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Rural areas in Japan are usually associated with depopulation, aging and stagnation. In order to tackle the widening gap between booming urban and distressed rural areas in Japan, novel revitalisation policies need to be examined. Contemporary art has untested potential as a vehicle for regional revitalization. To illustrate this potential, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial has been chosen as a case study since it constitutes a new type of revitalization with its emphasis on human exchange and interaction of heterogeneous players in a rural setting. Three Triennial projects will be introduced; in each of them, the extent of artists' involvement on site with residents, local perceptions of the artwork as well as non-local impressions will be analyzed. Discussing both emic and etic perspectives, the focus of this study is the 'soft' impact of the festival, i.e. how locals have perceived encounters during the Triennial, how cooperation between artists and locals took place, whether the project gave rise to a sense of autonomy and independence in tackling the issues of depopulation and obsolescence. Ultimately, the key question is what constitutes successful revitalisation. It is argued that revitalisation is only sustainable if incentives are created for residents to establish local autonomy. The results outlined in this paper are mainly based on ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]