Getting your player ready...
KESENNUMA, Japan — Japan must confront years of reconstruction along its northeastern coast. For the towns and farming villages that have been battered for decades by economic decline, an exodus of young people and a rapidly aging population, the challenge could prove impossible.
“The prospects for the future are pretty grim for these communities, because of the high percentage of aged people,” says Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Tokyo campus.
“The younger generation sees no future in places like this,” says Shinichiro Yoshida, 36, a manager for one of Kesennuma’s nursing homes.
