Towards Politico-economic Population Geographies:

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Other Title
  • 政治経済学的人口地理学の可能性
  • 政治経済学的人口地理学の可能性 : 『縮小ニッポンの衝撃』を手掛かりに
  • セイジ ケイザイガクテキ ジンコウ チリガク ノ カノウセイ : 『 シュクショウ ニッポン ノ ショウゲキ 』 オ テガカリ ニ
  • A Critique of “Shukushou Nippon-no Shougeki (The Shock of a Shrinking Japan)”
  • ―『縮小ニッポンの衝撃』を手掛かりに―

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Abstract

<p>    A series of population problems such as low fertility rate and population aging is the most urgent issue for Japanese society. They are tightly intertwined with the uneven distribution of population in the country. Tokyo's monopoly has been exacerbated whereas a considerable number of settlements are on the edge of extinction. Essentially, the most important policy target of contemporary Japan resides in population geography. <BR>    While population geographers have certainly been contributing to the practice of policymaking by describing the present population condition, they distance themselves from disputes on the ideas or ideologies underlying population policy. Reviewing a timely-published book titled “Shukushou Nippon-no Shougeki (The Shock of a Shrinking Japan)”, this article explores the possibility of establishing politico-economic population geographies. <BR>    Based on two anecdotes in the book, this report's author derives two diametrically opposing social functions of maps. A map serves as a tool to support local residents in solving the problems they face, whereas another purpose is the use by authorities to manipulate people to make a purportedly reasonable decision by visualizing allegedly objective facts. The implication is related to disputes on relevancy of GIS and so-called “smart cities”. Data collection itself is never conducted objectively but always envisaging, consciously or unconsciously, an ideal status of the observed. <BR>    Although the book's major concern is how to address the population decline, it never mentions immigration, which this report's author deems reflects the public posture on the issue in Japan. Introducing immigrants cannot, or should not, be selected as a countermeasure to the current population loss. This illuminates implicit ethnocentrism in Japan and evokes a question of who the Japanese are. <BR>    Judging from the manner of writing, the authors of the book alienate those with low-income who move to the Tokyo metropolitan area. In the authors' opinion, they not only contribute to the tax base of the metropolitan area but they also are prone to swell social security costs. On top of that, they cannot afford to marry and raise the next generation, aggravating population decline. Here, the politics that ranks people hierarchically in line with a single dimension of economic utility is overt. <BR>    In conclusion, this report's author insists that the concept of population, usually believed to be a value-free geographical quantity, should be reconsidered.</p>

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