Depopulation and ghost towns
The first photo is from the front page of the Saturday, August 19, 2023 Japan Times print newspaper, referring to the page 10 story, “The natural beauty of Japan’s abandoned villages.” The other pictures are ones I took myself in August of abandoned houses. These days in Japan, you don’t need to look far to find vacant or abandoned property - properties that were once a vibrant business or home or community, homes that were built, loved and lived in, businesses that were busy. Fertility rates have declined as more and more people are unwilling to marry, couples wait longer to have children, and job market changes make secure, well-paying jobs rarer. It often means having fewer children or none at all. At the same time the death rate in Japan is rising with the aging population.
The slow depopulation occurring in Japan was predicted in the 1960s, but the government ignored it until it became a measurable phenomenon early in the 21st century - by which time it was already too late. Now, the problems of slow depopulation are manifest in rural villages and towns first, and then the bigger cities.
Here’s a short list of ongoing solutions: financial incentives for urbanites to move to the countryside; incentives to ease pregnancy, birth, childcare and schooling costs; the provision of paid paternity leave allowing fathers to contribute to child rearing as well as bond with their children; the gradual amalgamation of villages and towns into larger townships in order to balance budgets by rearranging infrastructure and public services; trying to encourage more foreign immigration without calling it immigration - like promoting student visas, foreign worker training programs, and more work visas for foreigners in important industries like nursing and elder care; and, amending laws making it easier for foreigners to stay and live here - like the pension laws, salary bonus laws, and visa qualification laws. And more. But the reality is there are already many abandoned ghost towns in the countryside, and many abandoned single family homes in the cities, too.
Every day, there are fewer people in the country. That means there are fewer people getting married, and correspondingly fewer people having children. And, those people who are having children are having fewer of them. It’s a vicious cycle. A dearth of young people also means less consumer spending, less economic and scientific innovation and a smaller labor force, threatening the dynamism that built modern, post-war Japan.
The birthrate has been below replacement value more many years. The primary reason is the cost of childrearing. Japan is known to be an expensive country. But you never, ever hear politicians talk about the cost of living. Instead, they talk about the cost of child care and child rearing.
Of course, the population was never meant to grow infinitely. Leveling off can be a good thing when it comes to creating more sustainable approaches to life. We have to wait and see about that.
The population conundrum is also partly a consequence of educating women.
The population conundrum is also partly a consequence of educating women. Educating women means giving them economic independence, eliminating one of the traditional functions of marriage. Or not. It’s well known that female education makes an excellent birth control.
I think it’s sad to see abandoned places. Not because I’m worried about negative forecasts for the country and my life here, but because of the lost love. I see houses in which people used to live, and I think, where did the love go?
It’s difficult for municipal governments to remove abandoned or vacant buildings because questions of ownership block them. It seems hard to imagine. If no one is paying property taxes on a property, then can’t the government enforce “eminent domain”? Not really. Eminent domain is the power of the government to take private property for public use without the owner's consent. The government must pay the owner a just compensation, which is usually the fair market value of the property. Eminent domain is based on the soverignty of the state and requi4es a constitutional provision. But if the owner of the property is unidentifiable, or the heirs of the previous owner are unidentifiable, that means there is no one to be compensated for the confiscation of the property, and enforcing eminent domain is effectively blocked until the law is changed. There has to be an owner, otherwise vacant, decaying properties are left vacant and untouched.