Rural Japan cities rebrand themselves as urban alternatives

Kamiyama, Japan

AT first glance, Kamiyama looks like any other rural town in Japan: shuttered stores on the main street, a gas station unencumbered by customers, hunched-over old ladies tending to rice fields.

But on closer inspection, this mountain village on Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, also has many highly unusual attributes, such as wood-fired pizza, tech start-ups and young people.

As rural Japan battles the twin afflictions of a population that is getting smaller almost as quickly as it is ge…