Fieldwork in Chizu (Tottori, Japan) 2023-2024: Photos

This dataset contains images taken by the author for his project “Supplementing activities of resilience: The impact of demographic change on local activities and civic engagement” at the German Institute for Japanese Studies. The author visited Chizu-town (智頭町) three times between 2023 and 2024. He participated at a number of events, such as philosophical cafés, a film-screening, welfare-related activities, and a disaster prevention gathering. The images display the region’s abundant natural landscape, but at the same time demonstrate the effects of long-lasting demographic decline. Especially the pictures on the nearly abandoned village of Itaibara-mura illustrate, how whole hamlets can be subject to depopulation. It is the author’s aim to discuss places where local people gather to engage in conversations and community activities and how these places strengthen the respective community’s resilience.