Kuni A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection

Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection
with Richard McCarthy, discussant: Maddalena Borsato (in english)

Kuni is both a reimagining of the Japanese word for nation and an approach to reviving communities. It shows what happens when dedicated people band together and invest their hearts, minds, and souls back into a community, modeling a new way of living that actually works. A kuni can be created anywhere — even within a hamlet on the verge of extinction.
While this may be especially relevant in Japan, where small rural communities are on life support, the same can be said nearly everywhere that worships the allure and power of the mega city. Importantly, Italy is no stranger to rural decline.
The book, Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection, provides a backdrop for an evaluation of the strategies to leverage core assets, like food and food culture, in order to reimagine community, rethink economies, and redraw the political trajectory for rural territories dropped by the industrialized, scale-obsessed world.
Co-author Richard McCarthy will discuss co-author Tsuyoshi Sekihara’s experience in rural Joetsu, to establish a Rural Management Organization, to forge a Rice Covenant with consumers, and to build a political project that aims for the “right size community.”
The book is available in English (by North Atlantic Books in 2021) and in Italian (by Hermes Edizioni in 2025).

Richard McCarthy is no stranger to Slow Food. He serves on its international board of directors, and directed Slow Food USA (2013-2019). A food systems leader, he founded the New Orleans-based think and do-tank, Market Umbrella in 1995, serving as its director for 18 years. In 2021, he co-founded the World Farmers Markets Coalition in Rome, operating in 70 countries. He received his Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics in Political Sociology, with a focus on the nexus between art, culture, nationalism, and funerals (in Ireland). An advocate for decentralized local food systems, he lives in the New York Finger Lakes and works in Rome.

The conference will be held in AULA MIROGLIO