Overview of Social Policies for Town and Village Development in Response to Rural Shrinkage in East Asia: The Cases of Japan, South Korea and China

Globally speaking, Asian countries, especially East Asian countries, are facing acute national depopulation situation and severe rural shrinkage development. Based on the continuous surveys of town and village development in Japan, South Korea, and China, this study aims to provide an overview of social policies that have been implemented in the past or more recently in these three countries in response to rural shrinkage, and to outline the core philosophy of these practices to cope with the repercussions. In this paper, we analyze the overall process of rural depopulation and the present features of town and village development in three countries. We subsequently present the social policies over the last few decades and summarize them into four major groups. Furthermore, we highlight that the focus of social policies is not to seek possible ways to reestablish growth but to provide positive support and effective reform to adjust and satisfy the changing needs of towns and villages under the circumstances of shrinking development, including the optimization of public resource allocation, exploring institutional innovation to valorize abandoned assets, and developing endogenous potentials for future sustainable development. Qualitative methods from a combination of literature review, policy review, and field surveys have mainly been adopted in this research. The study of East Asian practices may be instructive for other Asia-Pacific countries, as well as European countries that have been experiencing or will eventually face the challenges of rural shrinkage.