james wrote:if it's anything like here, they're faced with an aged and declining population and low birthrate, an exodus of young people ...
I used to live in Kujukurimachi and it was eerie how there were hardly any people in their 20s (and maybe 30s) there, except for visiting surfers. All you saw were middle-aged, elderly, and occasionally they were with grandchildren.
On the loudspeaker announcements there would sometimes be reports of elderly who had wandered off and not returned home.
His [Brendan Behan's] last words were to several nuns standing over his bed, "God bless you, may your sons all be bishops."