Sarufutsu in the far north of Hokkaido is the nation's richest village, thanks to a bounty of scallops pulled from the Sea of Okhotsk.
The village — which is closer to the Russian island of Sakhalin than Tokyo — boasts some of the highest average incomes of any town in Japan, thanks to the earnings of some of the fishermen. But the new scallop factory isn't running at full capacity because it can't get enough workers for lower-paying but important jobs.
It's a problem for the economy as a whole because it shows that some industries may not survive as the population ages and shrinks, even if they are profitable.