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  • Hello world!

  • All over the world there's movement from the countryside to the city

  • Wait! Is that true?

  • I've heard about it so many times but is this really a trend?

  • Okay, after a bit of searching, yes!

  • the world is increasingly becoming urbanized

  • Meaning, people are moving from small villages and towns to cities

  • In the 2000s, for the first time

  • more of the world's population lived in urban areas than rural ones

  • In fact, all projected population growth from here on in will happen in urban areas

  • while growth in rural areas is set to peak soon

  • And then slowly decline.

  • There is no other large developed country

  • that is as far along the path to urbanization as Japan,

  • which has 92 percent of its population living in urban areas

  • And this is only set to grow in the future

  • Works predicted that by 2050, 95 percent of Japan's population

  • Will be living the urban life

  • To me, this begs the question - what happens to all these rural areas as populations decline

  • What's it like to live in the countryside or even the small cities of Japan?

  • With that question in my head,

  • I was on my way to Ehime, a small Prefecture on the smallest main island of Japan, Shikoku

  • Well, I actually landed in Okayama which is across the inland sea

  • but that's the story for future video

  • In this video, I talked with - My name is Sherry and I live in Matsuyama, Ehime

  • I'll just stop her right there

  • Technically, she doesn't live in Matsuyama, but in a much smaller city right on the outskirts

  • but that's not even the most shocking thing she was hiding

  • Should I say Sherry or my real name?

  • Yeah, your real name

  • Real name? Ok

  • Never said that on the camera

  • (Greg) Oh really? Okay ^

  • こんにちは、栞(しおり)です! (Hello, my name is Shiori)

  • Anyways, Sherry, or Shiori was right next to Matsuyama population five hundred and sixteen thousand

  • It's not exactly a tiny place

  • But when you're comparing it to the mega city, that is Tokyo. It feels downright provincial.

  • I thought it was a good starting off point for this series on rural, or in Japanese, "Inaka Japan"

  • For starters, let's locate Matsuyama, in relation to Tokyo

  • Tokyo is up here. Matsuyama is down here

  • Matsuyama (松山), whose name means "Pinetree Mountain", is big enough to have all the amenities of city life

  • But small enough where we can get to the mountains,

  • or an untouched beach with just a short car ride

  • At a lovely Park in Matsuyama

  • I asked Sherry about why she chose to live in Ehime

  • and then asked her to tell me what she thinks are the pros and cons of life in Ehime vs Tokyo

  • I was born in Ehime

  • I was raised in Ehime until 16 and I moved to America for three years

  • So when I decided to come back to Japan, I was like well

  • I was a student back then

  • so I didn't really have any money so I couldn't go to just like move to Tokyo

  • or big cities so my initial thought was like, oh well, you know

  • I'm gonna go home, see my family, and spend some time

  • Do maybe like part-time jobs and stuff like that?

  • And I'm gonna figure out

  • And I started my own company and it went pretty well

  • So I was like I'm gonna like living in Matsuyama

  • I like this atmosphere

  • Um, I'm used to living Matsuyama because like this is my hometown

  • that's actually an important point when it comes to

  • why people decide to live where they do

  • In a few studies I have read

  • the vast majority of people who choose to live in the more rural areas of Japan

  • are usually from the area to begin with

  • but let's move on to those pros and cons

  • Alright, so for Ehime, I guess it's quiet and fewer people of course and you have your personal space

  • You got like lots of nature

  • like if you have a city

  • but also like mountains, parks, and like beaches

  • Those are accessible for like only 30 minutes by car

  • Like everyone has a car

  • so when we go to those places we have either free parking lots

  • Or we have like 100 yen for 30 minutes

  • So it's really cheap

  • I think people are really friendly

  • Like when you like you don't feel like you want to talk to somebody when you're in Tokyo

  • Like hey

  • (In a slightly amused tone) I don't know what she's talking about

  • These people in Tokyo look super chill and ready to chat

  • But

  • in here

  • Like even if you get lost or something like you can easily talk to people

  • who are like it's like walking down the street

  • It's very comfortable and safe to live...

  • for long term, I think

  • While checking out the more rural side of Japan

  • I only got to spend a half day in Matsuyama

  • but I asked Sherry to show me a few local spots as well as some local food

  • So this it's called Nabayaki Udon and this is one of the local food in Matsuyama

  • (Greg: Now I will just eat for a few...)

  • (I'll do it ugly)

  • You get to learn how to eat beautiful(ly) for the videos

  • Yeah.. Maybe...

  • Like do the hair back nicely and then

  • Ahaha

  • Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Sherry also makes YouTube videos

  • where she talks about living in Ehime

  • and she does indeed eat a lot more beautiful(ly) than I

  • Emmm! So tender!

  • I don't have a smooth segway into this

  • so let's just get to what Sherry thinks the pros of living in Tokyo are

  • You can get many job opportunities

  • That's one of the good things

  • and also like you have many education choices for your kids

  • Like you can put your kids into like international school or get private school or public school or anything you want

  • To add to this, university education is the other big reason young people leave the countryside for the city

  • For university grads, their best chance at a good job with room for growth is found in cities

  • The rural to urban brain drain is a real thing

  • It's very convenient like you have trains, subway, Shinkansen, airplain

  • like you have everything

  • This is a double-edged sword

  • Public transportation is very convenient but private transportation,

  • having your own car, is not nearly as great

  • It's very international

  • So that means they have many opportunities obviously

  • And I'd even brought in the international point in say cities have more diversity more culture

  • You can find people not only from all over the world, but from all over Japan living in the Tokyo area

  • Bringing with them a wide variety of experiences

  • And with the concentration of people and ideas

  • There are a lot of things to see and do that you won't get in rural areas

  • And... everything is really fast (in Tokyo)

  • Yes

  • except when driving in a car

  • But I know Sherry's point is that the pace of life is fast

  • If you want to do something, if you have some idea and if I pitched the idea to somebody

  • and then like I feel like

  • You can make a dream come true like faster than like you live in countryside

  • like if it's the countryside

  • Like you don't have anybody around that you can share your idea with

  • Even though Matsuyama isn't Tokyo,

  • it is a city and has the sort of conveniences one would expect

  • So this is Dougou Shoutengai Shopping Street and this is one of the

  • traditional most traditional shopping street in Matsuyama

  • All right, before we get to the downside of living in non-Tokyo

  • let's take Tokyo down a few notches

  • Too many people...!

  • Crowded! Long lines!

  • Ahahahaha..

  • And expensive!

  • I think this partly depends on your lifestyle

  • For example, employers pay for your commute so you don't need to own a car

  • and have that expense

  • But yes, overall Tokyo is more expensive,

  • housing probably being the largest expense where you get less and pay more

  • And like I said,

  • Like people are a little cold and mean - they don't really care about other people

  • and this is a big thing

  • It gets dark too early in winter

  • like it's still like 4pm and it's dark outside

  • That was kind of crazy for me

  • Oh, I should point out

  • I asked Jerry to compare Ehime to Tokyo

  • So this is not as straight Urban versus Rural Japan comparison

  • Obviously climate mostly depends on geography, and daylight hours on latitude

  • There are too many buildings everywhere tall buildings

  • No nature, it's hot and windy

  • Yeah, that's an issue with all the buildings and concrete

  • You get an artificial heat island that's a few degrees warmer

  • In comparison... We have very calm weather

  • Winter is not that cold. We have like little snow and that's it

  • And Summer yeah is hot. It's not that bad

  • Another con to Tokyo depending on how you look at it is the amount of tourists in certain areas

  • Interestingly, Matsuyama has found a way around this

  • In case you didn't know. What you're looking at is Dougou Onsen,

  • which is famous as the inspiration for the bath houses in Spirited Away!

  • So lots of tourists... However,

  • And so this one is called Tsubaki no Yu (Bath of Mahogany)

  • And the lots of locals go in here

  • instead of going to the actual Dougou Onsen that we all know

  • But we built a new one since Dougou Onsen was going to shut down for like seven years

  • Yep, so they're always making sure to have one for the locals and one for the tourists

  • Now onto the cons of life in Ehime

  • I think one of the biggest thing is that we don't have Shinkansen

  • So that's why we don't have lots of tourists or guests. That's one of the reasons

  • Not just Shinkansen, but we don't have good public transportations

  • we have some like trams and buses and stuff, but

  • Not that good compared to Tokyo

  • but you said we all have a car so

  • And the second thing is like job I think

  • If you want to, if you want to work for a particular company

  • Or if you want to do some like particular job

  • like you ever gonna be an actor

  • but you can't really be an actor in Ehime

  • And this is generally true for most rural areas of Japan

  • It can be difficult or impossible to build a career in certain niches

  • there's just not the same confluence of industries and people

  • This is something that I've been feeling lately because like

  • I'm trying to promote Ehime to the world

  • because like we have lots of nature. We have tons of good stuff

  • But

  • Ehime is not really

  • globalized yet

  • so not so many people speak English, of course

  • People are not used to seeing non-Japanese people and

  • So I guess a lot of people who are involved in tourism got kind of like lost - like what should we do?

  • And I got a chance to talk to a lot of them

  • And we discuss - oh we can do this we can do that, but

  • What can I say like?

  • They want to make change(s), so that we can accept a lot of tourists from outside of Japan

  • But it's hard to find people who have those skills that we need

  • because we have fewer people and

  • Even if we do, some people want to stay in the same Ehime style

  • They don't want to make any changes

  • So there is a huge argument about that

  • So like everything is super slow

  • It's like in Tokyo, if somebody has a great idea and it maybe happens in like next year

  • But like Ehime, it might take like 10 years, 20 years or maybe never gonna happen

  • Like they know that that's gonna be good

  • But we have less competition. We have fewer companies

  • So we all can survive without competing with other companies and

  • Not creating new service or new products?

  • So if you want to do something new in the countryside, it might be a little difficult

  • Except for these automated traffic controllers during construction

  • I haven't seen this in Tokyo. I like this innovation

  • I think the big issue in rural areas we've yet to mention is the aging and decreasing population

  • Because for all, except well, a few exceptions

  • Rural areas in Japan are rapidly aging, as young people move to the cities and the old remain

  • But that's another story for future videos in this series about rural Japan

  • For now, thanks for watching. See you next time!

  • Bye

  • What are the pros and cons of rural versus urban life where you're from?

Hello world!

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東京以外的生活的利與弊|日本農村 (Pros and Cons of Life Outside Tokyo | Rural Japan)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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