship between the rural and the urban.
