MINAMITANE, Japan -- About 1,000 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, where the East China Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, an island offers a test bed for how Japan might combat the rural decline and depopulation stalking it -- if it can create tech jobs that retain young people and attract immigrants.
Tanegashima is Japan's answer to Cape Canaveral in the U.S., but with rocket launches few and far between, island businesspeople and officials say industries other than space need to be developed. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Mayumi Tsumita and Ultra-X)
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