In Japan's countryside, villages fight to keep cultural traditions alive

Tokyo

TRADITIONS die hard in the small mountain town of Kanegasaki, whose history includes a series of battles nearly 1,000 years ago that drove an ancestor of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to leave the area for southern Japan.

But as Japan ages and rural towns face depopulation, many unique cultural traditions are being lost. This year Kanegasaki will have to forego the centuries-old "deer dance," a prayer for a bountiful harvest and an homage to the townspeople's ancestors.