Nanmoku – Japan’s ‘vanishing village’ looks to Shinzo Abe’s LDP for survival; take a look

Nanmoku, 107 km (67 miles) northwest of Tokyo, is at the forefront of Japan's battle against an ageing and shrinking population. Nanmoku is now Japan's oldest municipality. Nanmoku and places like it across Japan are a key support base for the LDP, which has been in power for most of the past six decades. People of Nanmoku believe old ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is what the country's most elderly village needs for survival. (Reuters Photo)

Rural Japan is no Tokyo. Those people may say something ideal in Tokyo, something like 'Let's change Japan'. But here, it won't strike home. (Reuters Photo)

Most municipalities are shrinking in Japan, so far the only important developed country with a declining population. They look to Tokyo for a lifeline. (Reuters Photo)

The Nanmoku municipality will provide transportation to elderly villagers who would otherwise have difficulty getting to the polls. (Reuters Photo)

Mountains account for 90 percent of Nanmoku's total land area, leaving little space for farming and housing. Some of the houses, built along a river running through the village, look abandoned. (Reuters Photo)

Farms that used to grow devil's tongue, a starchy potato-like plant, have yielded to large-scale operations in other municipalities blessed with ample farm land. (Reuters Photo)

Few customers come by the several general shops that remain open. (Reuters Photo)

People aged 65 or older account for 27.2 percent of the total population, the highest on record, while the population is forecast to fall by nearly a third by 2065 when almost 40 percent will be 65 or older. (Reuters Photo)

As part of a drive to tackle Japan's demographic time-bomb, the government in 2009 started a programme to financially help local municipalities recruit urbanites to work in agriculture and other sectors for eventual settlement. (Reuters Photo)

Japan's demographic challenge is one of the biggest facing the new government after Sunday's elections. (Reuters Photo)

Candidates' posters for the October 22 lower house election are displayed on the street in Nanmoku Village, northwest of Tokyo, Japan. (Reuters Photo)

With independent revenue sources covering less than 20 percent of the village's budget, Hasegawa sees a continuity in government support for Nanmoku as essential, and is wary of a change in government. (Reuters Photo)

The village's sole remaining elementary school has just 24 students this year, down from a high of 1,632 in 1959, when Nanmoku operated three grade schools. (Reuters Photo)

Its population has halved over the past 20 years to 1,963, and with a median age of 70.6, Nanmoku is now Japan's oldest municipality. (Reuters Photo)