In municipalities across Japan sit an increasing number of forgotten, dilapidated homes known as “ghost houses.” Despite the name and oft-eerie appearance, however, these are not haunted houses in need of an exorcism. Rather, ghost houses, or akiya as they are known in Japanese, are abandoned homes that towns cannot get rid of through demolition or resale. Impacting rural towns the hardest as young residents flock to the country’s major cities, the glut of ghost homes has prompted some municipalities to come up with creative solutions to deal with the…
