After Field-Study: University Graduates’ Attitudes and Ties toward Rural Areas in Japan
Shiro Horiuch *
Department of Information Sciences, Hannan University, Matsubara, Japan.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background and Aims: Rural areas in Japan face severe depopulation, aging, and economic decline as people and resources concentrate in major cities like Tokyo. To elucidate the effects of field-study (FS) programs in rural Japan on the relationship between host residents and graduates, this study examines how FS are organized through collaboration between local governments and universities, how graduates interpret their influence after graduation, and whether such programs generate continuing relationships with host communities.
Study Design: This study adopts a qualitative design based on semi-structured interviews.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Kansai region of Japan, covering 6 rural areas and 4 universities. Interviews were carried out between April 2022 and March 2023.
Methodology: Data were collected through interviews with 15 civil staffs and stakeholders in rural areas that hosted students, 7 professors at universities that sent students, and 36 students / graduates who had participated in FS in rural areas (in total n = 58). The interviews were analyzed to examine how local government and university formed partnerships, how participants understood FS, and whether graduates later maintained ties with host communities.
Results: Partnerships between local governments and universities were often initiated through personal networks rather than formal planning. Civil staff valued students’ interaction with residents and the energy they brought to local activities, whereas university professors emphasized student growth. Graduates reported that FS contributed to communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and broader perspectives on work and life. Only a small number had moved to rural areas after graduation. A larger number remained in urban areas while maintaining ties with host communities through revisits, ongoing contact, collaboration, or emotional attachment.
Conclusion: FS appears to contribute more clearly to graduates’ development and to sustained relationships with rural communities (kankeijinko) than to immediate rural settlement or migration. Its significance therefore lies less in directly increasing rural in-migration than in creating educational and relational ties between urban-based young people and rural areas.
Keywords: Rural revitalization, university students, depopulation, migration, related population