Batgerel Ariungerel, a 26-year-old Mongolian who has fallen for the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, has always preferred rural areas over city centers.

So, she was considered a perfect fit for the central government’s “local vitalization cooperator” program.

Such cooperators, under a national framework, relocate to rural areas and engage in community vitalization work on commission from the hosting local government.

Thousands of people, most of them Japanese, are cooperators around Japan. But foreign workers like Ariungerel are becoming more in demand for the program due to the influx of tourists and non-Japanese residents in rural regions.

Ariungerel’s main job is working at an intensive care home for elderly people in the Kirikiri district of this northeastern town.

She is called Ari by residents of Otsuchi.

“You use a spoon instead of chopsticks, right?” Ari, speaking in Japanese, recently asked one of the residents at the care home.

“I initially had a hard time because I didn’t understand the dialect here,” Ari said, laughing. “I like Japanese and the culture here. For example, ‘enryo’ (which can mean ‘restraint’ or ‘refraining from doing something’) is a likable word that has no parallel in other countries.”

Ari came to Japan in September 2018 under the “specified skilled worker” visa system. She obtained a certified care worker license while working at a nursing home in the prefectural capital of Saitama, north of Tokyo.

She changed jobs and joined the care home in Otsuchi in spring 2023 through the introduction of a friend of a relative.

“I did so because I like the countryside better than a city,” Ari said.

NURSING HOME IN DEPOPULATED AREA

Outside of the care home, Ari, as Otsuchi’s local vitalization cooperator, serves as a life coordinator for non-Japanese workers in the town.

She and a fellow cooperator from Mongolia accompany foreign nationals to hospitals or the town hall. The two also listen to their troubles.

Ari has helped three people who came to Otsuchi from Myanmar in autumn for nursing care work.

She has danced a local folk dance at a summer festival here and has also joined community gatherings. Ari said she wishes to remain in Otsuchi even after her term as local vitalization cooperator ends.

“For the future, I hope to be teaching what I have learned myself, such as Japanese and nursing care, to others who come to live in Japan,” she said.

Jun Haga, chief director of the Tsutsumi Fukushikai social welfare corporation, which operates the care home, was the one who proposed to the Otsuchi town government that it appoint Ari and others as local vitalization cooperators.

“Businesses in the welfare industry are scrambling for non-Japanese workers,” Haga, 59, said. “Things are particularly tough in depopulated areas. More foreigners will settle down here only if we create an environment that makes it easier for them to live here. We aspire to be a model for what a nursing home should be like in an aging, depopulated community.”

DEMAND RELATED TO INBOUND VISITORS

About 150 local vitalization cooperators across Japan were non-Japanese in fiscal 2022. Their duties are typically related to tourism and disseminating information.

A local vitalization cooperator, in principle, must be a resident of an urban area who is moving to a rural area.

That regional requirement, however, may be relaxed for foreign nationals. Those who have served as assistant language teachers in Japan qualify to be local vitalization cooperators, even if they are moving from one rural area to another.

Bethany Johnson, a Canadian in her 30s who lives in Tokushima Prefecture, falls in that category.

Johnson came to Japan in summer 2017 and served as an assistant English teacher at elementary and junior high schools in Sanagochi, Tokushima Prefecture, for four years.

She said she was surprised by the landscapes of the village, located in a mountainous area on the main island of Shikoku.

“I didn’t even know Shikoku’s presence until I came here to start my job,” Johnson said. “The verdure here feels so affectionate, which is quite different from the sharp feel of the Rocky Mountains.”

Johnson has been an employee of the Tokushima prefectural government since 2021. Her activities are based in the western part of the prefecture.

On social media platforms, Johnson has been posting her photos and videos, typically taken at tourist spots in the region. They include mountainous areas with a view of the Yoshinogawa river.

Her posts are targeted at inbound visitors and are accompanied by English-language commentaries.

“I like the natural settings here,” she said. “I also like interacting with regional communities here.”

Johnson has guided inspection tours for overseas travel agencies and other parties. In addition, she has organized photo exhibitions, including at a government-designated roadside rest area, for an audience of both residents and tourists.

TOKUSHIMA SETS EXAMPLE

Tokushima is the only prefecture with a local vitalization cooperator program open exclusively to foreign residents.

The prefecture has hired new cooperators under the program every year since fiscal 2021, including people from Russia, Australia and the United States.

The internal affairs ministry hopes to sharply increase the number of cooperators across Japan.

It took account of Tokushima Prefecture’s measures when it introduced a system in fiscal 2024 to support efforts for recruiting foreign local vitalization cooperators.

Johnson’s employment term, which was prolonged as an exception because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, will expire in spring.

She said, however, that she wishes to remain in Tokushima Prefecture after that deadline because her period of stay in Japan has been extended.

Johnson watched “Sailor Moon,” the popular anime series, in the original Japanese when she was very young, and she studied Japanese at a university in Canada.

She can communicate smoothly with local residents.

Johnson said she believes foreign cooperators will find it difficult to interact with regional communities if they are not proficient in Japanese.

(This article was written by Masakazu Higashino and Masataka Yamaura.)