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Japanese village Nanmoku seeks Peru ties to address aging and labor gaps

Nanmoku Mayor Saijo Hasegawa warned that without new arrivals, the village may not have enough people to support the community within five years.

Reported · Written up by our desk · North America

Japan’s Nanmoku, a mountain village in Gunma prefecture, has turned to its Peruvian sister city, Belen, in an effort to slow population decline and ease a widening labor shortage, according to SCMP Economy.

The village signed a sister-city agreement with Belen in November, aiming for cultural exchanges that could eventually bring younger people to live and work in Nanmoku, where 65.2% of residents were aged 65 or older in the 2020 census.

Nanmoku has a population of 1,337 as of the end of July, and labor constraints are already straining services, including shortages of care workers and community bus drivers who are mostly in their seventies.

SCMP Economy reports that the village is also trying other measures to attract residents, such as offering vacant homes to potential migrants and using a residents’ non-profit to manage a nursing home and a roadside station to enable more flexible hiring.

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