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The future is now at
Tokyo suburb called Tama new town. On a sultry day
Tama’s wave pool
rims with
youngsters. But the crowds of kids are deceiving, come from miles around. In
fact, Tama is a community teetering on extinction.
When we moved in, there used to be kids everywhere, says this long-time resident.
Tama was a lightly fun place. But now Tama new town has become Tama old town. It’s
sad, it’s a ghost town. Japan suffers from a double laming, a shortage of babies but a bumper club of
elderly, that adds up to a shrinking population starting as early as next year.
Tama was built back in the 1960s, meant to be an Asian Harry Utopia during Japan’s baby boom, but nowadays,
canes and walkers have replaced tricycles and
strollers. Schools like this one are battling to the new reality by closing their doors
permanently, or staying open by converting into old center.
"In the countryside
is the same story”, says this resident, “you’ll hardly see kids any more.”
Japanese women are choosing careers over marriage and kids, making Japan
the fastest-strained country in the world. So Tama new town, once the symbol of a rising
Japan, now represents a population in decline.
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