Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the narratives of individuals who choose to move to remote rural areas as part of their professional careers. I ethnographically examine how individuals negotiate lifestyles between multiple moorings with regard to place and identity and collapsing binaries of work and leisure.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the narratives of mid-career individuals who choose to move to remote rural areas as part of their professional careers. Previously, urban-to-rural migration was usually associated with processes of dropping out and slowing down of counterurbanizers. However, the Lehman Shock, the Great East Japan Earthquake and increasing diversification of lifestyles in post-growth Japan have resulted in mobility becoming a more acceptable option for professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. I discuss trajectories of migrants from urban areas who have relocated to remote rural areas in order to pursue their careers and lifestyles in ways they could not in their previous urban lives. Many respondents report high satisfaction with their present lives both socially as well as professionally, yet also talk about the pressure to achieve their goals and a sense of insecurity as they have no concrete mid or long term plans, but tend to envisage themselves in a place different from their present place of residence. I argue that ethnographic data obtained in Shimane Prefecture in September and November 2016 indicates a shift in post-growth Japan to mobility as an ingrained way of life for many professionals, both within Japan as well as from Japan abroad. I ethnographically analyze how this shift to mobility that was motivated by both career and lifestyle factors affects individuals' values, mindsets and social networks and how individuals negotiate lifestyles between multiple moorings with regard to place and identity and collapsing binaries of work and leisure.