Half a century ago Yubari, on the northern island of Hokkaido, was a coal-mining town with more than 100, 000 people.

ECONOMIST: It's an old folks' home out there

Mr Takenaka says that a new framework for local governments is needed to allow debts such as Yubari's to be forgiven.

ECONOMIST: It's an old folks' home out there

When there is no ambulance to answer a pensioner's anguished telephone call, as sometimes happens in Yubari, the consequences become all too clear.

ECONOMIST: Into the unknown

Under its previous mayor Yubari reinvented itself as a tourist spot.

ECONOMIST: It's an old folks' home out there