LESS THAN 40km separates the towns of Nanporo and Yubari, on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, but their fates could hardly have diverge(分歧；分道扬镳)d further. Nanporo, a tranquil commuter town(通勤小镇) east of Sapporo, the regional capital, is growing its native population at one of the fastest rates in the country. Yubari, a former coal-mining hub that went bankrupt in 2007, has seen its population decline by 95% from its peak. Their contrasting trajectories offer lessons for local life in an era of demographic shrinkage(人口萎缩).
在日本最北端的北海道，南幌町与夕张市相距不到40公里，但两地的命运却天差地别。南幌町是札幌以东一座宁静的通勤小镇，其本地人口增速位居全国前列。夕张曾是煤炭开采重镇，2007年宣告破产，如今人口较峰值已减少95%。在人口萎缩的时代，两地截然不同的发展轨迹为地方生活提供了借鉴。
Start in Nanporo. The town’s population fell from around 10,000 in 1998 to fewer than 7,400 over the next quarter-century. But in recent years the trend has reversed: by last year, the population had ticked back up to 8,400. Nanporo was one of only nine out of 179 municipalities in Hokkaido to see population growth in 2020-25. It was the only one of those nine to do so without substantial foreign immigration.(它是这九个中唯一没有依靠大量外国移民迁入而实现增长的。) Meanwhile, Japan as a whole lost some 3m people over the same period.
先从南幌町说起。该町人口从1998年的约1万人，在此后25年间降至不足7400人。但近年来趋势逆转：到去年，人口已回升至8400人。在2020至2025年间，南幌町是北海道179个市町村中仅有的9个人口增长地区之一，也是这9个中唯一没有大量外国移民迁入的。与此同时，整个日本在同一时期减少了约300万人。
A sense of optimism is palpable(明显的；可感知的) at the Hareppa indoor playground in the town’s central park. Sunlight streams through the new building’s floor-to-ceiling windows(落地窗), lighting up a gaggle(一群（喧闹的人）) of children clambering up a wooden playhouse under a vaulted ceiling. In the adjoining(相邻的；毗连的) café and library, a mum and young son peruse(翻阅；细读) a shelf of children’s books: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, “Library Lion” and a popular Japanese series called “The Encyclopedia of Big Crises”.
在南幌町中央公园的“Hareppa”室内游乐场，乐观的气氛扑面而来。阳光透过新大楼的落地窗倾泻而入，照亮了一群正在拱形天花板下攀爬木制游戏屋的孩子。在相邻的咖啡馆兼图书馆里，一位母亲和年幼的儿子正在翻阅一架子童书：《好饿的毛毛虫》《图书馆狮子》，以及一套颇受欢迎的日本系列丛书《大危机百科全书》。