Japan's low birth-rate is causing a vacant property crisis

Toru Hanai/Reuters Any way you measure them, Japan’s population figures are dire. The country is expected to lose more than one-third of its population by 2060, thanks largely to low birth rates and an aging populace. In 2012, according to Japan’s Statistical Yearbook, the country’s annual death-to-population ratio passed one percent. This isn’t astoundingly high: the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook ranks Japan’s death rate (the deaths during a year per 1,000 popula...