Yubari, 1918.

Japan’s population is aging and thinning, with so many younger natives moving abroad. That leaves the country in a precarious position for the future, though long-term prognostications of doom like predictions of sustained glory are often wrong. At any rate, the opening of Hiroki Tabuchi’s New York Times article on a dying town that may be a microcosm of sorts for the nation:

“YUBARI, Japan — Most young people have already fled this city of empty streets and shuttered schools, whose bankrupt local government collapsed under the twin burdens of debt and demographics that are slowly afflicting the rest of Japan.

Now, Yubari, a former coal-mining town on Japan’s northernmost main island, Hokkaido, is hoping an unlikely savior can reverse its long decline: a 31-year-old rookie mayor who has come to symbolize the struggle confronting young Japanese in the world’s most graying and indebted nation.

‘Japan  will tread the same path someday,’ said Naomichi Suzuki, who a year ago this month became the youngest mayor of the country’s most rapidly aging city. ‘If we can’t save Yubari, what will it mean for the rest of Japan?’

Indeed, the city’s plight and attempt to fight back — which has become a story line in the national media — could offer a glimpse of Japan’s future.”