depopulation

Chikara Imai, 73, is quick to dismiss the new parties in Sunday's national election, saying old ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is what the country's most elderly village needs for survival. Nanmoku, 107 km (67 miles) northwest of Tokyo, is at ...

Stagnant spending and soft wage growth in Japan are forcing two of Asia's biggest retailers — Fast Retailing Co. and Seven & i Holdings Co. — to court overseas consumers to drive long-term growth. Fast Retailing, operator of the Uniqlo chain, and convenience-store giant Seven ...

Japan will emerge as the only advanced economy that achieves the ultimate goal sought by policymakers — a new middle class.

From a sutra-chanting humanoid robot to automated cemeteries, technological innovation is changing how Japanese deal with funerary rituals. As traditional family ties erode, people are opting for more affordable and convenient alternatives to conventional ceremonies and burial services. Here's a peek into how mourning the dead ...

As working-age Japanese depart the countryside in droves, leaving behind graying populations, rural authorities are trying to counter the trend by turning idle real estate into homes for city dwellers seeking a quieter lifestyle. The Kyoto Prefectural Government is among those providing advice for people ...

In Shimukappu, a village in Hokkaido and home to a popular skiing resort, residents are to reopen the sole gas station, which closed four years ago as sales declined. It's a similar story elsewhere in the country, where oil demand has dropped by nearly a ...

As the world's most aged society, Japan can play a leading role in advising other countries facing a similar demographic challenge in the future, according to a British professor sitting on a new government panel on human resources. Lynda Gratton, a professor of management practice ...

Without a societal model that makes family life appear important and attractive, perhaps it's no wonder that many Japanese people have stopped choosing it.

Just three months after the village of Okawa, Kochi Prefecture, drew national attention by announcing it might abolish its elected council due to a lack of qualified candidates and introduce direct democracy, the head of the sparsely populated municipality said Monday that talks on the ...