Time running out for Japan's aging enclaves

Increasingly, rural communities in mountainous regions are mainly inhabited by elderly folk who live alone. With no one to cultivate farms and keep forests in check, these villages are fast falling into economic ruin. It would be wrong to think this is someone else's problem for the situation has the potential to seriously affect urban residents, too. In that regard, it is an ideal topic to be addressed in Japan's unified local elections in April.

For 35 years I have been visiting rural villages to conduct research. I have come across many elderly people who simply wait for the sun to set, watching television nearly all day without speaking to anyone.

I have also seen old people, whose only means of survival is when mobile stores visit every several days. Many people must rely on taxis to get to a hospital because unprofitable local bus routes have been abolished. Surrounded by overgrown silent forests, these people live in obscurity.