Reviewing Rice Price Surge and Rebuilding Supply Policies | Chapter 6Rural Revitalization and Diverse Talent and Resources

Population decline and aging are progressing in parallel in rural areas. The aging rate was 35.0% in 2020, approximately 25 years ahead of urban areas. The population of mountainous agricultural regions is expected to decline by more than half between 2020 and 2050. In depopulated areas, since fiscal 2009, the natural decrease caused by aging has exceeded the social decrease caused by population outflows.

Among rural workers by industry, manufacturing was the largest sector in 2020, with 3.48 million workers. Agriculture and forestry employed 1.56 million people, accounting for 8.6% of the total. Maintaining rural areas requires an industrial base that includes employment and entrepreneurship not only in primary industries but also in manufacturing, medical care, and welfare.

People connected continuously and diversely with specific regions were estimated at 22.0% of people aged 18 and over in a September–October 2023 survey. Multiple pathways are indicated according to the degree of interest and involvement, including farm stays, agricultural experiences, volunteering, dual-location living, workations, and taking up farming.

Rural revitalization integrates efforts to secure talent through exchange and migration, create income and employment using local resources, maintain living services and community activities, continue production in hilly and mountainous areas, reduce wildlife damage, and create connections with urban residents.

Residents will have more options for becoming involved in rural areas in stages and connecting that involvement to migration, settlement, or taking up farming, including dual-location living, farm stays, experience farms, regional revitalization cooperation teams, and part-time farming combined with other work. Agriculture-welfare collaboration supports the social participation and independence of people with disabilities and others, and its target groups are expanding to include older people, people facing financial hardship, people in social withdrawal, and people who have committed crimes.

Companies and regional financial institutions are provided with opportunities to participate in solving challenges in rural, mountain, and fishing communities, along with frameworks for demonstrating the social and environmental effects of their initiatives. Locally, collaboration among tourism, processing and sales, welfare, forestry and livestock, game meat, and other fields forms a foundation for income, employment, exchange, and cultural transmission.

Amid population and staff declines, municipalities are expected to establish organizations that coordinate multiple settlements, public-private support teams, and wide-area conservation systems, and to maintain transportation, education, medical care, welfare, communications, drainage, and farm roads in ways suited to local conditions.

For dual-location living, plans based on the Act on Promotion of Regional Revitalization through Wide-Area Development, as amended in November 2024, make it easier to support the development of housing, coworking spaces, and exchange facilities. In fiscal 2025, 19 prefectures prepared plans. The Local Futures Co-Creation Strategy of May 2025 set out the creation of added value in seven major fields, and the Fukui Prefecture Center for Regional Creation in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries was established in July 2025 as the first such center nationwide.

The Rural, Mountain, and Fishing Community Economic and Living Environment Creation Project began in February 2025, with approximately 650 companies and other organizations participating as of the end of March 2026. Its pillars are a platform, project development, impact visualization, initiatives by large companies, and a national certification system. In fiscal 2025, it partnered with 10 financial institutions and selected initiatives by 11 companies. An initiative certification system began in October 2025.

Farm stays are accommodation and experience-based travel that uses local resources. In fiscal 2024, total guest nights reached 8.676 million, including 748,000 inbound guest nights. The fiscal 2029 target is 12 million guest nights, with overseas promotion and improvements to visitor reception environments being advanced in 40 priority regions.

For agriculture-welfare collaboration and related activities, the targets by the end of fiscal 2030 are at least 12,000 participating organizations and at least 200 municipalities participating in regional councils. In fiscal 2024, there were 8,277 participating organizations and 144 participating municipalities. As of the end of March 2026, there were 136 special regional development cooperatives. Regional revitalization cooperation teams had 7,910 members in fiscal 2024, and 69% of members who completed their terms in the past five years settled in the same region where they served.

In daily life, a February–March 2025 survey found 2,057 transportation-disadvantaged districts across 717 local governments, affecting 12.5% of the resident population. By the end of March 2026, 87% of agricultural settlement wastewater facilities had exceeded their standard service life of 20 years. The total length of farm roads was 169,493 km as of August 2025.

Rural RMO organizations manage farmland conservation, the use of local resources, and living support across multiple settlements. There were 8,587 community management organizations in fiscal 2025, but only 9.8% used farmland and 4.8% engaged in agriculture. Under the Multifunctional Payment System, certified farmland covered 2.33 million ha in fiscal 2024, with a coverage rate of 56.8% and 25,283 activity organizations.

Hilly and mountainous areas account for 10.6% of the population and 63.8% of the total land area, while their agricultural output accounts for 40.0% of the national total. In fiscal 2024, the Direct Payment System for Hilly and Mountainous Areas covered 24,446 agreements, 661,000 ha, and 502,000 participants. The sixth policy period targets preventing the decline of approximately 84,000 ha. The Mountain Village Promotion Act was amended in March 2025, extending its term by 10 years.

For wildlife measures, crop damage totaled 18.8 billion yen in fiscal 2024, including 7.9 billion yen from deer, 4.5 billion yen from wild boars, and 3.1 billion yen from birds. Captures totaled 643,000 wild boars and 739,000 deer. The target is to halve deer and wild boar populations by fiscal 2028 compared with fiscal 2011. By the end of April 2025, 1,525 municipalities had prepared damage prevention plans, 1,266 municipalities had established implementation teams, and there were 43,000 team members.

Game meat utilization reached 2,678 tonnes in fiscal 2024, including 830 tonnes for pet food. By fiscal 2025, game meat hunter training had been held 33 times, with 1,028 participants. As of the end of March 2026, there were 33 certified domestic game meat facilities. In urban agriculture, 64.3% of respondents said urban farmland should be conserved in a November 2025 survey. As of the end of March 2025, there were 4,273 community gardens, and 749 designated terraced rice field regions had been established by fiscal 2025.