Eita Sato, 15, and Aoi Hoshi, 15, the only two students at Yumoto Junior High School, attend a photo session with guests for the institution’s closing ceremony after their graduation, in Ten-ei Village, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, March 13, 2023. School closures are happening across Japan, with about 450 public schools closing every year, amid faster-than-expected declining births in the country, which have plunged to a new record low in 2022, according to official estimates, dropping below 800,000 for the first time, eight years earlier than the government had expected. “It is grave in a sense that the loss of schools means that the municipality itself will eventually become unsustainable. The real implication of Japan’s current phenomenon of declining birth rate and ageing population is that such areas will be increasing rapidly,” said Touko Shirakawa, journalist and lecturer at Sagami Women’s University specializing in sociology. REUTERS/Issei Kato
