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The countryside village of Japan: A fading treasure

By David Caprara
(David Caprara)
1 of 2 | (David Caprara)

KAWAKAMI, Japan, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Every morning at 6:00 am Yasufumi Shintani goes out to the street in front of his small log house coffee shop, "Coffee Shop Bonkura," in this rural mountain village of Japan. He puts up an "Open" sign, goes inside, and waits.

Cars drive by now and then, but most are just passing through to another town and do not stop."Nobody ever comes," he says as he wistfully looks into the distance from his window. "Life has all gone to the cities." Shintani's daily life and village are unknown to most travelers and even among many of the younger generation of his country.

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When most people think of Japan, images of the over-populated metropolis of Tokyo come to mind.

They may picture flashing neon lights, robots, and teens dressed up as their favorite anime characters hanging out in Tokyo's bustling Akihabara district. Most stories of Japan are reported by those who seldom venture outside of Tokyo, where English is commonly spoken and travel is easy for foreigners. The situation and mounting struggles of people living far from the bustle of the capital in the rural prefectures are rarely recognized or spoken about outside of Japan.

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Cities such as Tokyo and Osaka are becoming over-saturated with a steadily growing and progressively younger population, but there is another side to that phenomenon.

The urban population boon comes from the small prefectural villages of Japan. Countryside communities are in decline, and in many ways the traditional ways of life that comprise the fabric of Japanese culture are becoming greatly endangered.

The Yoshino village of Kawakami, far from the beaten path of tourists, is a side of Japan that is normally reserved to locals. Homes in the community, have rice-paper shoji and fusuma (sliding-door) separators to create rooms, but no insulation. Springtime is a luxury after a cold winter in the mountains when a plethora of blossoming sakura cherry trees harken the emergence of new life.

The population has been in steady decline since the year 1970. In the year 1960, the population was at a peak of 8,084. Today, the population has dwindled down to 1,672.

Abandoned and unused houses are abundant in Japan's countryside, and visiting teachers are often given entire houses to live in for free.

A combination of out-migration and falling birth rates has produced a situation in Kawakami where 53 percent of the population is over the age of 65. Yet there are those who remain devoted to their communities and accept a life of continuing decline and depopulation, hoping that it is only a phase from which their village will recover.

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But for children, every year opportunities become scarcer.

In schools, popular clubs that require a minimum number of members, such as baseball, can no longer be viable. Specialized clubs that one would find in the city, such as foreign language clubs and scientific interest clubs, have been eliminated and only more generally popular clubs such as table tennis survive. In many towns there are no high schools at all, and students who strive to further their education beyond junior high school must make long commutes, adding to the burden on their families.

Job opportunities, likewise, are narrowing every year, and a cycle of decline is underway: People are leaving because opportunities are scarce, and opportunities are becoming more scarce because people are leaving.

Shintani-san looks out the window of his café through a small wisp of steam coming from his coffee. "I want the community to get better, he says, "but I do not know if it will. I will continue to run my coffee shop as I have always done, but as for the future of this place, nobody knows." David Caprara is a journalist travelling in Asia. You can find more of his writings on Japan at totorobaga.wordpress.com.

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