Inside Japan's 15,000 Ghost Towns (9,000,000 abandoned homes)

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:01]Japan is one of the most visited and  beloved countries in the world. But in the country's shadow, something is shifting.

[00:00:14]400. With a population that peaked in 2010 at  128 million inhabitants, today that number has already shrunk to 125 million. With around 30%  of its population being over the age of 65, they are experiencing the most severe aging population  crisis in the world. Within the next few decades, the population is expected to drop to as low  as 88 million. And as a consequence, hundreds, potentially thousands of rural villages will turn  into complete ghost towns. And the craziest part is it's already started. to capture some  of these beautiful villages before they're fully gone and to go on the search for those  who still live in these towns and hear their stories for the next four days. We'll be going  on a road trip across one of Japan's hardest to reach and most mysterious regions ultimately  seeking to understand what's going to happen to Japan. Japan is having fewer babies and  is on pace to shrink by half. Rural towns and villages are really starting to feel the  pinch. Population has shrunk by nearly 90%.

[00:01:24]What's up? Our journey began in Tokyo where  we met up with our old friend and guest Theory subscriber Kai who had joined us last time we  were in Japan filming our sumo wrestling video.

[00:01:36]Welcome back to Japan. Thank So, we're going super  far and it's like quite kind of hard to figure out how to even get to this place cuz it's like you  have to train and then drive and yeah, it's going to be but it's going to be cool. It's going  to be a good adventure. Made a journey begin.

[00:01:58]Japan is made up of four major islands and Shikoku  where we are heading is its least visited one.

[00:02:03]It is also home to several of the prefectures  most aggressively hit by its aging population, which is leading to many, and I mean many, of its  rural villages to rapidly die out. There is one road in particular, Road 439, which in a country  as clean and organized as Japan, seems almost forgotten and is rumored to cut through many of  these very unique places we're hoping to find.

[00:02:31]Okay, suddenly we were here. It's quite  the journey to get to where we're going, but we're going to find these villages.  So, after our 4-hour train ride from Tokyo, we rented a van and got ready for the final 3-hour  drive into the mountains of Shikoku. We thought the story would just be about uncovering  how these villages began to fade away. But we had no idea about the strange scenes we were  about to encounter and the unsolved mystery that this valley has held for hundreds of years.  Road trip into the unknown officially begins.

[00:02:58]We've been told that there are no stores, no  gas stations. Thing is about these places is there's barely any information even on Google.  Like when a town goes abandoned this remote, it just disappears off the map, right? I  think some of it will be us discovering some of these places ourselves by just we  stop and we see what we find. Let's go.

[00:03:33]We're driving through these super small little  I mean I don't even know if we can call them towns. Like there's one road and then buildings  on each side. And here across the bridge it looks like there's a huge building that we don't know  what it is. Looks completely abandoned. We're going to drive over the bridge and see if we  can potentially enter this abandoned school.

[00:04:04]It's kind of scary to walk up to this  building. I feel like like it is a Monday, so there should be school, right? I mean,  look at how many classrooms there are, right? At some point, there  was hundreds of students here.

[00:04:28]Look at that clock right there. 6:35. Oh, wow.  Give me shivers. The crazy thing about Japan is when places are abandoned, they actually  stay intact. Like there's not people coming to graffiti or break windows or so, it's hard  to tell. There's a lot of things still inside, right? Yeah. There's like chairs. Get the dust  on the on the classroom tables. Wow. They left even baseball equipment. Like no kid in this area  thought, I'll go get the baseball equipment that nobody uses. It's just still here. Only in Japan  do you find abandoned buildings that are almost intact with everything still inside. Testament of  integrity in Japanese culture in general. I went to school just like this too. Like this? Like  before I moved to the US with Kuner classrooms, you know, after school. This is in such a good  condition, though. Yeah. I wonder if someone like comes to cleaning this place up or something.  There's a date on a board there. 1993. That's crazy. That is a long time ago. That's the year I  was born. It can't have been abandoned that long, right? 30 years. And it still looks like  this. That's That's 3 months after you were born. Yeah. That's like dinosaur time  old. It might have been a long What's up?

[00:05:47]I'm leaving.

[00:05:51]Must have been wild to go to school to  a place like this. You're surrounded in like this extremely beautiful valley. We  are in paradise even if it's quite empty.

[00:06:16]Oh wow. Are there any students left?

[00:06:20]No students. How does she feel about that?

[00:06:31]There's only grandpa's  grandmas around. Really? Wow.

[00:06:36]So cute lady. It is so sad that there's just  no little little kids running around anymore, huh? Yeah. So, the last student in that  school was here four or five years ago, but you could tell it's been dwindling for a long  time. One part of the school had a sign from 93, one part had a sign from 2004. So, it's probably  been a very gradual Yeah. decline, right?

[00:07:03]Wow.

[00:07:08]Wow. Uh, seems like there's old people right now.  A lot of old people right now. No young people.

[00:07:22]Oh, it's like 400 people right now in  this area. 400. So, most buildings here that we're driving by, there's no  nothing in it. Like nobody living there.

[00:07:49]Mhm. There's candies. Oh, I got the Oh, thank you.

[00:07:57]Oh, wow. Did you look good?

[00:08:05]YouTube.

[00:08:14]She's like, "Do you guys want to go  grab a tea?" Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:20]Oh, you live here. Oh, wow. So sweet. It  used to be 10,000 people. Now there's 400.

[00:08:30]That is way steeper than what I thought. I can  imagine that it's impossible to make any sort of income out here. They're surviving just on  pensions, just like government. Yeah. Giving them money. This is a dream, right? Imagine  going to that school, having that valley, having that mountain. I could see myself  live here with my Yeah. eight future kids, you know, and be like, you know, single-handedly  we'll repopulate this village like when kids.

[00:08:58]We have just entered this lovely lady's house.  What's the name of this very beautiful lady?

[00:09:07]Wow. Beautiful name and a  beautiful lady. 17 years old.

[00:09:16]What's your number one  favorite thing uh living here?

[00:09:22]For us, when we look here,  it's like everyone has ears.

[00:09:42]It's a Japanese tea.

[00:09:48]Yeah, it's like a pickled crumb. Oh, pickled  plum. Oh, wow. Yeah, it is a very sour. Pull it out. Like the most sour candy you've ever  had. This is more sour than that. And I like sour candy. Am I right? I'm not finishing it.  You spit it out. Besides being the home to many of Japan's dying villages, this valley is also  home to a myth that if true would be the biggest historical reversal in Japanese history.  History claims otherwise. But a different story here has been passed down generation to  generation. And the mission we have on this road trip is to ask the locals like Mrs. Marita  for clues. Can you ask her? We've heard stories, rumors of the emperor Antoku who apparently  fled in these mountains in the 1100s. Can you ask her if she's heard any of these  stories? There was a child emperor.

[00:10:54]Yeah, they're going to be cool. Mrs.  Marita then contacted the local monk and arranged for us to meet up with  him to learn more about this tale.

[00:11:30]There are two ways that this tale we heard goes.  The one that is considered historical fact and the other which is considered a myth but is believed  by the residents of Shikoku. In the 12th century, the emperor of Japan was a seven-year-old boy,  Emperor Antoku. Caught in the midst of a brutal civil war that was tearing Japan apart, the boy  was carried from place to place as a symbol for his clan. But eventually, his army began to  lose the battle. Their enemy closed in on them until there was nowhere left to run. The final  stand happens at sea, a place called Dan Noura.

[00:12:03]With their defeat certain and surrender  considered shameful in Japanese culture, the Tyra clan chose to take their own lives,  meaning the boy emperor and Toku would have to join them. His grandmother reportedly took  him into her arms and leaped into the ocean.

[00:12:28]This officially was the death of Emperor Antoku  and the beginning of the samurai period. But here in Shikoku, many locals believe in a myth that the  story had a different ending. They believe Emperor Antoku didn't die, that he survived and that he  was hidden away somewhere in these mountains.

[00:13:01]He said that's strange,  right? That is strange. Yeah.

[00:13:10]But you beautiful village.

[00:13:16]With the priest having less answers than  we had hoped for, our search for this myth continues as we drive deeper into this wild  and mysterious valley. Well, the roads are not in great shape. There's just fallen branches  and leaves all over and then some landslides.

[00:13:37]This road looks like nobody has driven here  in years. It's very steep as well. Like I'm feeling it in my belly. As we make  our way through these forgotten roads, there was one village we were told  about that we weren't sure if it was either straight out of a fairy tale or a  horror story. Oh my god, that's scary. Oh, we have arrived to what may be one of  the creepiest villages I've ever seen.

[00:14:21]Nagoro is a village that used to be  home to around 300 residents. But today, it is no longer home to the living. Instead,  it is filled with over 350 dolls all throughout the village. All placed to eerily reenact  a normal day in the life in this village.

[00:14:44]The story behind this village actually has to do  with what's right behind me. the employment in this village and the existence of this village  had to do with this dam when it was manually operated. But then one day it was automated and  we didn't need people here as much anymore. And slowly people left because there was no more work  to be had here. And the story goes that the woman who once used to live here in her childhood came  back. When she came back most people had gone.

[00:15:09]Tukimi Ayano is a woman who grew up in Nagoro but  left when she became an adult. After 15 years of living away, when she returned to her childhood  town, the population had all but completely vanished. To protect her late father's vegetable  garden, she created a scarecrow based on her father's presence. But then she decided to make  a few more, modeling after people that had either left Nagoro or passed away, dressing them up and  placing them in places people used to inhabit all over town. Before long, Tukimi had filled Nagora  with over 350 dolls, each with a catalog name and a backstory. Today, this village stands still,  tucked away in the mountains, frozen in time.

[00:16:03]This is extremely eerie. Like I thought  there was these were actually people. Oh, seeing it like this is almost more  sad. They're everywhere. Wow. What is going on? And this looks like  an abandoned school. Oh my god, these scarecrows are just everywhere. I find it  like both beautiful and eerie at the same time.

[00:16:35]feels very symbolic of what's happening  in many of these rural villages. You can feel what she's trying to do, but it also  makes the fact that they're not here felt almost more. Apparently, I read on the  internet that there are like way more dolls than humans living here. More than  300 dolls. 25 people still living. Wow.

[00:17:00]Wow. Oh, what did we just walk into? What the [ __ ] You This is too much. Okay. Okay. Truly ghostly.

[00:17:55]It's very I don't know. It feels heavy  for sure. That's for sure. It's all like happy things that's portrayed  here, but it feels really heavy.

[00:18:11]Someone's been missing for for a while  here. Let's see if I can find him. You good, bro? Yeah. Not want to be in there anymore.  Yeah. I can imagine for this woman, it's like trying to keep the spirit alive,  right? The way she's presented all the people, it's like so inviting, you know? That's  which is both cute and kind of creepy, right? It's set them all up as if everyone is  welcoming you. I don't know if she's recreating a reality that she's wishing was still here,  right? Or is she rebuilding a memory? You know, as we explore these villages, it is hard to  comprehend that there are over a thousand of these villages facing complete extinction.  And being in these places has made me think a lot about isolation and what happens  when you lose your sense of community.

[00:19:02]We've met some elderly people who are the last  ones in their village, some of the last ones on their entire street. And you can really see how  the loneliness has affected some of them, and it's made me think about how we all need connection  and how easy it is to let isolation creep in, even when we're surrounded by other people.  I've been leaning on therapy for support for some time now. And one thing that I've learned  is that feeling disconnected isn't always just about physical distance, but also about not  having someone there to talk to about what's going on within yourself. And if you're someone  who's been thinking about going into therapy, today's video sponsor, BetterHelp, may be for  you. It's entirely online. You take a quiz to then get matched with a licensed therapist and  then you can communicate with them however is most comfortable for you via text, video, or phone.  If the therapist is not a right match for you, you can switch at any moment at no additional  cost. Over 6 million people have gotten help from BetterHelp with an over 4.8 out of five stars  ratings on the app store. So, click the link in the description below or go to betterhelp.com/y  theory to get 10% off your first month of therapy.

[00:20:08]These villages are a reminder that connection  matters. So, please don't wait to be the last one to reach out for help. And now, let's see how  much further we can make it into these mountains.

[00:20:23]We kept driving to our next village that isn't  even on any maps, but is rumored on some online forums to exist and to be the home of one last man  still living there. We are deep in the forest now and where we're heading. Apparently, this village  is completely abandoned. But there's one man who's moved back there by himself, but we don't know if  he's there. We don't know if this is true or not.

[00:20:56]Oh, car. There's a car. There's a truck. There's  a There's a truck. But if there's a truck, that means there's a person here, right?  Yeah. If we actually find someone here, that would be crazy. Okay, we have just found  a village of houses that doesn't even show on Google Maps. All of these houses that we  see behind us are currently uninhabited.

[00:21:38]Oh wow. This doesn't feel abandoned that long ago.

[00:21:43]So strange. It does feel like people still live  here, right? And look at these ancient ancient tools here. You see that? Looks like people just  fled at one point. Mhm. Like shoes in front of doors laid up perfectly and a hat hung on  like the side of a door and it says 2002.

[00:22:08]It's hard to tell if these houses are used to any  capacity or not. Feels like most of them are not, but some look a little bit more maintained  than others. There's a person. There's a person there. What do we I think you have  to say hello. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What? Wait, wait, wait. What do we  What do we talk about? Just say like, "Oh, hello. We're just exploring like rural villages.

[00:23:03]Thomas, tell him we're sorry for Hopefully  we're not invading his his space.

[00:23:18]Oh wow. Okay. Nice. How many people live  in this village here? Just two. Two.

[00:23:40]Why did you choose to move here? Hi.

[00:23:47]Hi.

[00:23:51]Hi.

[00:24:12]Does he feel there's something special about this  this village? This place you can see the waterfall up there. That's why there's two people living  in this village. One of them is here. The other one is not even in town. And all the houses  we passed up there that look inhabited still, they're not. Nobody lives there. It's  a beautiful view he found here. Yeah.

[00:24:46]Like it's it is very peaceful here.  You hear the the river. It's really peaceful. You're in the forest. We said  15% chance we'll find a man. Let's go.

[00:24:57]You seem like a very happy and problem  free man. Would would you say that?

[00:25:11]How does it feel about a lot of these rural  villages sort of losing its population over time?

[00:25:24]It's the water from the mountain. Oh, wow.

[00:25:29]Kilome away.

[00:25:36]Wow. He has a smile. He has a vibe. He's like,  he seems actually happy. He's a troublefree man.

[00:25:57]So he said that this is where the Antoku  was brought after the fight and then he's saying that they came through the top of the  mountains to here. So the people in the bottom of the village or like in the bottom side  didn't know anything about it. So even this place was unknown to them. And one time there  there was a rumor that something was here, right? So they brought one of the monks up  to see what was going on in this village.

[00:26:25]And then the people in this village decided  to execute him because they didn't want to let the secret out. And that monk is also  being honored in that thing over there.

[00:26:35]Wow. Wait. So he thinks the emperor came to  this village. Yeah, he thinks so. Oh wow.

[00:26:51]Wow, that's insane. That is insane. Like oral  tradition going down story has been traveling.

[00:27:07]He's showing us directions now to find this shrine here that is honoring the emperor. So  yeah, we're about to go down there.

[00:27:19]I'm just thinking about this emperor if it's  He's had stories passed down from elders saying that this emperor was freaking here. That's  crazy. And the only thing we found about this village on Google Maps was this shrine, but  we didn't know what the shrine was for. And somehow we're ending up following the trail of  the child emperor that fled to the mountains.

[00:28:08]My body just felt really warm for some reason.  If this is actually where he came and where he was buried, this site is an absolute gem.  If the story is true and the myth is real and this is where was his final resting place.  It feels magical, right? Thousand-y old tail.

[00:28:31]So this here it says anku t meaning emperor toku.  Oh wow. Yeah. And I'm assuming this is peace. So this is for to promote peace. They built this  Sububakiyama shrine which is where we are right now. Was not expecting to find this place. Yeah.  Hidden in the forest. Quite a way to get Imagine being like 6 years old and not like Yeah. chosen  your own fate, right? And you might have not even known that he was the emperor. Yeah, that's true.  Could have been all hidden from to protect them.

[00:29:19]So far, our expedition to these mountain villages  had stirred a mix of emotions. It was inspiring to see elderly residents living in solitude,  yet completely content with the peace and the quiet. At the same time, we couldn't help  but feel a sense of sadness at the sight of these run-down buildings and hearing residents  talk about how vibrant life used to be there.

[00:29:44]She's 98.

[00:30:09]This is feels a little lonely. We began to  wonder, would this also become the fate of other communities beyond this region or  even around the world. That's why we were so excited to meet two young and inspiring women  determined to change the fate of these villages.

[00:30:27]Kira and Ammy, they made the decision to  move back into some of these neglected towns and bring new life into them.  Just excited to see what a village that maybe rebooting a little bit could  look like. This is a spot, I think. So, so nice to meet you. So nice to meet you, sir.  So, welcome to our town. My beautiful slice of paradise in the world. This was an abandoned  building um when I when I got it a year ago.

[00:30:56]And that's why I'm friends with people like  Ammy because she found me on social media and she actually helped me renovate this whole place.  How did you choose this village out of all the villages? Someone asked me to like take care of  their cats in this town. Uh and I ended up like living there for 10 months. Wow. Taking cats  for like 10 months. Yeah. And I got a chance to live here and like I guess trial life here.  So that's why I knew by the time I like started the business, I was like really established and  everybody knew me in town. I ended up wanting to make a business that's like all about connecting  people and like working with the locals and like you know I'm not making a guest house. I want  to work with guest houses and it was just like a business surrounded like by wonderful places that  already exist. So they were like wow she's not even like even like taking away from our economy.  She's like boosting it. And there are millions of homes like this in Japan, right? Millions. There's  a house that I'm planning on buying and it's been abandoned for like 15 years. And it's only like  $13,000 US. $13,000 to buy the house to buy it.

[00:32:02]And it's like all new. What are we doing? We have  decided we want to buy something as well. Joking.

[00:32:13]Hello. How's it going? Hi, I'm Thomas. Good.  Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So, this is this is your town? Yes, this is my town.  How long have you been living here? 4 years, starting on five. I I love it here. Yeah.  And I've lived in all parts of Japan, but I like it here the most. Nice.  It's very peaceful out here. Yeah. So, we follow you. Yes. My car. Oh, nice. Nice. This  is This is It feels like the local car to have.

[00:32:45]So through our internet friend Kira, we met Ammy.  She moved here a few years ago and she has two home stays slash Airbnbs. So we are heading  in that direction now. Oh wow, look at this.

[00:33:01]Look at this nature. Oh my god. It's like  you're inside of a dream. Have you tasted the water here? When we met this man living  by himself, he gave us a glass of water for it was magical. The water here is so good  and it's free. Like the we don't have to pay our water bills here. This has some  good water if you want to try that. Oh, to try water. Yeah. This is straight from the  mountain. Yeah. Straight from the mountain.

[00:33:31]Wow, that tastes good. You can feel there's  nothing in it besides nature. Um, it's truly beautiful. Look at this over there. Waterfalls  in every direction. So, um, yeah, if you've ever wanted to change your life and move to the Japan  countryside, this would be a good place to do it.

[00:33:50]Okay, time for some lunch here. Entering a former school. An abandoned school appears and  then they create a restaurant out of it.

[00:34:11]Where are we heading now? We're going  to my second Airbnb, the charcoal house.

[00:34:20]Oh, wow. Wow. Charcoal house.  I renovated everything. So, this plaster has charcoal in it. Under  the flooring has charcoal in it, too.

[00:34:53]as a as a young person. Yes. What made  you say yes moving to a small village?

[00:35:00]I lived in Osaka. I lived in the city before,  but I felt so small in the city. I didn't feel like I was contributing. And what made sense  to me was living where my ancestors are from, helping their land. You're so cool. I  mean, probably one of the coolest I met here. Wow, quite the view. Is there anyone  else living in these houses or there around five people living in this district?  There's two floors. Okay. Ah, cozy.

[00:35:38]I got the bed. You already claimed that  one first was the topic. We're staying in one of these little villages. Yeah,  literally in the villages that we made it. This is what we came for, right? Let's go.  Wow. I did not realize we would be in a little abandoned village. Look at that view,  though. As we woke up the next morning, a glimmer of hope had returned. The shiny spirit  of two entrepreneurial women had shown us that taking a bet on a future in these beautiful  rural villages forgotten by everyone else is in fact possible. So nice. Yeah, it's  been amazing. Thank you. Hopefully this video can populate this town back to 30,000  people. So, uh yeah, I already miss you guys.

[00:36:24]I already miss again. Yeah. Bye-bye. Bye.  Bye. The world is in a strange place right now. Cities have become unaffordable for so many  people. And despite being a decade or two behind, Europe's population decline is soon following  Japans, which makes you wonder, will these rural towns neglected and slowly dying around the  world one day come back to life? So many of the luxuries we take for granted in cities can  be hard to come by this far out. But the peace, magic, and slower lifestyles certainly feels  endlessly appealing. As our world seems to be spinning faster and faster, our curiosity  hit us on a deeper level on this trip. And we truly started wondering, should we start  Yes digital detox retreats in these beautiful rural towns around the world? Let us know  in the comments and thank you for watching.