The Other Side of the Coin of Japan's Demographic Decline

choi

Leo Lewis, The Disguised Blessings of Japan's Demographic Decline. Financial Times, Mar 3, 2923, at page 16 (under the heading "Opinion Japan").
https://www.ft.com/content/c59aa16f-870c-47f7-a593-f9e016572edd

Not:
(a) excerpt in the window of print: Younger job applicants can now ask a question once seen as impertinent: 'What can you do for me?'

(b) "At the age of 15, Akino Imanaka * * * Oteshima Junior High * * * her school's only pupil.  Imanaka's sign-of-the-times solo graduation in a child-starved corner of Kagawa prefecture"
(i) Akino IMANAKA 今中 章乃
(A) Meaning the same as in China, 章 in Japan is badge or chapter. Without Japanese pronunciation (namely, Japan had not had the concept --and hence indigenous pronunciation -- 章 has one Chinese pronunciation and those (pronunciations) that appear in (human or place) names only. One in the latter category is "aki."
(B) Pronounced "no," the hiragana の and katakana ノ are both simplified from Chinese character 乃. So, frequently, the pronunciation is represented by kanji no.
(C) However, I suggested weeks ago that Japanese prefer certain combinations of sound (such as Shinzo in Shinzo ABE 安倍 晋三). Akino is one of them, often appearing as surname 秋野.
(ii) 今中 章乃 nowadays is a minor celebrity. See
Photo[:] 世界は広い　いってらっしゃい. 毎日新聞 東京夕刊, Mar 25, 2023 (under the heading 読む写真).
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20230325/dde/001/100/023000c

the first three paragraphs:

"生まれ育った離島の小中学校で9年間、ただ一人の在校生だった。香川県丸亀市立小手島（おてしま）中学3年の今中章乃（あきの）さん（15）。この春、学びやを巣立ち、「あっという間でした。楽しい学校生活を送れたのは先生や家族、島の方々の支えがあったからで、感謝しかない」と振り返った。

"丸亀市の沖合15キロに浮かぶ小手島は面積0・6平方キロ、周囲3・8キロで、人口は34人（3月1日現在）。漁業が主な産業だが、高齢化が進み、18歳未満の住人は章乃さんだけ。

"小手島は1967年に公開された木下恵介監督の映画「なつかしき笛や太鼓」の舞台にもなった。

(A) This is 有料記事 fee-charging news report, with the first three paragraphs free.
(B) Japanese-English dictionary:
* i-tte-ra-ssha-i いってらっしゃい 《行ってらっしゃい》 (int[erjection]) (often in response to いってきます [行ってきます I am leaving]) have a good day; take care; see you" (That is a person who is departing says いってきます, and the other person who is staying would say, "いってらっしゃい.")
* yūkan 夕刊 【ゆうかん】 (n): "evening paper"
* natsukashi-i 懐かしい 【なつかしい】 (adj): "dear (old); fondly-remembered; beloved; missed; nostalgic"
(C) my translation:

She was born and raised in the island [of Oteshima 小手島]. She attended the combined school of elementary and middle (or junior high) school 小中学校 for 9 years as the only student throughout. The third grader of 香川県丸亀市立小手島（おてしま ）中学 Oteshima Junior High

小手島 is 15 km off the shore of 丸亀市, with area 0.6 km2 and circumference 3.8 km. Population is 34 as of Mar 1 [2023]. Mainly fishing. Severe ageing, with Akino the only under 18.

The film was set in 小手島: なつかしき [fondly-remembered] 笛や太鼓 directed by Kei-suke KINOSHITA 木下 恵介 and released in 1967.

(D) To graze cattle, 小手島 was settled in 幕末 (before 1868) from 手島 (面積 3.41 km2), per ja.wikipeia.org.
(E) Kagawa Prefecture  香川県
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagawa_Prefecture


(c)
(i) "a reverberatory report"

reverberate (vi; Did You Know?):
"1a: to become driven back
* * *
2: to continue in or as if in a series of echoes : RESOUND  <a historic event that still reverberates today>"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reverberate
(ii) Latin-English dictionary:
* verbum (noun neuter, plural verba): "word  <Res, non verba. ― actions speak louder than words (literally, 'things, not words')>"
* rēs (noun feminine; plural is spelled the same): "thing"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/res
* verber (noun neuter)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/verber

(d) "It [Japan] may, as a consequence, be far more accommodating to their ambitions, more responsive to their complaints and, perhaps most critically if they choose a life of entrepreneurialism, forgiving of their first, second and even third failures."

The "forgiving" is an adjective.