Saturday, October 2, 2010

"Photo exhibition in London highlights Japan's 'lost villages'"

From today's Japan Today:

Londoners are having their first glimpse of the hundreds of Japanese villages suffering from the effects of depopulation.

Sam Seager, 29, is exhibiting photos he took from all over Japan to highlight the growing problem of the exodus from the countryside to towns. His images show abandoned hotels and rural homes which have fallen into disrepair after their elderly residents have died and their children have decided to stay in the towns.

Seager’s interest was prompted by an article he read about the plight of residents in Ogama on the Noto Peninsula in Ishikwawa Prefecture. Only six people are left in the village, which he visited, and there are plans to turn the location into a large waste dump.

Seager, who studied Japanese and law at university, wanted to capture the effects of depopulation on camera, and visited several villages during a three-month tour which spanned 6,500 kilometers. He says he was ‘‘shocked’’ by the ‘‘consistent’’ way in which villages had been depopulated and virtually abandoned.

Read the whole story:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/photo-exhibition-in-london-highlights-japans-lost-villages

More information at Sam Seager's blog:
http://cargocollective.com/samseagerphotography#570574/Lost-Villages

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