In Japan’s oldest communities the kids are gone, with the elderly left to keep their towns alive. It’s a glimpse of the challenges facing Australia and the world.
| Wearing hot pink track pants and waving red and silver pom poms, the world’s oldest cheerleaders are warming up for their weekly practice.
“We also need to do this to get rid of our stress. My generation of women have to care for the elderly – our in-laws and our husbands. The students leave and find jobs elsewhere. For those of us who remain we need to stay healthy and active.” Almost 30 per cent of Japanese people are aged over 65. The number of births in 2021 reached a record low and parts of the country are struggling to maintain vital infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and rail links.
Japan is not alone, but its population crisis is further advanced than the rest of the world. Japan’s cultural aversion to mass immigration and a growing reluctance to have kids, part of a worldwide trend, also means there is no clear pathway back to growth.Christopher Jue Sasaki, who faces an election in August, hopes extending schooling years in the town for an additional three years up to the end of junior high school, which is about 15 years, will help stabilise the population.The demographic challenges are on full display as you drive around Akita prefecture in the northeast of Japan’s main island. Abandoned homes, closed kindergartens and collapsed wooden sheds and farmhouses line the empty streets and fields.
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