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            <title><![CDATA[The Universal Peace Federation (UPF): Origins, Development, and Challenges of the Unificationist “Abel United Nations”]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0008</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 27 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The Universal Peace Federation or UPF is a United Nations-affiliated NGO established in 2005 by Mun Sŏn-myŏng (1920–2012), the founder of the South Korean Unification Movement. Mun deemed the UPF’s formation “the most revolutionary and wondrous event since God’s creation of human-kind,” assigning the organisation a pivotal role in his millenarian project. This article continues the discussion in Pokorny and Zoehrer 2022 (which addressed the context, birth, and millenarian anatomy of the UPF), outlining the history of the UPF with a focus on its changing self-conception, leadership shifts, and global activities. It examines how the UPF has articulated and put into practice its millenarian founding ideal over the course of three stages of its development. Finally, it highlights major external and internal challenges, which not only informed the UPF’s identity-building and public perception but render the organisation systemically vulnerable.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[Technologies of Power and BruHealth Biopolitics amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in Brunei Darussalam]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0007</link>
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            <pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The pandemic has been a turning point in the technologies of power deployed by the state to contain and address the COVID-19 crisis. Whereas planning and discussions on the Industrial Revolution 4.0 in the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam had been ongoing for several years, the pandemic became an unexpected catalyst for the realisation of these digitalisation plans with the launching of a onestop mobile application called BruHealth. This article sheds light on public responses to the COVID- 19 crisis, including the state’s approach in containing the virus and a critical examination on the use of the BruHealth. Upon identifying general patterns and discourses from the data collected intermittently in the period between 2019 and 2022, the article aims to be a contribution to the epistemological debates on the place of technologies in “biopolitics” on the digitalisation of personal experiences and on self-reflexivity in the fieldwork process of collecting and analysing data during the COVID-19 crisis.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Protecting the Country and Preventing Calamities: The Pure Land Practice of Hwadzan Pure Land Society in the Physical and Virtual Realm]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0006</link>
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            <pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This case study explores the influence of a global health crisis on contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism. As prevention and control measures of COVID-19 enforced by the Taiwanese government constitute challenges and opportunities for religious actors and practice, the article examines how Hwadzan Pure Land Society (Huazang jing zōng xuehui 華藏淨宗學會) has responded to the pandemic by skilfully utilising digital technology to relocate “communal cultivation” (gongxiū 共 修) and rituals from the physical into the virtual realm. Compared to on-site participation in ritual, live streaming enables the practitioner to tune in simultaneously from every part of the world and even after the event has concluded since all videos are uploaded to YouTube. Whereas on-site participants recite and chant sūtras, bow and prostrate in front of Buddha statues, and make offerings, thus being temporally, spatially, and bodily integrated into each part of a ritual, off-site participants are detached from it in all three aspects. The communal practice viewed on the screen essentially becomes an individual practice in a secular environment far away from the sacralised space and time during the ritual. It is therefore the aim of the article to examine how religious practice and rituals in on-site and off-site settings differ in terms of religious experience.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Understanding Chinese Christian Far-Right Narrative in the COVID-19 Context: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0005</link>
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            <pubDate>Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article introduces the controversy over the naming of COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” and the related hate crimes in the US. It focuses on a group of Chinese Christians in North America who devote themselves to defending and legitimising the concept of the “Chinese Virus” within various social media. This research analyses the content of the related texts and videos and defines the Christian far-right narrative and reviews the relationship between the Christian far-right narrative, Christian fundamentalism, and Christian nationalism. It explores the frame alignment process of American Christian nationalism and evaluates the frame bridging, amplification, extension, and transformation dynamics of the Chinese Christian far-right narrative. It discusses the similarity between Chinese Christian far-right and religious nationalism in different countries and evaluates the cultural and structural factors that contributed to Christian nationalism with Chinese characteristics. The Chinese Christian far-right narrative tends to adopt a friend/foe binary interpretation of political issues, moralise the goal of nation-building, downplay the democratic process and legal systems, and put religious communitarian values over the secular state’s responsibility to protect human rights. The Christian far-right narrative reflects a religious nationalist sentiment to exclude political, religious, and cultural others, which is fundamentalist theologically, opposing to system politically, anti-secular humanism culturally, and anti-progressive morally.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[The Legacy of an Accommodative Secularism: Religions and Taiwan’s Responses to COVID-19]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0004</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Throughout the two years of this pandemic, Taiwanese public authorities have obtained cooperation from religious organisations in limiting and mitigating the contagion, and the population was largely spared the influence of conspiracy theories about the virus’ origins. I have found no trace of any significant doomsday theologies among the major religions practiced in Taiwan emerging in the public health emergency caused by COVID-19. What explains this largely cooperative relationship? From the perspective of public policy, why has the government obtained the compliance of most religious actors to its directive and faced little or no opposition coming from them? I use a historical institutionalist approach to argue that decades of toleration from political leaders of all trends towards religions have generated a path dependency of mutual trust and that legacy predates the period of democratisation. The article explores the extent to which this outcome results from three factors: Taiwan’s religious diversity, or the absence of a religious hegemony opposed to the state; pragmatic and flexible theologies; and/or convergence between successive Taiwanese governments’ social policies and the social teachings of religions.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Four Palaces in Time of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Adaptation of a Vietnamese Worship between Prohibition, Safety, and Social Networks]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0003</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In February 2020, Vietnam closed its borders to prevent the emergence of COVID-19 in the country. Nevertheless, after the appearance of the first large infected cluster in March 2020, the situation gradually deteriorated since July 2020. The Vietnamese government decided to ban gatherings, and therefore certain religious practices. The religions in the country had to adapt their practices to this new situation. In this article, I will explore the situation of the Four Palaces (Tứ Phủ) and its possession ritual (len đồng). After recalling the chronology of the outbreak of COVID-19 in Vietnam, I will highlight how this worship adapted its practices in the north of the country at the beginning of the pandemic and during the Vietnamese lockdowns. Moreover, I will draw a parallel to discuss the ban of the ritual practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and the prohibition of “superstitious practices” that occurred in Vietnam between the late 1950s and the 1990s. The article will stress the importance of social media, in particular Facebook, and their uses by the mediums and followers of the Four Palaces while exploring the discourses that can be seen within the social networks.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Anzen mamoru: The Representation of the Japanese Police in Japanese Factual Television]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0002</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This paper is about the representation of the Japanese police in three factual television series. In all three series, the audience accompanies police officers during their work and thus gets a close look at the daily work of the Japanese police. However, even if the series try to convey a feeling of authenticity, staging strategies which aim at the entertainment and education of the audience can be clearly identified. I therefore place them in the intermediate area between the genres of reality TV and documentaries. The research method adopted in this study is Werner Faulstich’s qualitative movie analysis, based on his book Grundkurs Filmanalyse (2013), in combination with a descriptive quantitative approach. In the analysis I ask what kinds of messages about the Japanese police are created in the three series under examination. The major findings can be summarised as follows: the comprehensive image created about the Japanese police is positive. The police force is legitimised above all by its professionalism and success in providing assistance to people in need by arresting criminals and proving their guilt, but also by its monopoly position as the sole competent crisis solver.1 This kind of representation does not come as a surprise as such; the paper, however, will show how this overall positive image is created by specific filmic techniques.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Reconsidering Resistance: Ainu Cultural Revival as Protest]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2022-0001</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article aims to explore how different Ainu groups have resisted continual control and assimilation by the Japanese government in the late twentieth century. First, it provides a brief analysis of early resistance strategies of ethnic groups to colonial power, contrasting it with contemporary methods of protest in the post-war era. This is to show the different modes of resistance and to analyse why and how they changed over time. The article highlights the period between the 1970s and 1990s, during which violent resistance committed by Japanese progressive activists in the name of Ainu liberation was gradually succeeded by peaceful protest enacted by Ainu themselves, resulting in a movement using artwork in pursuing their political goals. The article argues that this latter kind of resistance represents the core of Ainu activism. I will analyse cultural resistance efforts such as literary publications, commemorative monuments, and educational programmes since the 1970s. Special attention will be given to three children’s books produced by prominent Ainu activist Kayano Shigeru to discuss how the author’s cultural activism during this period shaped Ainu methods of contesting authority through cultural pride and maintenance.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Kyara in Japanese Religious Spaces]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0008</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Mascots in Japan are called kyara. They are utilised by almost all organisations, institutions, and administrative divisions and are accepted, embraced, and consumed by people of all walks of life, making them immensely popular. Although constituting an element of Japanese popular culture, they are also embedded in certain religious spaces in Japan, making them an interesting topic of research. This article will examine the reason behind the embeddedness of kyara in certain religious spaces in Japan and their impact on the practice of religion in those spaces.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Energy Security Analysis of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: A Mix Model Framework]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0004</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Current energy consumption and how to mitigate the negative environmental effects alongside rising demand have become prominent issues in everyday discourse. Following this trend, the topic of energy security too has stepped back into the spotlight. This article aims to analyse the energy security situation of three East Asian countries, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. All three countries feature similar predicaments, being overly reliant on imports, having minuscule natural reserves, and also being high-tech and service-based economies. In this article the author attempts to determine similarities and differences from an energy security perspective. In order to assess these countries, a framework is created with thirty-five distinct indicators relating to energy security. Each indicator is then systematically compared with each of the three countries. The results are then presented in a table and with graphs to illustrate a comparison of each country’s values. Through these results, the largest differences can be observed in energy efficiency and diversification of energy supply. The concluding remarks offer possible avenues for further studies and deliberate on lessons to be learned from these results.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Sōka Gakkai 1968 Youth Movement: The Creation of Conviviality and Friendship in Sino-Japanese Relations]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0007</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article discusses an episode in the history of Sōka Gakkai that began as alternative youth movement under Ikeda Daisaku who came to advocate “people’s diplomacy” (minkan gaikō) as a way to foster goodwill between China and Japan. Why would Sōka Gakkai, a legally constituted “religious corporation” (shūkyō hōjin) be so serious about engaging with a Communist regime that did not recognise religion? The article discusses what “religion” or “religious behaviour” means in Sōka Gakkai, and questions the usefulness of such a classification on a qualitative level. Ikeda’s interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism highlights his approach to something seemingly very “unreligious”—namely, the normalisation of Sino-Japanese relations. Unlike the more traditional “reactive revolution” of protest movements that constructed politics as primarily a binary, ideological choice to achieve its aims, Ikeda prioritised finding ways to transcend that very ideology-centric, counter-politics approach. By appealing to conviviality, a sense of shared humanity and humility on the part of the Japanese towards their past history of colonialism, a new social imaginary and attitude that differed from politics of opposition between left and right entered as a historical force that continues to be promoted by Sōka Gakkai today.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The New Right and the 1948 Foundation View: A Failed Revision of South Korean Cultural Memory]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0001</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The emergence of the South Korean New Right movement in the mid-2000s led to the questions of how to commemorate and evaluate the ROK state establishment in 1948, and when to precisely trace such a “foundation” (1919 or 1948?) to be vividly discussed in South Korean society. Was 1948 primarily a political division? Or was it a “foundation for success”? Following the 2008 Foundation Day Dispute, a significant number of scholarly works on the subject has been produced. This article analyses the conservative side of this discourse, approaching the foundation dispute as a conservative attempt to regain hegemony over South Korean Cultural memory in post-democratisation South Korea. Analysing New Right-authored historiography on the subject of “foundation,” the present study discloses how conservatives narrated the formative years of the South Korean state, arguing that merely dismissing the New Right as historical revisionists is too simple a conclusion. Rather, this article argues that struggles over Cultural memory are rooted in the ideological and institutional polarisation of South Korean intellectuals in contemporary South Korea. Furthermore, by contextualising the Foundation View against progressive historiography within South Korea as well as Cold War history in a global context, this study answers why the Foundation View ultimately failed to gain acceptance.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The “Aum Incident” as a Catalyst for Societal Critique: An Analysis of Letters to the Editor of Asahi Shinbun on Aum Shinrikyō]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0006</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article analyses the discussion of Aum Shinrikyō in letters to the editor of one of the major Japanese newspapers, Asahi Shinbun, through the method of qualitative content analysis. The examination focuses on two aspects of the letters in order to uncover how Aum is understood and localised in a bigger context: first, how Aum itself is discussed, and second, what topics are brought up in relation to the group. The analysis reveals that Aum was rarely referred to as a cult or a false religion, but more often merely as a religion, which is subsequently associated with negative notions. The majority of letters, however, did not specify the nature of Aum at all. This is congruent with the topics covered in the letters, since the content of a large portion of them is not concerned with Aum directly but with a more abstract critique of society and authorities. Letters to the editor of Asahi Shinbun for a large part do not make use of sensationalist wording, all the while expressing a critical stance towards the movement, and additionally they focus on a critique of the dealings with Aum prior to and after the subway attack in 1995.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[In the Tortuous Shadows of Ethnic Policies: Two Case Studies of Chinese Cultural Heritage in Indonesia and Malaysia]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0005</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Concurrent with the inception of the nation states of Indonesia and Malaysia in the middle of the twentieth century, ethnic policies were put into practice to destroy the Chinese cultural heritage that had hitherto been regarded as a vital part of the region’s heterogeneous cultural landscapes. Chinese language, organisations, and religious practices were banned, and architecture and artefacts with Chinese symbols or insignia either looted or destroyed. To what extent have these discriminatory agendas further influenced and shaped contemporary Chinese cultural heritage discourse? To answer this question this article starts with an introduction to the anti-Chinese agenda from Independence onwards, which is followed by two case studies from the field of cultural heritage: the organisation Boen Hian Tong in Semarang on Java in Indonesia, and the NGO Penang Heritage Trust in Malaysia. The research is based on fieldwork carried out in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2014–2015.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Forty-Seven Years of Discourse: An Analysis of Japanese Journal Articles about Shimao Toshio’s Concept of Yaponeshia]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0003</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article analyses the discourse around Shimao Toshio’s concept of Yaponeshia, which addresses Okinawa’s relationship to mainland Japan. This concept, first outlined in Shimao’s essay “Yaponeshia no nekko” (The Roots of Yaponeshia) (1961), provides a whole new perspective from which this relationship can be viewed. To gain an understanding of the discourse which subsequently has evolved among Japanese scholars and critics, journal articles published between 1970 and 2017 will be analysed using Siegfried Jäger’s method of critical discourse analysis. The analysis will show that Shimao’s Yaponeshia idea has been (re-)interpreted by many academics and critics who expanded it with their own theories. The discourse about the “southern islands” (nantō) and the “reversion” of Okinawa to Japan play a major role in how Okinawa, as shown in the Yaponeshia concept, is portrayed: on the one hand, the culture of Okinawa is seen as a previous stage of the culture of mainland Japan; on the other hand, however, the culture of Okinawa is described as being different from that of Japan and as something that has to be protected from being assimilated by the main islands. By addressing different perspectives on Okinawan culture, over the past decades the Yaponeshia concept has slowly developed into a kind of cultural theory that also finds its way into other academic fields.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Ambivalent Identity: Kusama Yayoi’s Intersectional Body Art of the 1960s]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2021-0002</link>
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            <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The article discusses how identity was negotiated by the intersectional Japanese artist Kusama Yayoi. I focus on her body-centred works of the 1960s to showcase how she addressed various aspects of identity during her time in the U.S., and how she expressed social critique by means of bodily performance. In this article I will analyse and interpret one photograph by the artist previously discussed in my master’s thesis, an image of the so-called Presidential Orgy, a series of happenings staged in Kusama’s studio in 1968. I apply the method of visual analysis and draw on a variety of sources, both literary and visual, to give insight into the historical background, since it is crucial not to look at Kusama’s artworks as isolated objects. Rather, we need to understand that rapid changes in the art world, as well as in gender relations, the rise of popular media, and major societal events like the changes in the aftermath of World War II on the one hand, and the ongoing Vietnam War on the other, were pivotal factors causing cultural upheavals that became important themes in Kusama’s art in the 1960s.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[East Asian Strategies for Combating Income Inequality: A Comparative Analysis of Redistributive Fiscal Policy Efforts in China and Korea]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0004</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Both China and Korea face different stages of national income inequality as well as distinctive structures in their income distribution. However, not only do levels and structures of income inequality differ in China and Korea, but their measures to tackle income inequality inherently differ. This article investigates how the Chinese and Korean governments respond to income inequality in their countries by analysing fiscal policy on both the expenditure and taxation fronts. The findings show that both China and Korea have increased their redistributive efforts in the recent past; however, Korea’s commitment to tackling income inequality is stronger than that of China. Moreover, this article finds evidence for distinctive strategies for reducing income inequality in China and Korea. Responding to large income disparities at the bottom of the income distribution spectrum, the Chinese government tackles income inequality by supporting low income earners and reducing the tax burden for low income brackets. In contrast, given Korean income inequality can be largely explained by relatively large top income shares, the redistributive policy incorporates newly introduced social benefits excluding top income earners as well as income taxes aimed at the top of the income spectrum.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Moral Compatibility of Two Japanese Psychotherapies: An Appraisal of the Ethical Principles of Morita and Naikan Methods]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0005</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The article expounds and compares two representative contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches which grew out of the Buddhist cultural heritage of Japan and have proved successful in dealing with mental disorders in both Eastern and Western countries. Morita and Naikan therapies are regularly discussed and evaluated together as their compatibility and belongingness are unquestionable facts, even though they appeared at different times and in different milieus. One emerged from the clinical practice of a psychiatric department at a Tōkyō hospital where patients with neurasthenia were being treated, while the other appeared in rural Nara as a transformed version of an ancient ascetic tradition which aimed to assist devoted Buddhists attaining enlightenment. The article investigates the similarities and differences that form the foundations of the metaphysical, ethical, and therapeutic presuppositions of both therapies, pointing out the degree of their compatibility, and the possibility of conceiving a unified ethical framework for them.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Irrigated Agriculture in Malaysia and Vietnam: A Comparative Analysis of Water Governance Strategies]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0002</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Irrigated agriculture has the potential to ensure food security, contribute to sustainable management, and preserve freshwater resources. At the same time, it is connected to problems such as water scarcity, environmental degradation and pollution, and poverty. This so-called “wicked” nature is addressed by comparatively analysing the strategies used for water governance in irrigated agriculture. To highlight its cross-sectoral nature, the concept of cross-sectoral alignment is introduced based on three governance criteria. The Southeast Asian countries of Malaysia and Vietnam are used to compare strategies as their differing political systems may lead to varying strategies and can thus offer greater insight into regional water management practices. The analysis suggests that the governance strategies used for irrigated agriculture have many similarities but also distinct differences. In particular, the influence of ODA in Vietnam as well as the way farmers are included in water management stand out in regards to the differences. Similar, however, are organisational set-ups, sectoral fragmentation, and insufficient supply of participatory mechanisms as well as generally low alignment across all categories. In consideration of the global importance of water management practices, only the aligned management of freshwater resources can increase environmental health and food security in the long term.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[The Role of Internal Migration in Sustaining Rural Communities in Japan: The Case of Aso City in Kumamoto]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0001</link>
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            <pubDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The shrinking of Japan’s rural areas, caused partly by continuous out-migration of younger people to the major cities, is an amply discussed topic in Japanese society and popular media. Even though a certain trend of counter-urbanisation exists despite larger depopulation patterns, many of these migrants do not stay permanently and therefore cannot contribute to sustaining rural areas in the long term. Previous studies argue that considering each community’s characteristics is important in order to find possible ways to sustain rural areas and attract new residents. Therefore, this study focuses on the case of Aso City, aiming to clarify the criteria that makes migration to Aso City appealing or unappealing, and to identify the factors responsible for enabling (or complicating) the act of permanently settling there. In order to do so, the author conducted a survey in Aso City using semi-structured interviews. While the beauty of the natural surroundings, quality of life, and social connectedness are the main positive qualities of Aso City, its infrastructure, demographic development, and economic situation are assessed more negatively by its residents. Further, this study shows that the better a person’s local social connections upon arrival, the more likely they are to find a place to live and work, and stay on a long-term basis. In order to attract new residents to rural areas and support their permanent settlement, it is important to help them obtain the resources necessary for settling and assist their transition into the social structure of the community.]]></description>
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