Why Was This Japanese Village Abandoned?

[Music] it all started with a dam a dam that put an entire village underwater and subsequently wiped out several others along with it a dam that divided not just the landscape but the people themselves taking with it friendships and entire families a damn that changed everything for so many [Music] by [Music] over a dozen abandoned villages are scattered throughout these mountains the area is known as urayama and each village has its own name and unique history but almost all of them shared some common traits from the items left behind to the reasons they were abandoned to begin with some have been abandoned for more than half a century [Music] and while they were once accessible through narrow mountain hiking paths they're becoming nearly unreachable as the paths are slowly taken back by nature the paths are far from safe and there are no shortages of dangerous wild animals in the area even explorers and hikers have become a rarity [Music] [Music] the dam was necessary the area had a history of repeated flooding and it was put in to fix this while also supporting larger cities that were struggling with water supply there's now a lake where the main village used to be and everyone who lived in that village had no choice but to relocate the nearby mountain villages relied heavily on this main village for both supplies and work and the inevitable loss of the main village led to a very quick decline in the population of those living in the surrounding mountains staying had simply become far more trouble than it was worth [Music] it foreign [Music] [Music] foreign m [Music] [Music] my these weren't rich people by any means and moving or tearing down a home is an expensive process especially in japan so the villages started to be abandoned often being left as they were but the abandonment was far from being a fast process it took decades in fact almost as if one by one people would just move on to a new life some left by choice but others felt like they'd been forced out maybe they just didn't want to remember but so much was left behind almost as if they had left in a rush i couldn't get past this and found myself asking everyone i could why they thought this might me mom foreign [Music] [Music] foreign i ventured to the top of the mountain where i found four homes and the one remaining man who lives there working outside we talked for a bit he was nice he said he chooses to live up there for the peace and solitude he requested that i don't show him or his home and i happily agreed i wish him all the best [Music] hmm

Channel: Tokyo Lens

Views: 455,335

Keywords: Japan, Japanese, abandoned japan, abandoned building, abandoned places, abandoned places in japan, japan village, abandoned village, japanese culture, Tokyo lens, abandoned, japanese life, life in japan

Id: BDPT6q_4OHY

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Sun May 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/nhjuyt]

I watched this a couple days ago, it is a pretty interesting.

[u/PaulHenrik]

It's a scenario for Resident Evil live action

/s just in case

[u/Tannerleaf]

Probably due to lethal levels of radioactivity, or something.

[u/[deleted]]

The ageing and urbanization of Japan?