Japan’s New Ruralities presents a counterargument to the inevitable demise of rural society. Contrary to the dominant negative perceptions, this book highlights the spatial dimension of power differences behind uneven development in contemporary Japan. Most chapters are fieldwork-based case studies on topics such as corporate farming, local energy systems and public healthcare, examining the constraints and possibilities of rural self-determination under the centripetal impact of forces located both in and outside of the country. Focusing on asymmetries of power to explore regional autonomy and heteronomy, our framing chapters examine “peripheralization” and the “global countryside,” two recent theoretical contributions to the field, as a common framework.