In a couple of remote farming villages, residents refurbished the buildings of closed schools into apartments in the aftermath of recent natural disasters, providing homes for young families who would play an important role in revitalizing their underpopulated regions.

The apartments also allow seniors to stay in hometowns they've spent their whole lives in.

In the village of Sakae in Nagano Prefecture, a three-story building of a closed elementary school was turned into an apartment building this spring. The village was hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake the day after the March 11, 2011, quake-tsunami disaster devastated the northeast.