This article about the demolition of a school in Osaka had an interesting explanation:

At its peak in 1958, the school had 1,270 enrolled students.

But 30 years down the track, the so-called “donut phenomenon” had taken hold.

Osaka’s downtown population headed for the suburbs leaving a gaping hole in the city center-and a serious shortage of school-age kids. By 1989, Aijitsu Elementary School had just 47 students and it was forced to integrate the following year with nearby Kaihei Elementary School.

Mmm, donut phenomenon.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2005 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Current Events, Japan, Osaka. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.