This article is from WeChat public account:modernstory, title map from: Oriental IC
Every story has a shadow.
一
6 years ago, the last baby crying disappeared in Japan.
Xizhang is located in Hokkaido. It has buried 3 billion tons of coal underground and was revered as a Japanese coal. However, after thousands of years, it has rapidly declined.
In 2013, the fertility rate of Yuzhang fell to zero.
In the hospital, the doors and windows of the maternity ward are closed, the white porcelain pool is full of dust, and many departments are changed to storage rooms, which are fully packed with benches.
Finally, the hospital became empty and dim, leaving the doctor on duty. The toilet is locked, the ward is locked, and the emergency phone has not been ringed for many years.
Out of the hospital, the time hurricane sweeps the entire city. A piece of wild grass shades the empty road and the faded low-rise.
Most of the low-rise buildings have fallen off the chimney, and the ceiling of the abandoned room in the building is covered with mushrooms.
From the window of the room, it is a deserted park and a playground in the shadows. The roller coaster track is distorted in the air and I don’t know where to go.
There were 22 primary schools and 9 secondary schools in the city. In the end, there was only one primary school and one secondary school. Finally, elementary school has also become a place of public activity.
Not far from elementary school, is a plastic surgery hospital that was once opened for young people. Today, this hospital has a special reputation and is circulated in the Japanese spiritual forum.
The singer named it “K Hospital” and used it as a haunted house adventure.
The plastic surgery hospital is north to the Xizhang Railway Station. It was once the last place of the bustle.
The white train came through the mountains, and the station bell rang for 4 hours. Here is the terminal, the train stops after 8 minutes.
Some people who are drifting out of the car, returning to the night by car, only sit quietly on the platform for 8 minutes, and finally accompany the hometown, and then leave with the car.
This train was also out of service in April this year. Weeds drown the platform.
The evening is here. The last main street in the city finally showed a faint light.
More than a dozen shops on the main street, most of which have closed shutter doors, a few old convenience stores and izakayas, all of which are white-haired old people.
Split drunken people finally get into the night. There is a log of the traveler saying that the night of Xizhang is always like a black snow, like the ashes of coal burning.
Everything is burning. At the peak of the peak, Xizhang had nearly 120,000 people, but today there are only 7998 people, and it is the most aging city in Japan.
In 2010, the average age of Xizhang people reached 57 years. In 2020, this average age will reach 65 years. According to the formula, in 2040, Xizhang will only have 100 old people left.
However, people know that Xi Zhang may not last until 2040.
In 2007, the new mayor took office at Xizhang. When he first reported, he handed down his business card to his subordinates.
The subordinate told him that they would resign at the end of the year without chilling.
二
The evening is halfway up the mountain, there is an ancient deer hall. In 1954, Emperor Showa had stayed here to enjoy the snow.
At that time, Xi Zhang’s coal was also known as the Black Diamond, which accounted for 30% of Hokkaido’s coal production during the boom. hugeThe red chimney stands in the foothills, which is known as the Hill of Hope.
A young man from a car is pouring into Xizhang, and the mine, accommodation, water, electricity and bathing are all free.
The miners use their wages for drinking and shopping. Xiazhang has a well-known department store and can even attract customers from hundreds of miles away.
The heat of the fire maps the sky, the girls dance in the square, and people call Xixi the city that never sleeps. Gao Cangjian specially came here and took a picture of “Happiness in Yellow Hand”.
Since then, coal and movies have become the pride of the two.
The pride that first shattered was coal.
In 1967, Japan’s energy strategy shifted from coal to oil, and coal mines began to close. As a typical resource-based city, Xizhang once hoped for tourism.
In 1979, Nakata Tieji was elected mayor of Yuzhang, and Xi Zhang took the road. In the first term of Zhongtian Tiezhi, every two years, a coal mine closed down, and every two years there was also a coal mine attraction.
In 1982, the budget of the Xizhang Coal Tourism Project exceeded the standard and was rejected by the higher level government. Nakata Tieji skipped the review and used the government to guarantee and borrowed 10 billion from financial institutions. A year later, a large coal mine industrial village was completed.
10 billion is just the beginning of madness.
In the 1980s, hot spring resorts, theme parks, and robot museums rose in the evening.
On the mountains around Xizhang, there are 18 snow trails in the ski resort, and the luxury hotel is built on the mountain. The government says that the ski resort will attract 1.5 million visitors every year.
The 1.5 million tourists have not seen the scene, and Yuki has built nearly 50 resorts, hot springs and other tourist attractions.
After the economic bubble burst in the 1990s, Xizhang also invested hundreds of millions to build a coal history theme park.
After the tourism collapsed, the local government turned to the cultural industry.
In 1990, the last coal mine in Xizhang was closed. In the same year, the first film festival of Yuzhang was opened. Since then, Quentin and other internationally renowned directors have appeared in the show.
In 1996, Stephen Chow took the “Westward Journey” to participate in the exhibition, and celebrated the Spring Festival in the evening.
However, due to unclear positioning and inconvenient transportation, the festival has gradually become more and more sloppy and more and more niche. In the end, it can only be funded by the public.
Either tourism or film festival, the Xizhang government has not considered the future of local young people. In 1995, there were only 17,110 people in Xizhang, and the population was reduced by more than 90%.
After ten years, the government has struggled and the slogan has changed, but it has only made the people who are staying more and more desperate.
In 2006, Yu Zhang submitted a bankruptcy application.
After the investigation of the reporters of Hokkaido News, from 1979 to 2003, Xizhang invested 11 billion yuan in the construction of sightseeing facilities by means of demolition of the East and the fake accounts, 80% of which came from local debt.
And Xi Zhang’s total debt is 63.2 billion yuan, and it takes at least 18 years to repay these debts.
After the following year, Xi Zhang lost more than 30% of the population.
In the city, a large number of houses were vacant, and pubs, dessert shops and convenience stores closed down, followed by cinemas and cosmetic hospitals.
Finally, the animals in the zoo were also transported away to the more popular cities.
The Ferris wheel of the theme park is no longer turning, turning around, and always going back to the starting point.
three
After bankruptcy, the government of Xizhang hangs up and pays off the debt, always warning the debt period. In the end, everyone is numb.
Xizhang and Fushun are sister cities, and Fushun has sent people to Xizhang to study honeydew planting techniques. That is the only specialty that is famous in Japan after the closure of the coal mine.
The local government has also bet on this. In 2014, two Zhangjiao melon kings were photographed at a price of 2.5 million yen. However, after the speculation, it will not help the local economy.
Under the dilemma, the Xizhang government also opened its mind and launched two mascots. The mascot name is sorrowful and sad: one is called a bankruptcy, and the other is a deficit.
Because of the small population, Xi’s divorce rate is naturally the lowest in the country. The government packaged the mascot as “Xizhang’s husband and wife” and shouted the export number “We are poor and only love”.
Black humor is indeed effective, a large number of couples visit Xizhang, local tourism once warmed up. However, after one year, Xi Zhang was less interested.
Finally, the government can only pay back debts by saving money. Mayor of Yuzhang said: “In addition to life, I can cut everything.”
In the government building, heating will be cut off every 5:00 pm, and those who work overtime should rely on the rest of the temperature to warm.
Libraries, welfare homes, and nurseries are shut down because they save money.
The snow on the street will be cleaned when it is 15 cm. After the art museum was crushed by snow, the government chose to ignore it. After all, it takes money to rebuild and demolish.
After many years of reporting, the Japanese media’s self-help policy on the Xi’an government has been numb.
The critics say that the real reason for the decline of Xizhang was that it did not leave the future for young people.
“Unless you create a place that young people want to come, the population will not grow.”
An 88-year-old photographer, An Island, lives alone in Xizhang. Accompanying him, there are only a few old friends of the same age.
In 2013, he stood on Xijie Street and held photos of the same place 60 years ago. In the photos of the year, the pedestrians were in groups of three, and the children ran along the street, and the business of the store was booming.
Andao said that at that time there were seven or eight children in each household, and the city always had new faces. Today, those children are wandering in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
The torrent of their ups and downs in big cities has been erased from the starting point. Forgotten to come, no return.
“I miss everything in my hometown. But this thought is like the ice on the Edogawa River in spring. It will not be long before it will disappear into the sun.”
In fact, it’s a singer. The entire Hokkaido is weathered in the years. According to statistics, more than 80% of cities, towns and villages in Hokkaido have a population reduction of more than 30%.
Scholars predict that, by 2040, Hokkaido Island 78.2% of cities may disappear completely.
In fact, the same story has been staged in Ruhr, Germany, Green, and Detroit, USA.
When the young man left Detroit, who had become a ghost town, he desperately graffiti on the wall: God has left Detroit.
The old man knows that the gods have long since left, and the reason they left is just to quietly end the story.
The ash falls into the city, and the past is only a dream.
……
This article is from WeChat public account:modernstory