The number of abandoned homes in Japan has soared to almost four million over the last 20 years, data shows, as a shrinking population guts rural communities.
About 3.85 million homes were vacant in 2023, around 80 percent more than in 2003, according to an internal affairs ministry's review. The number of abandoned homes increased by about 360,000 from 2018.
With the world's second-oldest population and chronically low birth rates, the phenomenon of empty homes is rampant in rural areas.
Many belong to people living in major cities who have inherited them from relatives and who are unable or unwilling to keep them renovated.
Authorities have stepped up calls on owners to demolish, sell or repurpose properties and have enacted a law designating more buildings as subject to official warnings.
