When he retired from his job at a cement maker in 2000, Yukio Ebisuzaki had no strong attachments to any of the eight cities he had lived in over his 40-year career, so he decided to return to his childhood home on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea and live in his parents' house.
"I didn't intend to come back to the island when I left home after finishing junior high school because life here was inconvenient and there was no place to go for fun," he said.
Many islanders felt like Ebisuzaki and left Okikamuro Island for school or work. As of Aug. 1, the island's population had fallen to 193, compared with about 3,000 in the early 1900s. Of those who remain, more than three quarters are over 60 years old.