Covering
Japan: Nagasaki Journal |
The Students
The Classes
| Austin Ramzy |
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Kindergarten
Cuts Time was, the floors of Japanese kindergartens would rumble with the thunder of little feet. These days, entire classrooms stand vacant and hundreds of kindergartens have closed. Late marriages, the cost of raising children and a workforce increasingly filled with women have contributed to a crisis of enrollment for Japanese kindergartens, now forced to expand services and lower expectations to compete with daycare centers. But even those strategies may not save them. |
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Historic
Port a Link to the West For more than 200 years, Japan closed itself off to the world during a period of national isolation. The tiny island enclave of Dejima, off the Nagasaki shore, was its only connection to the outside world. Here, forced into isolation by Japanese rulers, Dutch traders shipped out gold, silver and copper while importing Chinese silks, European fabrics and Western medicines. Now, the settlement that once symbolized Japan’s "closed country" period is being restored to welcome throngs of tourists through its "international gateway." |