As Japanâs birthrate plunges faster than expected, school closures have picked up pace especially in rural areas like Ten-ei, a mountainous skiing and hotspring area in Fukushima prefecture, dealing a further blow to regions already struggling with depopulation.
Falling births are an Asian regional issue, with the costs of raising children dampening birthrates in neighbouring South Korea and China. But Japanâs situation is especially critical.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged âunprecedented measuresâ to boost the birthrate, including doubling the budget for child-related policies, and says maintaining the educational environment is crucial.
But little has helped so far.
Births tumbled below 800,000 in 2022, a new record low, according to government estimates and eight years earlier than expected, dealing a knockout blow to smaller public schools that are often the heart of rural towns and villages.
About 450 close every year, government data shows. Between 2002 and 2020, nearly 9,000 shut their doors forever, making it hard for remote areas to lure in new and younger residents.
âIâm worried that people wonât consider this area as a place to relocate to start a family if there is no junior high school,â said Eita's mother Masumi, also a Yumoto graduate.
deathtotheemperor on April 2nd, 2023 at 05:50 UTC »
Yeah, that's unsustainable. That's like "Florida retirement community" level bad.
DentateGyros on April 2nd, 2023 at 05:23 UTC »
What a poignant story. I can’t imagine what it was like to be the only two students, and it’s commendable in its own right that the village was funding all of these teachers solely to get these two kids through their graduation.
sjp245 on April 2nd, 2023 at 05:20 UTC »
Not a comparison to the past because I haven't been in Japan long enough, but I did dispatch teaching work for a few years and I was sent from my centrally-located apartment to kindergartens and daycare further out in suburbs and the countryside. A few schools I worked at were quite sad to go to. The students and teachers were great, but one school had an entire floor of classrooms (4-6 rooms) closed because of a lack of students. Another had 12 students and 6 teachers - at a kindergarten. Another school was completely empty except for 2 classrooms. Essentially had tumbleweeds blowing across the playground. These were big schools built for hundreds of students, but they were down to 20-40.
Another point was that walking from the train stations to the schools was depressing, because SO MANY of the houses were dilapidated, overgrown with weeds, empty, etc. Also saw so many elderly milling about (nothing wrong with that, but a lack of well-kept houses and children made it odd).