Noto Democracy

Shining a bright light of hope in the darkness

Anamizu Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, is located in the center of the Noto Peninsula. The population is below 7,000, and the town is in the final stage of population decline, with both young people and the elderly declining. Motoyuki Takii, a former junior high school teacher, lives in a marginal village on a rough road from the center of the town, which is promoting compact cities. Since 2020, he has been publishing a handwritten newspaper, "Tsumugu," and has been sounding the alarm about profit-driven policies and the town's future. The town's traditional fishing method, "Muramachi Yagura," overlooks the calm Anamizu Bay. Patience can be said to be a part of the townspeople's character, but Takii writes, "If we do nothing, nothing will change." The Ishikawa TV crew will highlight the raison d'être of local media through the eyes of the townspeople, highlighting the distorted relationship between the town hall and the town council, where inertia and favoritism are rampant.