Japan Navigator

When I visited Shingu recently, I was surprised to find most of the shops in town shuttered down, even on normal weekdays. The long shopping arcade that runs through the center of the town was like a ghost town. Only a few elderly citizens were moving about, dressed in cheap training suits and running shoes. Nobody came to shop here - all cars and bicycles congregated on a new, large hypermarket elsewhere in Shingu.

[Shuttered down shopping arcade in Shingu - Photo © Ad Blankestijn]

These closures were not just for the day, but for good, as I was told in the tourist information center near the station. And Shingu in southern Wakayama is not the only town where this is happening - far from it. You can see the same phenomenon in hundreds and hundreds of towns, all over the country. Japan is in fact becoming a country of ghost towns, with only a few bustling cities as Tokyo and Osaka where everyone wants to live as remaining centers of activity.

Of course, also in other countries (France comes to mind) the countryside is being depopulated, but in Japan this not only happens in the coutryside, but also in prefectural capitals and cities that are the gateway to popular tourist destinations.

What are the causes of this sad phenomenon?

1. There is no work - which causes young people to leave for the big cities. Since the Bubble burst, Japan has two economies: Tokyo and other huge cities on the one hand, and the rest of the country on the other. Regional economies remain extremely sluggish. Koizumi’s policies gave them the death stab. Add to this the falling birthrate.

2. The proliferation of huge shopping malls and outlets in the suburbs, such as Aeon. These look alike all over Japan and are very boring with their similar clinical looks. But they are also convenient, especially when you go by car (the older shopping arcades are close to stations, but nobody uses trains anymore except for commuting). That is why even in a city as Kariya, in Toyota’s thriving heartland, the shops in town are dying.

3. The conservatism of the owners of shops in the arcades. They don’t try new things themselves. And after shuttering down their shop for good, they do not think of selling or renting out the property, because they often still are living there, on the second floor. Or they set ridiculosly high rents. So it is impossible for new blood to come in….

(some information based on Daily Yomiuri Online)