Utilizing vacant traditional homes to solve population imbalance

To tackle the problems of population imbalance and an increasing number of vacant homes, a new group has come together to promote long-stay tourism to old Japanese houses.

The Kominka Tourism Promotion Council was established on July 9 by travel agency JTB, the Long Stay Foundation and the Japan Kominka Association. ‘Kominka’ is a Japanese word that means old private house.

The Kominka Tourism Promotion Council sees developing high tourism appeal within towns as an important strategy for raising the population of regional areas and increasing interaction between people. Through those steps, it hopes to help solve two large social issues facing Japan. They are the continued rise of unoccupied homes and the growing population imbalance between generations, and between Tokyo and regional areas.

It plans to promote tourism to traditional old homes by refurbishing those in towns and villages with rich natural resources or cultural features that appeal to tourists. In doing so, it hopes to stimulate regional employment and cross-generational interaction among local residents, and to contribute to environmental conservation and cultural preservation.

The group’s end goal is to assist the continued development of towns over the long term. To achieve that, it promotes cooperation between government and industry, by working together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC), the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the Japan Tourism Agency and many business people in local regions. Through those channels, it will assist in developing strategy and personnel, and in the sharing of learning experiences and mistakes.

According to the MIAC’s 2018 housing and land survey, there are 8.46 million vacant homes throughout Japan. That means that 13.55% of homes were unoccupied – the highest percentage ever. Renovating those vacant homes into lodgings can give them new life as attractive options for tourists who want to experience traditional Japanese culture.

This article was originally published on MINPAKU.Biz.
Translated by Kirsty Kawano.