Economy
In Japan’s Vanishing Rural Towns, Newcomers Are Wanted
Facing declining birthrates and rural depopulation, hundreds of “marginal villages” could vanish in a few decades. But some small towns are fighting back.
On a recent afternoon in the rural Japanese town of Kanna-machi, all seemed well. Children splashed in the town’s namesake river; their parents relaxed nearby at a bankside summer beer garden. A gaggle of laughing teenagers in muddy uniforms strolled home along the town’s main road after an afternoon baseball practice. Set against lush mountain views, life here seems idyllic.
But Kanna-machi, deep in Japan’s central Gunma Prefecture, is living on borrowed time. It’s set to be among the first municipal victims of Japan’s demographic trajectory.