I have shared with you an analysis and a strong conviction for years.
In summary and in simplified terms, I consider the big city, the megalopolis, to be obsolete and, moreover, ecologically unsustainable, here as elsewhere.
The big cities developed with the industrial revolution and the abundant and cheap energy (oil) that allowed them to be easily supplied and to maintain numerous support services.
Big cities grew because factories needed many hands in one place.
We no longer have a factory, and the big cities no longer have any use other than the weight of the past, habits and the attractiveness of “leisure” and accessible services, without forgetting everything, even more jobs.
But the internet has arrived and this technological breakthrough makes it possible to work from an attic in Normandy and fill in Excel report boxes from your own cabin in Monédières.
So in France we have a pretty natural urban exodus and thanks to Ratatouille, the mayor of Paris, the little rats of the opera leave the big city on their own to become little rats of the fields while life in the city gets painful.
In Japan, the government has to push and induce.
In Japan, a bonus of 7,300 euros per child is to leave Tokyo
“The capital absorbs the vital forces of the country at the expense of the territory’s homogeneity.
Bounty for living in the great outdoors… The Japanese government will offer up to 1 million yen ($9,000) per child for homes in Tokyo and its outer suburbs if they move to a rural exodus-hit community starting this spring, the local revealed Press . A measure intended to stop or even reverse the rural exodus towards the capital. Tokyo has hardly ever stopped accepting newcomers, although their numbers are falling year after year.
This provision is in fact the complement of a program with the same purpose, launched in 2019, for which families receive 300,000 yen per child. It had almost no incentive effect: only 2,381 people used it last year, the Kyodo agency notes. Will this one be more effective? Probably not. The desire to rebalance the population towards the countryside is not new. But Greater Tokyo has more charms than flaws. Illustration: The failed relocation of the central administration. In 1992, the state parliament passed a law to encourage resettlement; thirty years later, only the small cultural affairs agency has agreed to leave for the very attractive Kyoto.
Because the large world metropolis, which is regularly at the top of the quality of life rankings, does not have the shortcomings (insecurity, dirt, pollution, etc.) of comparable cities. It concentrates the country’s economic activity, with little competition from Osaka or Nagoya. And for a return to the countryside, telework is too marginal”.
There is therefore a fairly simple solution to help the Japanese encourage the Japanese to leave Tokyo en masse. It’s enough that Anne Hidalgo has been the city’s mayor for 10 years. Normally the Japanese run to the country!
More seriously, you see here the first cultural differences, telework is viewed very badly in Japan, where the individual always gives way to the good of the collective and where the work culture is quite insane and would drive any trade unionist insane. They also see what makes a city attractive, namely its quality of life. Japan is very industrialized, with many factories, which is not the case with us.
The Japanese example is an excellent mirror to compare yourself.
The Japanese will return to the countryside sometime later than us.
Get out of the cities as much as possible, in whole or in part, trying to find a way out in softer and more resilient places with a more autonomous habitat.
Karl SANNAT
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Source Le Figaro.fr here