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Comment by jpatokal | Hacker News Reader

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...

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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/

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