http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-japan-population-snap-story.html
As Japan's population shrinks, bears and boars roam where schools and shrines once thrived
By Julie Makinen

The red-roofed temple at the top of the hill closed about a decade ago, and now Yoshihiro Shibata can’t even remember its name, though the 54-year-old dairy farmer has lived in this picturesque village all his life.

“The income of the temple depends on the number of residents, and there weren’t enough to keep a monk here,” he said, looking around the deserted grounds nestled amid the village’s lush landscape of tea plants and hydrangeas, bamboo and pine trees.

A few years after the temple shut its doors, the village tea-processing factory closed down and the elementary school too. Now, the remaining students are bused an hour away.

“When I was young, we had about 100 kids here, but now there are just five,” Shibata said.


Yoshihiro Shibata stands in front of the tea-processing factory that was closed in his village several years ago.