The sea wall project demonstrates how not even the most precious ecological treasures can survive Japan's construction obsession, which has long been its answer to the threat of natural disaster
The mountain-fringed beach at the seaside village of Katoku, Japan, Sept. 21, 2021. A plan to build a concrete berm within the village’s protective dune to curb erosion has divided residents along lines that reveal deeper forces remaking rural Japan: climate change, aging populations and the hollowing-out of small towns.
Image: Noriko Hayashi/The New York Times
KATOKU, Japan — Standing on its mountain-fringed beach, there is no hint that the Japanese village of Katoku even exists. Its handful of houses hide behind a dune covered with morning glories and pandanus trees, the chitter of cicadas interrupted only by the cadence of waves and the call of an azure-winged jay.
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