In the run-up to next year¡¯s Olympics, construction is everywhere ¡ª everywhere except, perhaps, in the places it is most needed. While the government is rushing to put its best foot forward and put a polish on Japan¡¯s capital and environs, the situation is becoming increasingly dire in rural areas, which face not only an aging population, but a crumbling infrastructure and scant budget to patch it up.
Writing in Flash (Oct. 15), Osaka-based photojournalist Jiro Shinbo looked at the state of Japan¡¯s deteriorating infrastructure in the aftermath of destructive Typhoon Faxai on Sept. 9.
In what observers called nakizura ni hachi (a bee stinging a crying face or, in other words, adding insult to injury), the 15th typhoon of the year was followed a month later by the wetter and considerably more deadly Typhoon Hagibis.
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