I couldn't help but gasp upon reading the Japan Policy Council's new recommendations to help take the aging population burden off Tokyo: "Encourage the elderly to move to the countryside, where the facilities are less crowded and there are more spaces for those needing full time care."
Really?
The logic behind sending the elderly packing, which I willingly and unceremoniously dub "Operation Obasuteyama" (playing on the myth that in the old days they used to take old women out to Mount Obasute to let them die so they would not be a burden on the family), is that it will "alleviate the issue of the declining population in rural areas, stimulate regional consumption and maintain as well as create employment."