More on rural decline - Japanese style

Pop-up City report on the efforts of Japanese governments to respond to the challenge of rural depopulation (Japan has a declining population made worse my accelerating migration to the big cities - Tokyo is still getting bigger):

It’s nothing new that Japan’s rural areas are experiencing steady population decline. But the Japanese government’s new measure to fight this trend is as innovative as it is rigorous: giving away houses for ¥0.00.

Whether this will work rather depends on whether the people taking up this offer (and picking up the cost of renovation) are able to sustain their life away from the job (and culture) magnet of the city.

The article also reports on this, very Japanese and decidedly spooky, initiative:

Nagoro is a slowly shrinking village located in the valleys of Shikoku, Japan. Populated by creepy dolls, it might make you question the reality. Its inhabitants left the village in a search of employment or died. Eleven years ago, Tsukimi Ayano returned home to Nagoro. Faced with loneliness, she has populated the village with dolls, each representing a former resident. About 350 life-size dolls currently reside in the village.