Exploring the impact of depopulation on a country's population geography: Lessons learned from Japan

Abstract

The total population of Japan reached its peak in 2008 and has since experienced population decline. This trend has had a profound effect on many of the country's spheres of activity. The purpose of this article is to comprehensively review the existing literature, mainly published since the peak year, through the perspective of the impact of Japan's depopulation on its population geography and to present future research issues based on the obtained findings. Consequently, three new research issues are presented as the lessons learned from the country. First, since the population decline of a country is a very serious problem, population geographers need to devote much more attention to this issue. Second, new analytical methods suitable for examining depopulation need to be developed carefully but actively. Third, population geographers should proactively state policy implications based on research findings associated with population decline. This is a great opportunity to improve the position of the sub-discipline in the countries whose populations have already started or are about to decline.

Trends in internal migration in Japan, 2012–2020: The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Besides, it is noteworthy that the MER based on the stream from the centre of the TMA to its suburbs changed from a negative value to a positive one, as shown in Figure 6 . This is in contrast to the population returning to the central parts of cities since the 1990s, as pointed out by a previous study (Inoue et al, 2022 ), and is a finding not seen in previous studies using prefectural‐scale data.…”

“…value to a positive one, as shown in Figure 6. This is in contrast to the population returning to the central parts of cities since the 1990s, as pointed out by a previous study (Inoue et al, 2022), and is a finding not seen in previous studies using prefecturalscale data. and the active opening ratio, which is defined as the number of active job openings divided by the number of active applicants, increased (Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training, 2021).…”

“…In addition, the Cabinet Office ( 2021 ) reported an increase in the share of people living in the TMA developing a keen interest in residential relocation to provincial areas when compared to the trend in December 2019. While government policies cannot mitigate population concentration in the TMA (Saito, 2021 ), the changes wrought by the pandemic led to an unintended mitigation of the long‐term trend of ‘mono‐polar concentration into Tokyo’ (Fielding & Ishikawa, 2021 ; Inoue et al, 2022 ).…”

Measure and spatial identification of social vulnerability, exposure and risk to natural hazards in Japan using open data

“…Gender and age structure show those that require special consideration. Evolution of population in 2050 is considered as depopulation is a societal phenomenon in Japan that have implications in terms of the vulnerability of populations 19 . Economic indicators (number 6 to 9) include home value and its evolution, which play a positive role in measuring social status, resources and possession of insurances, as well as average income and part of renting households 20 .…”

“…We also notice a pattern of very low vulnerability in the center of major cities, which is not surprising as they are areas of wealth and infrastructures concentration. Japan country side areas are well known to suffer heavily from depopulation and aging of population 19 , making these areas vulnerable. These aspects were well captured by this index.…”