This is the last in a series on issues related to the nationwide unified local elections ahead of the second round of voting on Sunday.

At a glance, the town of Kanna in southern Gunma Prefecture looks like just another beautiful rural community, surrounded by deep mountain forests stretching along the Kanna River, which is touted as having some of the clearest water in the Kanto region.

But a quiet crisis looms in this town, one that may foreshadow the fate of hundreds of other aging rural communities across the country. With little prospect of a vibrant future, they are also facing a shortage of leaders running in local elections who are eager to save their hometowns.

Of Kanna¡¯s 2,139 inhabitants, 1,186 ¡ª or 55 percent ¡ª were aged 65 or older as of April 1. The community is predicted to ¡°vanish,¡± with few children being born here and most young people moving away.

¡°Everybody says the town will soon disappear,¡± said a local woman in her 80s, who only gave her family name as Tanaka. ¡°Look, this house is empty, and that one is so, too,¡± she said, pointing to other decrepit structures standing next to hers.

The interview with Tanaka took place Monday, the day before campaigning was set to start for Sunday¡¯s mayoral election, part of the quadrennial unified local elections taking place nationwide this month.

When asked what measures she wants the town or the central government to take to save her community, Tanaka just said: ¡°There¡¯s no way out.¡± Everybody just accepts the reality of the declining town, she said.

Japan is rapidly aging. The population is predicted to shrink by about 30 percent to 86.74 million in 2060, from 127 million in 2013.

And Kanna is among 869 municipalities, or 49.8 percent of all municipalities in the country, that a policy study group warns will soon ¡°disappear¡± due to fewer births.

In a report released last year, the Japan Policy Council, headed by former Iwate Gov. Hiroya Masuda, conducted demographic simulations focusing on the number of women aged between 20 and 39. Women in this age bracket give birth to 95 percent of all babies in Japan.

According to the council¡¯s report, the 869 municipalities will see more than a 50 percent plunge in women in this age bracket from 2010 to 2040, which the council says will make it difficult to maintain their local administrations.

In particular, more than 80 percent of the cities, towns and villages in Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata and Shimane prefectures could ¡°vanish¡± eventually, as they will likewise see a more than 50 percent fall in women in that bracket.

The shocking results made headlines...