In Rural Japan, Bears and Boars Roam Where Schools and Shrines Once Thrived

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Julie Makinen, As Japan's Population Shrinks, Bears and Boars Roam Where Schools and Shrines Once Thrived. Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2016.
http://www.latimes.com/world/asi ... ion-snap-story.html

Note:
(a) The red-roofed temple at the top of the hill closed about a decade ago, and now Yoshihiro SHIBATA 柴田 佳寛can't even remember its name, though the 54-year-old dairy farmer has lived in this picturesque village all his life."
(i) In Japan, a temple 寺 (whose Japanese and Chinese pronunciations are "tera" and "ji," respectively) means a Buddhist place. whereas a Jinja 神社 is for Shintō 神道.
(ii) Mr Shibata owns and runs 柴田牧場.
http://www.shibachanchi.com/#main

(b) "The local Shinto shrine is barely hanging on. With only about 250 households left in Hara-izumi 原泉村, which is technically part of nearby Kakegawa city, the village no longer has enough men to hoist up the traditional float and parade it around during the shrine's annual festival."
(i) Kakegawa, Shizuoka  静岡県掛川市
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakegawa,_Shizuoka

The en.wikipedia.org does not mention origin of the name, but the ja.wikipedia.org does: "地名の由来[:] 中心部を流れる逆川の流れが、切り立った崖のように見える点から「缺けた川」と呼ばれ、次第に略されて「懸川」となり、「掛川」と改名された。"

my translation: 逆川 [proper name -- past and present] runs through city center. The river at some point [place] created something like a cliff -- thus [also known as] 缺けた川 (pronounced "kaketa-kawa") [where "kaketa" is the past participle of the verb "kakeru"]. [Because "kake" shares the same pronunciation with kanji 懸け /掛け (nouns of the same meaning in Japan)] the name of the city [not the river] gradually shifted to 懸川, and finally 掛川.
(ii) Japanese English dictionary:
* kiri-tatsu 切り立つ 【きりたつ】 (v): "to rise perpendicularly"
(iii) The izumi" and "sen" (as in onsen 温泉) are Japanese and Chinese pronunciations, respectively, of kanji 泉.

(c) "like a creaky wooden roller coaster that slows at the top of the climb before plunging into a terrifying, steep descent, Japan's population crested around 2010 with 128 million people and has since lost about 900,000 residents, last year’s census confirmed.  Now, the country has begun a white-knuckle ride * * * in which it will shed about one-third of its population — 40 million people — by 2060, experts predict. * * * If the United States experienced a similar population contraction, it would be like losing every single inhabitant of California, New York, Texas and Florida — more than 100 million people. * * * Each year, the nation [Japan] is shuttering 500 schools."

The four most populous states in US (321,418,820), in decreasing order (with "resident total population" (which includes illegal aliens; estimates for July 1, 2015) from US Census Bureau): California (39,144,818)> Texas (27,469,114) > Florida (20,271,272) > New York (19,795,791).
Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015. In American Fact Finder.
http://factfinder.census.gov/fac ... view.xhtml?src=bkmk

(d)
(i) "Reiko HAYASHI 林 玲子, a researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research 国立社会保障・人口問題研究所"
(ii) " 'Within 30 years, half of local governments could be extinct,' said Takayuki KUBO 久保 隆行 of the Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center [URC; 福岡アジア都市研究所; an NGO] * * * By contrast, the U.S. added more than 10 million immigrants between 2000 and 2013, and the foreign-born now make up about 13% of the population."
(iii) "Ippei TORII 鳥井 一平, president of a nonprofit group called Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan 移住連"
(iv) "Toshihiro Menju, managing director of the Japan Center for International Exchange 日本国際交流センター [an NGO; センター = center]"

There is a typo: The last letter is wrong, not "u" but "o": Toshihiro MEN-JO 毛受 敏浩.
(v) "TANG Yin, a Chinese scholar at the Fukuoka Asian Urban Research Center"

"アジア交流グループ [Asia Exchange Group] 主任研究員 唐寅
http://urc.or.jp/corporate_profi ... 4%E7%A9%B6%E5%93%A1
(born in 1963 in Shanghai; got BS and PHD both from 九州大学 (in 1986 and 1994, respectively).