Long article on Japan's coming demographic implosion

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/spike-hokkaido-2/teshio-mashike-and-the-rumoi-subprefecture-of-palisades-and-christ-signs/

For those interested in demographic issues...

I just came across this and spent the last half hour reading it. It's written by someone who traveled around rural Hokkaido and talks about the current and continued demographic crisis in Japan, stemming from a combination of unprecedented low birth rates, rapid aging of the population, the long economic malaise, the extremely anti-immigration attitude of the government and the country as a whole, and many other reasons. It's not a side of Japan outsiders ever see.