Since losing its last obstetrician five years ago, this city of nearly 32,000 in rural northern Japan has been desperately seeking a replacement.

The crisis, he said, "began in rural Japan and reached the major cities in the last year."

As is the case in much of rural Japan, one-third of its residents are over 65.

Once inside, surrounded by dark wood, you feel you have stepped into a restaurant in rural Japan.

We lived in a paper house in rural Japan for four years in the 50's.

Because it was designed for poor people in rural Japan, it will go anywhere.

She lived in rural Japan for four years.

She wrote of a tradition in rural Japan in which parents plant trees, then chop them down years later before their daughters are married.

But victory could do him in politically in rural Japan, where most of his party's voters live.

As in much of rural Japan, the young people have departed for the cities.