The ethics of care and well-being in more-than-human community economies: older women’s local business in rural Japan

This PhD thesis examines everyday life in ageing and depopulating rural Japan through the lens of an older women’s local business. It explores how their lived experiences of ageing unfold in relational, affective, and transformative practices that sustain rural livelihoods and socio-ecological well-being.

Since the 1950s, rural Japan has faced demographic shifts as younger generations migrated to cities, leaving behind an ageing population. These dynamics reshaped economies and communities, producing labour shortages, loss of traditional knowledge, and landscape degradation. Sustaining livelihoods and managing resources now falls largely on older residents, particularly women. Yet their contributions are often framed narrowly within policy and economic discourses that stress measurable outcomes while overlooking ethical and affective practices.

This research investigates how an older women’s business cares for people, communities, and more-than-humans. Through farming, food-making, and small-scale commerce, these women not only generate income but also preserve cultural heritage, sustain communal ties, and foster more-than-human interdependence. Central to their activities is kokorozashi, a concept of aspiration and commitment that prioritises collective well-being over individual gain. While policies celebrate such businesses for rural revitalisation, they risk reducing their value to economic empowerment, obscuring the challenges of ageing bodies, market pressures, and political structures.

The study asks: How do older women’s everyday practices through a kokorozashi business care for themselves, other humans, and more-than-humans to enhance collective well-being in ageing and depopulating communities? Three sub-questions guide the analysis: (1) How do older women sustain their communities, and what subjectivities emerge through their practices? (2) How do they collectively manage resources among humans and more-than-humans, and what can the concept of commoning illuminate? (3) How do they navigate the emotional and physical challenges of ageing as part of their ethical practices?

The study employs a framework integrating postcapitalist community economies and feminist political ecology with feminist and posthumanist ethics of care. This synergetic approach highlights care as a practice sustaining multispecies worlds, challenges anthropocentric assumptions, and situates everyday activities in broader ethical and relational contexts. It shows how gender, age, and rurality intersect in socio-ecological practices, while resisting capitalist hegemonies that oversimplify interdependence.

The case study focuses on Kunma-Suisha-no-Sato (Suisha), an award-winning older women’s business known as the ‘Water Wheel Village in Kunma’, in rural Shizuoka, Japan. The methodology involved two extended fieldwork periods, using participant observation, informal conversations, semi-structured interviews, and group discussions.

This research advances postcapitalist critiques of neoliberal models by foregrounding older women’s everyday practices as sites of possibility rooted in multispecies interactions. By situating ageing within a postcapitalist feminist political ecology framework, it contributes to theoretical debates on care ethics, emphasising the complex, multi-temporal nature of caregiving and receiving.

Methodologically, it advances a feminist approach integrating ethnography, participatory activities, and qualitative interviews, capturing dynamics of knowledge production, intersectional power relations, and relational dimensions of ageing. Future interdisciplinary, long-term approaches could further refine this methodology.

Ultimately, this study provides insights into how ageing rural populations navigate ongoing challenges – in Japan and in other contexts facing socio-ecological and demographic shifts.