Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2060.
Against all odds, the country has accomplished the goal set out nearly a half century before by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to keep the population from dropping below 100 million. Before the Abe government took action way back in 2016, official figures showed that, without drastic countermeasures, Japan would have shrunk from about 128 million in 2010 to about 86 million by 2060.
That's good news in Kansai, now a quasi-autonomous bloc in western Japan consisting of eight former prefectures that serves as the nation's official backup capital.