Paper short abstract:

Urban-rural migration is acquiring a new dimension in Japanese society specially after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. This paper explores the filmic representation of this movement encouraging young women to return to nature.

Paper long abstract:

Urban-rural migration movements have been extensively documented in the USA and Europe since the 1960s. However, this circumstance is acquiring a new dimension in contemporary Japan specially after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. The so-called U-Turn phenomenon is bringing back women from Japanese metropolises to rural and peripheral areas. Fears about food safety and nuclear threat as well as social pressure are creating a new interest in the idea of “back to nature” or “back to the roots” among female urbanites. The U-turn movement is re-evaluating societal values and breaking down traditional assumptions about women expectations.

This paper explores the filmic representation of this migration movement. It examines how cinema encourages women to return to their traditional origins, framing nature in a positive light as opposed to the congested urban living. In particular, this paper focuses on film-texts about young women moving out of cities and returning to their family’s villages. Films like Umi no futa (Toyoshima Keisuke, 2015) based on a Banana Yoshimoto’s novel about a young woman who starts her own kakigori business in a small town, or Riteru Foresuto (Mori Junichi, 2014-2015) based on a manga story about a girl who decides to start her new rural life as a farmer represent this “back to basics” trend.

We argue that this cinema illustrates a revaluation of contemporary life from an ecofeminist perspective as well as links women with tradition and nature forcing them to return to a more patriarchal environment.