Music

01.00.00.00

Man working field

Walter Hamilton:  Look into the mind of a modern Japanese, they say, and you will find a peasant farmer.

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Stream

Hamilton:  The national character was formed over centuries in thousands of small, rice-growing communities.

00.25

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Hamilton:  Places still living in the rhythm of nature, like Takayanagi, three hours drive north of Tokyo.

00.34

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In car

Hamilton:  As beautiful as it is, there's a crisis in the countryside which threatens to end this way of life - a  mortal blow to the spiritual heart of Japan.

Hamilton in car pulls up at Kobayashi's house

Hamilton:  I've come to visit Yasuo Kobayashi, one tenacious individual who can see the danger and is doing something about it.

00.54

Kobayashi tends plants

Kobayashi grows paper mulberry, the raw material for traditional 'washi' paper, a craft that's been in his family for five generations.

01.07

Paper workshop

Hamilton:  In Kobayashi's workshop, quality reigns over mechanisation.

01.19

The paper mulberry, harvested in the autumn and bleached in the snow, is now turned into strong and beautiful paper.

Making 'washi' was once something many farmers did to keep busy during the winter months. Kobayashi is the first in Takayanagi to make it a full-time occupation, because he fears that unless village people establish a new economic basis for the their livelihood, they have no future.

01.38

Kobayashi:  I don't know whether my son or grandchild will carry on this business -  but even if they don't I feel others, like my apprentice, will succeed.

01.59

Traditional house being restored

Hamilton:  Down the road, Kobayashi's group is preparing another traditional house for visitors to rent.

02.15

There is a fancy new tourist development in the town, but he reckons it's a bit soulless.

Thatchers

Putting on a new thatch roof is a major undertaking, and they won't use a single nail or power-tool in the whole process.

Kobayashi

Kobayashi:  In winter, when the snow falls, we have to worry about the roof collapsing but with the new thatch I can relax. I am so happy.

02.43

Hamilton:  It's dangerous work up here yet some of the hands are in their seventies.

02.57

Foreman

Foreman:  Many cover their roof with tin. Thatch is only used sometimes. But as you can see they're mostly done with tin.

Hamilton:  But for every new roof - thatch or tin - there are more that'll never be repaired. Houses in decay, their owners departed.

03.21

Takayanagi

Today, in the several hamlets of Takayanagi, three thousand people are living.

Forty years ago, the population was nearly four times that. They've all gone to the cities.

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Kobayashi restoring house

Hamilton:  If Kobayashi is to succeed in reviving his village, making it pay will be important - though not everything.

03.52

He believes the whole idea of 'living within the natural world' must also find a roost again in Japan.

Kobayashi at meal

Kobayashi:  Progress and culture, like two wheels, have to be equal. You can't live by just progress. There's a dangerous trend in japan. In our hearts we have lost a balance - the balance of city and country - the balance of adult and child. Everything has gone mad.

04.09

Fujimura in rice field

Ryu Fujimura is the last full-time rice-grower in his village.

04.32

Although he owns just two hectares of paddy-fields, this makes him the biggest producer hereabouts.

Fujimura

Fujimura: Number one!

Hamilton:  And yet number one is also in trouble. His income is shrinking, and he works alone because none of his children has chosen to take up farming.

Fujimura

Fujimura:  The reason young people aren't inheriting is because they don't want to engage in an occupation which has no hope - and neither do their parents.

Kazuyoshi in office

Hamilton:  His eldest son, Kazuyoshi, works in the town office - where, as a junior clerk, he can earn considerably more than his father.

05.15

Rice prices are down and the government is forcing farmers to grow less.

Kazuyoshi:  I think it's very difficult to live only with farming. Instead of working hard to grow crops, people can live with cheap imported food if they like.

Hamilton:  Though Japan already produces more rice than it can eat, since last year it's had to accept imports for the first time.

05.46

Rice fields

Ancient terraced fields, taken out of production, are evidence that, as their numbers dwindle, Japanese farmers are losing their political clout.

Fujimura

Fujimura:  Government policy has reversed course. Instead of continuing to help inefficient places like this, it's changing. As for my village, we have maybe another ten years - but after that I don't know.

06.07

Each spring a pilgrimage is made to the tallest mountain which overlooks the village.

06.27

Cutting path

As they go, the climbers cut a new path up the steep slopes.

They come to offer gifts to the god of the mountain.

Long ago, an outbreak of dysentery took many lives in the village.

The small shrines are visited each year and prayers offered for protection against disease.

Though bent over from a lifetime spent close to the soil ... their craving for life remains strong.

Old man

Even an 80 year old once climbed.

07.12

Old lady

No, last year there was a woman of 87. I'm ten years younger. Seventy eight. Now I'm seventy eight.

Old man

Today she's the oldest.

Hamilton: They're met at the top by pupils from the local primary school.

The old folk far outnumber the children ... and every year the number grows more askew.

Scarecrows in fields

Hamilton:  Takayanagi is facing a population collapse, more serious than ever before, and it's now inevitable, because almost half the residents here are over the age of 65. Yes, nearly half.

07.48

Market in city

An hour's drive away is the nearest city, where many of Takayanagi's former residents have settled.

08.08

Fujimura:  Don't get lost. Don't get lost.

Hamilton:  This is festival day and Fujimura and his wife have brought their grandchildren for a treat. What a contrast to their mountain home, but, like any city really, the way is paved with the usual inflated promises and five-minute wonders.

Temple

The temple everyone's come to visit is so crowded there's nothing to be seen and too little time. Even if you knew what you were looking for.

08.47

Mrs Fujimura with grandchildren

Mrs Fujimura:  Because I'm used to the mountain my brain doesn't work here. I get a headache when I come to a place like this.

Mr Fujimura

Mr Fujimura:  I prefer my mountain home. A noisy place is okay to visit - but not every day.

Mrs Fujimura with grandchildren

Hamilton:  But what do the grandchildren say?

09.19

Mrs Fujimura:  Which do you prefer?

Child:  Noisy is good.

Mrs Fujimura:  You like it noisy?

Hamilton:  It's the story of Japan in a nutshell.

09.30

Outside of house

The same night, a residents' meeting is convened in the hamlet where Fujimura lives. For once, the smile is gone from his face.

Meeting

Fujimura:  Because of de-population, we have become a village of the elderly.

Hamilton:  On the grim agenda are arrangements for an Old Aged Care Centre to open next year, and news of more government-enforced cuts to rice production. The village's top farmer must give up the most.

Meeting convenor

Meeting convenor:  Fujimura Ryo-san. There are many. In total... seventeen places.

10.09

Fujimura at meeting

Hamilton:  How much longer did he give those terraced fields of his? Ten years was it?

Funeral procession

Hamilton:  As I leave Takayanagi, the tolling of a funeral bell echoes through my village.

10.32

Another one has gone. Another empty house.

Shinto statue

It hardly seems possible what's happening to the very best of this country.

11.02

Japan - we're waiting for you to return to your senses - she seems to be saying, but we can't hang on too much longer.

ENDS

11.30