Chikara Imai, 73, is quick to dismiss the new parties in Sunday's national election, saying old ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party is what the country's most elderly village needs for survival.
Nanmoku, 107 km (67 miles) northwest of Tokyo, is at the forefront of the nation's battle against an aging and shrinking population. Its population has halved over the past 20 years to 1,963, and with a median age of 70.6, Nanmoku is now Japan's oldest municipality.
Nanmoku and places like it across the country are a key support base for the LDP, which has been in power for most of the past six decades.
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