A large sea bream object, made from colourful debris found drifting at sea, such as plastic tanks, toys and wires, and produced by Japanese art group Yodogawa Tecnique, is displayed at the Setouchi Triennale art event at the port of Uno, Okayama prefecture in western Japan on May 19, 2013.

One of the many challenges that Japan faces is rural depopulation amid a fast decline in birth rate — but a recent trend may help revitalize some local economies.

In the last two decades, sleepy islands and towns in Japan have been hosting a new wave of contemporary art and design set-ups attracting tourists and new residents, some of whom are staying for good.

"The rural arts festivals tended to have local and regional regeneration and revitalization as their main aim, hoping to solve social problems of depopulation, and an aging population, whilst urban arts festivals were aimed largely at cultural development and regeneration," wrote Naoko Takahashi, an arts events manager and writer in a 2015 discussion paper on the subject published by the Arts and Festivals Management department at De Montfort University in Leicester, England.

Japan held more art festivals in 2015 than any other country studied, Takahashi found.

The small island of Ogijima in the Seto Inland Sea has been held out as an example of being particularly welcoming to younger people relocating there. Those moving include artists, families or people seeking a quieter life.

The population growth even spurred the reopening of a kindergarten and school for children, the Japan Times reported in 2016. That is a big step up from 2013, when there were no children residing on the island at all, a new resident wrote on the Setouchi art triennale's official blog in 2018.

The Setouchi Triennale 2019 received 1.2 million visitors in its entire duration over six months, its organizer said.