Three years have passed since a massive earthquake struck Hokkaido's eastern Iburi region, killing 44 people, but some hard-hit areas are still suffering from the aftermath of the disaster in the form of depopulation.
There are four districts in the town of Atsuma — Takaoka, Tomisato, Yoshino, and Horonai — where a total of 29 people died due to landslides and other causes. Yet there is growing concern that these scarcely populated towns may disappear as their aging communities pass away.
Many residents, most of them older, moved to central Atsuma after they gave up rebuilding their damaged homes. Now the population in the four districts has declined from about 220 before the earthquake to around 120.