Spike Japan, written by Richard Hendy, documents overlooked parts of Japan, especially Hokkaido and decaying remnants of the 1980s bubble economy.
HN commenters call it amazing, depressing, and essential reading on rural decline and bubble-era leftovers, and one praises its Holland theme park piece as travel writing.
I'm familiar with Japan and find it quite believable.
You may be familiar with the "akiya" phenomenon, where empty houses in the Japanese countryside are sold for a song. The same applies not just to residential homes, but to other buildings as well, and their price tag is very low for the same reason: the property has serious issues and/or has been vacant for years, and will require far more than the initial investment to make habitable.
Here's a fascinating blog post by someone who went poking around the ruins of one hot spring town (Kinugawa) that went through a particularly dramatic boom and bust cycle: https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/983/
This particular hotel at least appears to have been open until fairly recently, but Google reviews describe the "Showa-era" furnishings (read: 1980s at best), and it's on the fairly grim slate grey Kujukurihama beach 3.5 hours from Tokyo by train: https://maps.app.goo.gl/G53KWyCsmeUy8JyR9
An interesting view of Japan, outside of the big cities, is blog written by Richard Hendy (an English ex-pat) back in the early 2010s called Spike Japan[0].
He focuses on areas such as Hokkaido where there are glimpses of past prosperity but due to an aging population and the younger people moving to the cities, the communities that remain are crumbling, but in a very Japanese way. Hendy has a great sense of humor and the photography and storytelling is top notch.
This is a rabbit hole you won't mind falling down if you're at all interested in different cultures and comparing decaying rural areas to those in your own country.
[0] https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/
and a few sample blog posts to give you a taste:
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/spike-hokkaido-2/lake-toya-the-billion-dollar-tower-of-bubble/
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/requiem-for-a-railway/
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/ugly-japan-2/
Hokkaido is a land of contrasts. Amazing natural spaces, great food- especially the seafood, but also the best milk in Japan, etc.
Hokkaido is also one of the poorest prefectures in Japan and has struggled since the economic bubble collapsed 3 decades ago. You see a lot of abandoned houses, and whole towns look empty as youth have moved to Sapporo or other larger cities for work and leave only the elderly to farm or fish, etc.
The Spike Japan blog stopped in 2014 but is a very interesting look into the rural collapse of Japan, and Hokkaido specifically.
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/
Note that if you go just by that blog, you'd not want to visit. It's a great place to visit, to ski, etc. but there is the other side that SpikeJapan highlights.
>Borrowing in order to increase sales (taxes in the case of governments) or to decrease costs (increase economic efficiency, spending on infrastructure and the like) is a good idea
It can be a good idea if the economic activity that results covers the cost of borrowing. But that's not an easy thing to determine, and any rational start to the process tends to get warped by political reality. The fetish for infrastructure spending results in, for example, rail projects that lose ¥32 for every ¥1 they take in:
http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/minispike-the-end-of-the-line/
Exactly. We still have echo effects of the zombification of the economy since the 1990s as well.
This series does a wonderful job explaining what is happening, through story and pictures. Whole towns are disappearing. Schools are opening and closing based on what grade the only child in the district is in. Go to the oldest post and work back if u have time.
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com
I read this
That's a lovely story, but it's also why JR is bleeding red ink. Here's a typical story about one line that was serving an average of 19 (nineteen) passengers per day and made a loss of about US$3m/year for decades until it was finally axed in 2014 thanks to a providential landslide.
https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/minispike-the-end-of-the-line/