The steep imposing mountains surrounding this small farming village 50 miles northwest of Tokyo dominate the neat terraced fields, handful of houses and precarious single-lane road.
If you listen carefully between the gusting wind and creaking pines you can hear the sound of town life ebbing away as nature reasserts control.Like thousands of other mountain villages throughout Japan, Ootaki's very existence is threatened by a lack of jobs and the loss of its young people to the far off lights of the big city. This social transformation has broad implications for Japan's agriculture industry and growing competition from farm imports. Food imports last year for Japan increased 5.5 percent to more than $40 billion, more than $12 billion coming from the United States.
Today, Ootaki Village has a population of 124 after several years of steady decline. A few of the lucky ones have jobs in administration, but the majority - 72 or so - are part of farm families growing tea, potatoes and konyaku - a type of local starch.
"The young people go to the urban areas after graduating from high school and won't return," said Katsuji Kurasawa, an official with the local farm development office. "Therefore the ratio of people 65 years or older is now more than one-third of the total population."
Taira Hirosei, an 80-year-old farmer, lost three of his children to the city. They didn't like the long hours and hard work that goes with farming. His fourth and oldest son, Katsuhiko Hirosei, got a job with the local government office and was able to stay.
The two walk down the village's only road with an unhurried pace that speaks of a life far from the packed commuter trains and neon lights of Tokyo. The younger Mr. Hirosei said he enjoyed the city for a few years but now sings karaoke or fishes for entertainment.
The steady erosion of mountain populations all over Japan also is worrying the nation's agriculture ministry. Mountain village areas hold 42 percent of Japan's cultivated land. Further population erosion will hurt the agency's efforts to keep Japan's farm industry viable.
"The future of the mountain areas is a loss of young people, a lack of jobs and an increase in uncultivated farmland," said Taitsu Igarashi, a ministry official.
According to ministry statistics, 88 percent of Japan's mountain areas face declining populations. In these areas, the over-65 population is 50 percent higher than the national average.
In addition, 84 percent of mountain village areas lack sewerage, while most people have to travel further for basic services like education and medical care.
But even in areas somewhat less isolated, farming in Japan still faces a crisis. While many young Japanese retain a romantic vision of life on the farm, few want to do the work themselves.
These problems are certainly not unique to Japan and mirror trends seen in most developed countries. What is different relative to countries like the United States, however, is that Japan's strict regulatory system has discouraged consolidation of plots into larger, more productive farms that could be tilled by fewer people using more machinery.
Japan's political system also has played a part. Because rural voters have been heavily weighted, the government has coddled farmers and generally discouraged innovation.
This has left Japan's farm industry largely unequipped to handle growing competition from imported farm products now entering Japan in greater numbers under the terms of world trade agreements.
One adaptation here is a growing number of tourist farms. These allow city dwellers to quench their romantic thirst for rural life without actually doing the tiresome work that goes with it.
"For the tourists it means no work," said Akishio Harashima, a director with the Arakawa municipal government, part of Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo. ''People enjoy the picking but not the growing."
In Arakawa Village, for instance, farmers operate a "rent-a-tree" program. For 8,000 yen - about $80 - tourists rent a tree for a year. Each tree produces about 80 apples. There are now 150 tree-renters.
For the slightly more adventurous, there's also a program to "rent-a-farm" - well, more like 20 square meters - where tourists actually muck around in the dirt a bit. They can grow anything but large trees.
Still, whether such programs will save Japanese farming remains to be seen. Government financial support is widely evident in many of these programs, including support for a tourist center near tree-renting areas and a selection process to ensure that tourists "rent" bountiful trees.
The economics also are doubtful. One official said pesticides and fertilizer cost about 10,000 yen annually per apple tree or 20 percent more than the tree rental income. That doesn't include labor.
And even tourist farming isn't particularly attractive to the younger generation. Junji Arai's, who operates a "you-pick-'em" strawberry farm, said he earns five times more than a regular farmer. Still his two sons haven't jumped at the chance of taking over the business. Mr. Arai said tourist farms may survive reduced farm import barriers, but the future for traditional farming will be much more difficult.