Why Does Japan Have 9,000,000 Abandoned Homes?

Summary by Krater

The creators travel to Shikoku, Japan, to explore vanishing rural villages affected by the country's aging population crisis, visiting abandoned schools and towns populated entirely by life-sized dolls and a few elderly residents.

From the video

Answers: What is happening to Japan's vanishing rural villages and aging population?

• Japan aging population crisis
• Rural depopulation and ghost towns
• Shikoku vanishing villages
• Nagoro scarecrow village
• Emperor Antoku myth and history
• Revitalizing abandoned rural towns

What it concludes

• Japan is experiencing the most severe aging population crisis in the world, with its population expected to drop as low as 88 million by 2065 and turning thousands of rural villages into ghost towns.
• Shikoku is Japan's least visited major island and is home to several prefectures heavily hit by the aging population, leading many rural villages to rapidly die out.
• Unlike in other places, abandoned buildings in Japan often stay intact without graffiti or broken windows, serving as testaments to the integrity of Japanese culture.
• Tsukimi Ayano populated the vanishing village of Nagoro with over 350 life-sized dolls representing former residents to protect her late father's vegetable garden and preserve the village's memory.
• Kira and Ami are two young women who moved back into some of Japan's neglected rural towns to bring new life into them, renovating abandoned properties and boosting the local community.