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Comment by hkmurakami | Hacker News Reader

>And then there’s the view. Whether it’s the outskirts of Queens on the way from New York’s JFK airport, or the fringes of the Los Angeles highway off-ramps by LAX, everything seems a bit run down and decrepit.

Even on the train from Narita Airport to Tokyo, you'll pass plenty of comparatively run down "commerce areas" adjacent to small train stops. The buildings are old, and made of nondescript concrete that have been stained by the rainfall over decades. It makes me uneasy every time I see these sort of buildings.

Taking the Narita Express or the Limousime Busses will largely insulate you from seeing those things though.

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Yeah, that line is ridiculous. Tokyo is the only part of Japan that's still growing in population, and that will stall and reverse by 2020. Even in Tokyo, "new and shiny" is concentrated in a few central spots near major train stations. Population in the rest of the country is shrinking, with many places in outright collapse.

https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/yubari-withering...

Bit of a sidebar but I really like Spike Japan. I wish they'd compile all the blog posts into a book.

I just wish he'd keep posting. I got the distinct impression someone complained to his employer, though, and he was told to stop. I used hit that site up all the time looking for a new post.

I went to Gunma a couple months ago and saw this first hand. Small villages where abandoned housing outnumbered occupied buildings 2 to 1.

In this case it was in a more mountainous area, but there's a lot of community collapse going on (the tsunami probably exacerbated the trend in some areas)

That makes me wonder if it's a good time to start up some mountain tourism in Japan. The landscape is magnificient, the culture is unique, and if the prices are falling a bit you could attract a lot more of budget-ish climbing/hiking/trekking/paragliding/younameit traffic both foreign and local. Especially hiking, trekking and trailrunning is quite big.

The only downside being that the Yen is a strong currency, which kills the whole budget idea. The central bank has been trying for a long time to induce inflation, without much success.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29845466

That piece doesn't really contradict the article. Yubari is shrinking but it's maintaining strong public services, low crime, and a high quality of life for its residents.

It's desperately attempting to, yes. However, it will fail, sooner or later, because every single rural city in Japan will soon be like Yubari, and the central government can't prop up all of them.

The following piece, also on Spike, is much slower/less flashy reading, but nonetheless pretty terrifying.

https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/a-city-on-the-edge/

The whole thing mostly boils down to: I've been to the nice parts of Tokyo and its awesome.

Here's an article from The Economist (Feb 7, 2015) that usefully counterbalances the "everything is awesome!" outlook in the submitted link.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21642216-rebuilding-north...

You see plenty of industrial areas from the limousine busses, and a few homeless people under bridges.

However, if Africa is third world and the US first world, then Japan is one better, in most respects, perhaps, zero'th world.

The reason I brought up the areas surrounding train station stops is because those areas are the prime commerce locations where things are supposed to be at their best. Things like homelessness exist everywhere in the shadows of society. To have buildings that contrast sharply with the glittering skyscrapes that symbolize Tokyo exist adjacent to train stations is a signal that not all is well everywhere in the country, even within greater Tokyo.

That happens to be a wrong assumption. Homelessness happens mostly in the most expensive areas of Japan, which are roughly the same as the prime commerce locations.

In terms of housing and basic needs, rural Japan is far ahead. But this doesn't happen just in Japan, it's a common theme. If all you aspire to is a full time job and a modest life, it's easy to have just that in many small towns in Japan where literally only the mentally impaired may need support to achieve just that. But a lot of people are addicted to urban life, and urban life in Japan is tough.

> a few homeless people under bridges

Reading books.

The thing that I find most disconcerting when riding the train from Narita are all the gaudy signs that read "本" with the kind of lowest-common-denominator flashing lights and gaudy font that I expect from sex shops or gambling establishments. It's weird to get off a plane, where I previously thought "reading: the activity of the smart and elite" and show up in Narita where it's "reading: the lowest-common-denominator activity that appeals to everyone".

(I get a similar feeling when going to London. I can read all the signs and overhear all the conversations, but everything is ... different. It's weird.)

At least it's concrete. Not some rotten wood.

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