Lone child brings hope to Japan's puppet village

Some puppets ride swings while others push a cart of firewood, smiling eerily at visitors.

Too bad those puppets just can't pay residential tax, pension, social insurance and also can't take care Japanese elders.

Prime Minister Ishiba has vowed to "recreate Japan" with policies including doubling subsidies for struggling regions.

But Taguchi cautioned that similar subsidies were often approved by the central government in the past to fund "flashy" revitalisation projects like fancy cafes.

Wasting tax monies on Potemkin villages.

While urban youth are burdened with regressive taxes and stagnant wages.

Some late stage feudalism going on with the LDP, but as long as their pockets are lined they are good.

Revitalising rural areas is one of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's key campaign pledges as he fights to retain a majority in a general election on Sunday.

Pie in the sky dreams to waste yet more tax payers money.

So many posters know about how the Japanese government is wasting tax money. But they never suggest where it should go. It's always more "intellectual" to be negative, especially anonymously.

An attempt at making rural life more appetizing doesn't seem to be a waste to me. But then, I'm being positive. Anonymously.

I think it is about the return on the money spent, Gene. Often you go to these places and they have nice roads, bridges, tunnels and freshly-concreted mountainsides and rivers, and yet the population is still collapsing, retail options are limited (there is often a women's hairdresser and that is about it) and everywhere feels dead, apart from the odd kei-tora on the road.

Keep figthing Japan..

That kid is growing up as a spoiled little brat among Children of the Corn ( or Rice in this case).

This Ichinono is actually in Hyogo not Chiba.

Moderator: That's correct. Thanks for pointing it out.

People go where the jobs are. Period. Otherwise, any LDP stimulus measure is pointless.

There was a village I lived in where there were only 7 elementary school kids. A power company came in and built an electric power station, which brought about a hundred new young and middle-aged workers. The population of that school went up to about 30 within a few years. A few new stores opened up in the area and there was noticeably quite a bit more young people around town.

The power company has closed down that power station (moved it upriver) and now that whole area has become almost empty. They closed down that elementary school. Once again, it's the availablitly of jobs and income that determines it all. Or build a university which will bring in thousands of young adults.

A punctual positive article embedded in the impossible to stop decline of population at global level for Japan. No kid no future.

Problem is it won't stop to small and medium cities, it will just take another generation and puppets won't change anything, more like a scary dystopian world to live in.

Reference to movie Children of men comes to my mind.

We need more naive FOB gaijin to buy akiya to revive these places -- how about offering subsidies to help them?

Give it time and the locals will start complaining about the puppets!