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Paper short abstract

This paper explores how Japan’s SDGs Future City Initiative reframes rural (re)vitalisation through sustainability narratives. Case studies indicate a shift toward post-growth imaginaries, although claims of innovation often overlap with conventional strategies.

Paper long abstract

How do shrinking rural communities in Japan mobilise global sustainability discourses to craft viable futures? This paper revisits three municipalities—Shimokawa, Suzu, and Kamikatsu—selected as SDGs Future Cities to explore new narratives of (re)vitalisation in rural Japan. The “SDGs Future City” (SDGs mirai toshi) Initiative was launched in 2018 to address local challenges and simultaneously implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rather than reading these towns through a lens of inevitable decline, the paper explores how local actors deploy sustainability narratives of (re)vitalisation to negotiate demographic change and reconfigure rural identities. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of policy documents and revitalisation plans, the paper examines the tensions between pro-growth strategies and emerging post-growth imaginaries, and the urban-rural entanglements that shape these visions. Findings suggest that sustainability paradigms, as embodied in the projects supported by the SDGs Future City Initiative, might not only foster long-term sustainability but also offer innovative pathways for Japan to transition into a smaller population while maintaining social vitality. At the same time, these cases reveal an ambivalent terrain: while signalling a tacit departure from growth-oriented strategies, the emerging imaginaries often blur the line between innovation and the repackaging of conventional narratives. This ambiguity underscores the challenges of interpreting policy-driven narratives as indicators of agency and resilience, and invites a critical reflection of what constitutes transformative change in rural Japan.