The Wider Image: Last students graduate: School closures spread in

Eita Sato, 15, and Aoi Hoshi, 15, who are the only two students at Yumoto Junior High School, serve their last school lunch for themselves and their teachers, a few days before the students’ graduation and the institution’s closing ceremony in Ten-ei Village, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, March 9, 2023. Eita and Aoi, who have been together since three, are the last two graduates of Yumoto Junior High, a public school established in 1947 that in its prosperous years sent out more than 50 graduates, but with only a few enrolments expected in the coming years, the village decided to close the school for good. “We heard rumours about the school closure in the second year, but I didn’t really think it would happen. I was shocked when I heard the news,” Eita said. REUTERS/Issei Kato