Requiem for a Railway

[CaptOblivious]

Haven't had time to read all of it, it's long, but the author follows an abandoned railway in Japan, and comments on the shifting demographics. Indeed, his entire blog is devoted to explorations of the emptying of rural Japan.

 

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/requiem-for-a-railway/

[bill937ca]

A lot of railways that were hanging on by a thread have disappeared since the bursting of the bubble in the early 1990s.  Slowly the rural railways are all disappearing because of the auto culture and the declining population in rural areas.  But is Japan really that much different than any other developed country?  The wealth is usually in the cities and towns in the country are slow and sleepy except for the places that city residents escape to during good weather. Still Japanese railways have an advantage not found in other countries because of the centralist nature of the government and respect for seniority of railway employees.

 

Cutting fares by 40% on JR West probably has more to do with keeping the seats filled during a recession. Many transportation operators use yield management techniques to manage their fares. I suspect the 40% reduction will be history once the economy picks up.

[scott]

I'm home sick today, so I had time to read it. :-)  Well, I skipped the long asides.

 

It's interesting, and better than the usual run of blog posts (mine included). Not a very encouraging picture of either the quality of life in that part of Japan, or the pattern of land use, though. It'd be interesting to hear how widespread this problem is, and what proportion of the Japanese population lives in places like this.

 

You get a real sense of public places being abandoned, but of course Japan is a densely-populated country. So where is everybody? In the sprawl, or just staying home more often, or....?

 

It'd be nice to get some sort of balanced view of what urban life is like in Japan. Most of the books I've read give a pretty bleak picture of the cities and most of the Pacific coast--lots of concrete and channelized rivers, not much green left. But it's hard to know how accurate that is, or where it applies, from this far away.

 

Anyway--sorry to ramble so long, but this is the kind of stuff I like to know about a place.

[CaptOblivious]

But is Japan really that much different than any other developed country?

 

Yes, in one very important way: The population is shrinking, and therefore the population is aging. Combine that with the (rather typical for developed countries) emigration of youth from rural areas to urban areas, and you get a rapid and increasingly alarming depopulation of rural areas. (Reading between the lines: A rapid loss of agricultural capacity in a country that hasn't really embraced factory farming.)

[Martijn Meerts]

But is Japan really that much different than any other developed country?

 

Yes, in one very important way: The population is shrinking, and therefore the population is aging. Combine that with the (rather typical for developed countries) emigration of youth from rural areas to urban areas, and you get a rapid and increasingly alarming depopulation of rural areas. (Reading between the lines: A rapid loss of agricultural capacity in a country that hasn't really embraced factory farming.)

 

Maybe we should move to rural Japan and become farmers :)

 

(And keep a steam powered museum rail line on the side of course ;))

[bill937ca]

 

You get a real sense of public places being abandoned, but of course Japan is a densely-populated country. So where is everybody? In the sprawl, or just staying home more often, or....?

 

It'd be nice to get some sort of balanced view of what urban life is like in Japan. Most of the books I've read give a pretty bleak picture of the cities and most of the Pacific coast--lots of concrete and channelized rivers, not much green left. But it's hard to know how accurate that is, or where it applies, from this far away.

 

 

Japan has 127 million people or so.  There are 33 million in the Kanto basin, basically that is Tokyo (and Yokohama).  Metropolitan Osaka which includes Kyoto and Kobe has another 17 million.  That's 50 million in two cities.

 

Yes, Japanese cities are full of concrete without much green but it is very easy to travel out to the country by train.

 

This Japan Times article "A Quick Exit from Tokyo" provides a good example of a "An-Kin-Tan" — an abbreviated reading of the three kanji for yasui, chikai and mijikai — refers to journeys that are cheap, close and short to use the Japan Times phrasing.

 

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fv20070720a1.html

 

There are lots of points from Tokyo that would fit that description.  Places like Enoshima, Mt Fuji, Izu Peninsula and the Hakone Mountains.

 

I've found a blog which often shows local streets, and shopping streets and gives a very good indication of local conditions. Sometimes the photos are in the cities and sometimes he travels out of Tokyo. While some local scenes may look bleak, remember there are always mountains or a sea coast nearby except in the largest cities.

 

http://mikkagashi.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

 

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mikkagashi/sets/72157622383239491/'>http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mikkagashi/sets/72157622383239491/

 

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mikkagashi/sets/72157623047809997/'>http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mikkagashi/sets/72157623047809997/

 

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/mikkagashi/sets/

 

From what I hear driving on an expressway in Japan means 20mph traffic jams almost all the time.  The tolls were to be removed at all times, but industry and truckers opposed this.  Its only temporary to 2011.  But many other businesses which are down by 20-40% are cutting prices in many places around the world.

 

It might seem bleak in some aspects, but Japan is considered to have one of the highest standards of living in the world.  There is very little violent crime, the life span is long, housing stock averages 15 years of age, unemployment has only reached 5% recently and the per capita income is $40,000 US.  They do live a simple, very austere lifestyle, but that is the culture not economics.

[bill937ca]

But is Japan really that much different than any other developed country?

 

Yes, in one very important way: The population is shrinking, and therefore the population is aging.

 

Japan is not the only country with a rapidly aging population.  Germany is in that category.  Forty percent of Japan's population dates from the Baby Boom years of the early 50s.  Baby boomers in Canada account for 33% of the population.  The US Baby Boom population sits at 25% of the population.  

[scott]

Thanks for the links, Billl--that blog looks interesting.

[disturbman]

It might seem bleak in some aspects, but Japan is considered to have one of the highest standards of living in the world.  There is very little violent crime, the life span is long, housing stock averages 15 years of age, unemployment has only reached 5% recently and the per capita income is $40,000 US.  They do live a simple, very austere lifestyle, but that is the culture not economics.

 

Which could be one of the reason why Japan has such a low fertility rate.

[westfalen]

I'll have to find the time to read this all the way through, it looks like a fascinating article.

 

Back to the abandoned railways, I picked up an up to date rail atlas of Japan last year, (in a book shop in Taipei station of all places), that shows all the abandoned lines that ever existed as well as open ones. The number of abandoned lines is mind boggling, especially on Hokkaido where even the remotest areas were crisscrossed by a web of branchlines. Trainaway Tours, the group I often go to Japan with, run 'Closed Lines' bus tours back home exploring the remains of abandoned lines and I've joked with them that we should do something similar in Japan but you wouldn't know where to start.

[bikkuri bahn]

An OK story in search of an editor.  Unfortunately the writer falls into the all too common gaijin trap of looking at everything in Japan with an ironic, cynical eye , or reading into too much of what he sees.  For example, at the beginning, with the comment of the decommissioned track at Ueno Sta. as being the "first telltale signs of decay"- it may just have been a rationalization of station space, come about through more efficient use of other tracks.  Good to see some writing about the Kashima railway though.  The writer laments the closing of the railway when it could have been revitalized as a link to the new Ibaraki Airport.  However, the roadbed of the railway is being utilized for a busway.  Not ideal for railway fans, but perhaps a more viable mode for this area.

[bikkuri bahn]

From what I hear driving on an expressway in Japan means 20mph traffic jams almost all the time.  The tolls were to be removed at all times, but industry and truckers opposed this.

 

Yes, crowded but mainly during the peak periods of Golden Week, Obon and New Year's, when people go back to the countryside to visit granny and country bumpkin cousins.  The truckers rightly opposed the toll free roads- their business is time sensitive, and can ill-afford to have their routes clogged by weekend drivers, especially the critical approach and ring roads circling the big metropolises.

 

The number of abandoned lines is mind boggling, especially on Hokkaido where even the remotest areas were crisscrossed by a web of branchlines.

 

Yes, the railway network up here was much more dense than now.  But the break-up of JNR and the need to cut loss-making lines resulted in a radical paring down of that web of lines.  I managed to ride one of final rural lines before the axe fell- the Shinmei line from Fukagawa to Nayoro.  The rolling stock used on that line was the relatively rare kiha 53, which was a double ended version of the kiha 58 express type.

[Mudkip Orange]

So where is everybody?

 

Hikkikomori.

[quinntopia]

Interesting read.  I like the writing, despite the obviousness of attempting to sound ironic (which makes me suspicious as to their objectivity) too often, and the overly-long tangents (on BMC / auto industry, etc...).  All that can be ignored given the very thoughtful and interesting read, although this is a story that can be told a thousand times in nearly every country, I love these abandoned railway stories for the fascinating picture they paint of people in various places and times.  I only wish i was able to follow his journey on Google maps a bit easier!  I got lost in the lake.....

[to2leo]

Very interesting to find out Japan's example of small community decline.

 

I wonder what can be done to reverse this vicious cycle of economic decline?

[Mudkip Orange]

I wonder what can be done to reverse this vicious cycle of economic decline?

 

Why is it a problem at all?

 

The way I see it, as transport and communications links become more advanced, the need for small towns as centers of commerce and culture will continue to decline.

 

If you want an American example, you can look at Kansas; everywhere are dead ghost towns. 70 years ago, they had thriving downtowns, and not a few had express "Zephyr" train service to major cities. Nowadays, they're vacant lots and tumbleweeds. But if you look at the *cities* in Kansas, they're not doin' so bad. The rail yards in KC are as busy as they've ever been, there's new construction downtown, and the suburbs continue to expand.

 

Same thing with Japan. For every mile of dilapidated, single track rural line that's been abandoned, another mile of fully-electrified, concrete-tied, double-tracked rail has been built - whether it's an urban metro, or a commuter line built to link a new suburb. We can bemoan this development as railfans (or as humans in general) because many of the rural lines have character, while the shiny new systems can seem sterile. But at the end of the day, for as much nostalgia as we might have for small towns "where everybody knows your name," almost all of us choose to *live* in cities or suburbs.

 

That is, in fact, the root of most of the nostalgia. Because we're urbanites, raised on freeways and commuter trains, the gentle rocking motion and clickety-clack of a rural local is something new, something different. But if we were *native* to those rural areas, if we actually had been born and raised there, we'd be as immune to the charms of the small rural operators and instead drool over the pleasures of clean, smooth, effortlessly efficient urban rail. We might even be so fascinated by the systems of the cities that we'd choose to leave our rural hamlet behind and *live* there, ride those bright shiny commuter trains *every day*.

 

Which is exactly what's happening, all over the world.

[westfalen]

Reminds me of the closure of the Brisbane Valley Line, a rural branchline west of Brisbane. The normal passenger service was a single unit, baggage/passenger railcar that ran a single trip out in the evening and back the next morning, except Friday nights when it came straight back, passenger numbers never came close to filling all the seats. At times I relieved the station masters at stations along the line and some of the locals didn't even know they had a train service. When the service was discontinued the last run was a three car train with people standing as the local populace mourned the loss of their passenger train with one last ride, if they had used it with as much enthusiasm it might be still running.

[scott]

I'm not sure that the widespread move to cities and suburbs can be characterized as a choice based on preference. Lots of people are forced to go where the money is, or don't have access to the land they need to do more rural work. (Or, around here for example, can't afford it because the land prices are so high--so, no young/new farmers). And I've talked to lots of rural people who don't want to give up the places where they live.

 

For those who do choose to leave, it's often the result of a vicious circle--the reason that their hometowns seem lifeless or boring is that they've already been hit by changing economies that the residents have no control over.

 

And there's the difference between the perception of the thing you want and what you actually get. In this case, suburban living and the whole "affluenza" problem. Of course, unlike buyer's remorse with a toaster or a camera (or a model train  ), once you've moved, it's often hard to go back.

[Fat Al]

Having lived in Canada and travelling around North America for 20 years, the only place I have seen anywhere that's remotely close to what's happening in rural Japan is Detroit. Which, for some I suppose, is no big surprise.

 

But for me, I've spent the last five years crisscrossing Japan, probably half of that time I've spent in rural areas. It's quite surprising, seeing so many villages deserted, and the number of them is staggering. Recently, just outside of Hachioji, travelling through the lake district just west of the city, shows the huge differences between rural America and rural Japan. Hotels that are half finished stand up beside the lake, grown over with moss and other forms of wildlife. Huge resort areas which probably have only been around for 20 odd years look like they've been through a nuclear holocaust, the iron rotting away. The pedal boats still look usable, but the plastic colours faded away long ago. Ghost towns in America gradually appear over decades. These places all became ghost towns virtually overnight.

 

And it's sad, because the problem wasn't limited only to demographics, but also financial mismanagement and poor government planning. The shops left still standing had a variety of people running them. Young and old, they all look so despondent.

[westfalen]

I came across this site a while back.

 

http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/research.html

[ToniBabelony]

I came across this site a while back.

 

http://home.f01.itscom.net/spiral/research.html

 

It's so impressive to see the decay of the countryside in Japan. It somehow also happens here in Europe. In Sapin alone about 500 villages are for sale as they are abandoned: http://www.pueblosabandonados.es/ I could be tempted to do some 'loft-dwelling'myself, however it's quite a dangerous practice...