JAPAN IS DYING. And its youth are being forced to inherit a GHOST NATION.
By 2050, over 20 MILLION people will vanish from Japan. The country’s own projections paint a terrifying picture: a staggering 37% of the population will be over 65. For teenagers like 19-year-old Keiichi Yasunaga, this isn’t just statistics—it’s their future being stolen. “Pensions will eventually disappear,” he warns, imagining a retirement age pushed to 80 or even 90.
LOOK at the haunting image of the overgrown, abandoned elementary school. This is not the past. This is the future.
The collapse is already here. In regions like Akita, the population is in freefall, with over 40% of residents already elderly. Young entrepreneur Daiki Nakada, 24, calls it “a front-line case” of the crisis. The photos show empty landscapes and elderly citizens potentially forced to relocate to crowded cities—a mass migration fueled by desperation.
Who is to blame? The silence is deafening. While politicians form committees, a deadly spiral accelerates. Rural towns are being erased. “Municipal mergers and compact-city strategies are being devised,” reports show, but it’s a managed retreat, not a solution. As economist Takuya Hoshino states, the immediate problem is a “shortage of people” to even maintain basic services.
The cradle is empty. Births have hit another RECORD LOW. The government’s response? To place the burden on women, argues researcher Shinichiro Umeya, instead of fixing a broken society. Meanwhile, the solution offered to the youth is bleak: work until you drop. Experts suggest simply redefining “old age” to 70 to hide the crushing dependency ratio.
The final insult? The very technology meant to save them—AI and robots, like those shown in the museum exhibits—threatens to erase human creativity and connection that give life meaning.
This is not just Japan’s problem. This is the first domino to fall in the industrialized world.
Your future has already been sold, and the receipt shows payment due at age 90.
Edited for Kayitsi.com
Author: Kayitsi.com
