Crowded Tokyo

Japan is upping the ante on its cash incentives to get people to move out of its overcrowded capital, Tokyo, which is home to about 37 million people. For scale, Canada’s population in 2021 was just over 38 million.


Starting in April, families in the greater Tokyo area will be eligible to receive 1 million yen, or just under $10,200, per child if they move to the countryside, in an effort to revitalize less-populated areas, according to reports from CNN and the Guardian.

Previous incentives saw the Japanese government offering 300,000 yen, about $3,000, per child if families relocated. This new measure certainly sweetens the pot, tripling their previous offer.

Tokyo is host to many of Japan’s largest companies and is the centre of its economy, meaning it’s an attractive place to move, especially for young people living in rural areas. This migration pattern has left small towns with fewer and older residents, and millions of unoccupied homes.

According to 2021 government statistics, the number of people moving into Tokyo outnumbered those leaving the city by around 80,000.

The concentration of the Japanese population in Tokyo also poses a problem for the country’s demographic crisis, marked by declining birth rates and an aging population. 

Experts say that the high cost of living in Tokyo, limited space and lack of access to child care makes it difficult to raise children in the dense metropolis. As such, people are having less kids.  Out of Japan’s 47 prefectures, Tokyo has the lowest fertility rate.  READ MORE...

Gut Bacteria

People who live to age 100 and beyond may have special gut bacteria that help ward off infections, according to a new study from Japan.

The results suggest that these bacteria, and the specific compounds they produce — known as "secondary bile acids" — could contribute to a healthy gut and, in turn, healthy aging.

Still, much more research is needed to know whether these bacteria promote exceptionally long life spans. The current findings, published Thursday (July 29) in the journal Nature, only show an association between these gut bacteria and living past 100; they don't prove that these bacteria caused people to live longer, said study senior author Dr. Kenya Honda, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo.

"Although it might suggest that these bile-acid-producing bacteria may contribute to longer life spans, we do not have any data showing the cause-and-effect relationship between them," Honda told Live Science.

The community of bacteria and other microorganisms that live in the gut, known as the gut microbiome, is known to play a role in our health and changes as we age. For example, having less diversity in the types of gut bacteria has been linked with frailty in older adults. But researchers suspected that people who reach age 100 may have special gut bacteria that contribute to good health. 

Indeed, centenarians tend to be at lower risk of chronic diseases and infections compared with older adults who don't reach this milestone.  READ MORE