City Where Japan's Industrial Boom Began Is Decimated by Old Age

[TorchWood]

From Bloomberg:

City Where Japan's Industrial Boom Began Is Decimated by Old Age

Few places evoke the rise and fall of Japan’s industrial might than the head office of the Imperial Steel Works in Kitakyushu. The red brick Meiji-era building was the heart of the nation’s first big steelworks. Now it’s a Unesco World Heritage site.

Kitakyushu, with nearly a million people, embodies the struggle of Japan’s cities to adapt to a future where citizens are older, workers are fewer and many houses are emptying. The emblems of government efforts to revitalize the economy -- a billion-dollar airport, a robotics factory -- stand beside the empty lots, idle blast furnace and shuttered shops.

FULL ARTICLE HERE