What does it mean when we say „local“ and what does „local“ mean in the Japanese context? Rethinking Locality in Japan, edited by DIJ researcher Sonja Ganseforth and DIJ alumnus Hanno Jentzsch (Vienna), examines broader political and socio-economic shifts in Japan through the window of locality. It covers demographic change, electoral and administrative reform, rural decline and revitalization, welfare reform, and the growing rift in energy and food production. Chapters discuss the different ways in which locality in Japan has been reconstituted, from historical and contemporary instances of administrative restructuring to more subtle social processes of making and unmaking local places. Contributors include the co-editors Sonja Ganseforth („Territorialized yet Fluid Locality: Reform, Consolidation, and the More-than-Human in Japanese Fishery Cooperatives“) and Hanno Jentzsch („San’ya – The Making and Unmaking of a Welfare Quarter“) as well as DIJ researchers Barbara Holthus („The Meaning of Place for Selfhood and Well-being in Rural Japan“, with Wolfram Manzenreiter) and Isaac Gagné („Mapping the Local Economy of Care: Social Welfare and Volunteerism in Local Communities“). The volume is an outcome of the DIJ’s research focus The Future of Local Communities in Japan.