Depopulation

Have you ever really feeled the decrease in population? Recently, I had a chance to go to the rural part of the west Tokyo several times. There were almost no high-rise bulidings, and the local taxi driver told me that the amusement park, the only place they can gather visiters, and many other shops are closing down. In that underpopulated town, there are few schools and there are no big department store nearby. So people need to go out of the town to do many of the things they want or need. This inconvenient causes the people to move out of the town and live in the center area of Tokyo. This causes the further decrease of the population in that town. It is a vicious cycle. Living in the center of Tokyo all my life, this is a surprise to me. We need to take the point that children cannot have their views in the future in their home town seriously.