Japanese youths take a ‘mago-turn’

AN INCREASING number of young people from Japan’s cities are migrating to provincial areas to live in the same town as their grandparents.
The “mago-turn” trend – mago means “grandchild” – is similar to the “U-turn”, when city people return to their hometowns and the “I-turn”, when people migrate to different rural areas from where they grew up.
For young people who want to be closer to nature but feel uneasy about living in an unfamiliar place, moving to where their grandparents live can be an attractive option, since it’s easier to assimilate into the community.
Taro Nakazawa, 24, was born and raised in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, and moved to Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, in April. He works with a local “community revitalisation corps” promoting tourism in the city.
Nakazawa’s parents hail from Hokuto and he often visited his grandparents when he was growing up. He’s been drawn to the area’s magnificent mountains and highlands since childhood.

Taro Nakazawa lives with his grandparents, Kenichi and Kesae, in Hokuto./Yomiuri Shimbun

Although Nakazawa had hoped to live in the area someday, he joined a construction firm in Kanagawa after graduating from university.
But the death of his maternal grandfather last August prompted him to make the move sooner. “I thought it would be better to move while my [paternal] grandparents are still healthy,” he says.
His income is lower than what he earned in Kanagawa, but “I don’t have to ride a packed train. I work less overtime. I feel like my life has become richer.”
Nakazawa lives with his paternal grandfather, Kenichi, 89. “I enjoy having him here because he makes our home lively.” Grandmother Kesae, 84, says he helps with the heavy work.
Naoko Sakaguchi, 36, a coffee-shop owner in Asahi, Toyama Prefecture, moved from Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward in 2007 to take care of her grandparents. Her shop, called Hygge, is housed in an old renovated residential building.
“At first I was worried about whether I could be comfortable living here,” she says. “But people in the neighbourhood were very kind – they welcomed me as the granddaughter of Mr and Mrs Sakaguchi’.”

Naoko Sakaguchi, right, chats with a customer at her coffee shop in Asahi, where she moved to take care of her grandparents./Yomiuri Shimbun

With the support of her relatives living nearby and new friends, Sakaguchi opened her coffee shop in 2015, fulfilling a long-held dream.
During the period of high economic growth in Japan, young people moved to urban areas to seek jobs. Their children are doing the opposite. The Tokyo-based non-profit Furusato Kaiki Shien Centre (Hometown Relocation Support Centre) advises people who are considering relocating to rural areas. Deputy executive director Kazuo Kasami refers to the phenomenon as “mago-turn”.
After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the organisation began receiving more requests from younger people. Kasami realised there were quite a few planning to live in the same towns as their grandparents.
“I thought this was a new style of migration, different from U-turn or I-turn,” he says.
There are no national data on mago-turn, but a local survey of people who moved to Suo-Oshima in Yamaguchi in fiscal 2015 found that nine people – 8 per cent of the 116 respondents – said they moved there because of their grandparents. 
Kasami says young urban people don’t consider rural areas inconvenient and the towns often hold fond memories for them, such as family visits and nature excursions.
Some remain hesitant to give up city life because of job, housing or relationship concerns.
“With mago-turn, people are likely to have fewer concerns about such issues,” says Meiji University Professor Tokumi Odagiri, an expert in rural policy who’s familiar with issues relating to provincial flight.”
Taking advantage of family connections makes it easier for people to find work or a place to live. If the grandparents own agricultural land that’s been passed down for generations, farming could be an option for their grandchildren.
“If mago-turn results in more young people moving to rural areas, the areas will be rejuvenated and the wave could attract other young people without family ties to the region,” says Odagiri. 
“Mago-turn could become a major pillar of future migration policy.”
Facing declining populations, some local governments have introduced measures to support people who migrate to the areas where their grandparents live, aiming to attract more young people.
In April 2016, the government of Bungotakada in Oita Prefecture began offering 100,000 yen to people moving there if their grandparents lived in the city. 
Other governments offer academic scholarships to households with children and subsidise events that will help people to settle in their hometowns.
However, migrating to provincial areas is never easy. 
“Migration, including mago-turn, requires meticulous preparation,” stresses Koichi Hayashi of Iju Koryu Joho Garden (Migration, Exchange and Information Garden), which offers guidance for people considering a move.
Hayashi tells people who are thinking about leaving the city to write down the reasons they’d like to live in the countryside and what kind of lifestyle they hope to have. 
He urges them to visit their prospective destinations several times and speak with the residents before deciding. “It’s a good idea to visit when the local weather conditions are at their worst, like when it’s extremely cold or hot."