Guided shrinking to adapt to the demographic transition. The Japan case

This text is part of a collection of four contributions that emerged without a premise, inspired instead by the stimulus of a journey. Nevertheless, it has a single theme: the relationship between spatial design culture and demographic transition. However, this collection did not begin or take shape from a reflection on the problem of demographic transition per se. More specifically, it arose from a general question: what strategies can architecture and urbanism use to promote experiences of adaptation to demographic transition? A journey to Japan from July 2023 to January 2024 involved studies, surveys and, above all, meetings and discussions with scholars, planners, activists, administrators and local artists. 2 Overall, these ‘encounters’ proved invaluable in clarifying the meaning and limitations of the ideas that arose from the aforementioned general. The result is a collection of images and reflections. Travel materials have been partially incorporated into this collection and rearranged into contributions co-written with local scholars.