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(CNN) — Simply saying the word “Japan” can conjure up images of manga, girl cafes, and neon lights.
But for the Dutch photographer Maan Limburg, Japan is a succession of rural landscapes, interrupted by empty houses.
Her photographs of these places — from houses left after natural disasters to closed theaters with the lights still on — are now featured in a book, “The Lost World,” published in May.
The haunted houses of Japan
Enter the phenomenon of akiya, or haunted houses.
A 2014 government report sounded the alarm, saying that if things continue at their current pace, about 900 towns and cities across Japan will be “extinct.”
Limburg not only found empty houses, there were also abandoned companies such as this DVD shop.
Maan Limburg/The Lost World
But even free houses are not necessarily the cure for the Japanese akiya situation. While other countries with an aging population, such as Italy, have given away or sold very cheap homes to foreigners, they often have visas or residence permits. The houses of Japan, however, are not.
Limburg, based in Utrecht, was irresistibly drawn to the lesser-known regions of Japan, where many of these houses are located. She and her partner spent months there, renting a car or van and driving through parts of the country that many tourists rarely discover.
Finding ephemera such as calendars and newspapers can help Limburg find out when a place has been abandoned.
Maan Limburg/The Lost World
Leaving the cities
Limburg says it is ‘in love’ with rural Japan.
“In every village we went, people said, ‘What are you doing here? The nearest tourist attraction is 22 miles. We can send you there. We can draw you a map if you want.’ It was just really nice to see this other side of Japan,” she says.
And once she started visiting smaller villages, it was practically impossible not to find empty houses or abandoned buildings. At one point, Limburg says, her boyfriend asked if they really should stop at everyone.
One of the reasons Limburg was associated with rural Japan is that it reminded her of her native Netherlands. While both countries have a reputation for being cold and not always welcoming to foreign visitors, Limburg disagrees.
“As soon as the Dutch see that you are really interested, they will share a lot of information with you. I really found that in Japan,” she says. “It’s one of the things that I really enjoy in both countries that if you take a real interest in the people, then suddenly they really share their lives with you,”
But of course, not all of the countryside is the same, and that was reflected in the sort of vacant buildings she found.
In Hokkaido, Limburg, explains that many people had the time to properly lock and seal their homes before they left. But in areas like Fukushima, where people had fled hastily, it was not uncommon to still find teacups or TV sets still plugged in.
One of her personal favorite discoveries was a former theater. The sets, costumes and lights were still intact, as if the actors had just taken a lunch break and could be back any moment.
Some of the smaller houses had the most emotional impact. Limburg still saw family photos pasted on the wall and wondered what had happened to the people who lived here and why they had left.
“I hope I have treated the venues with enough respect,” she says.
Her favorite region was the “magic” northern island of Hokkaido.
“it’s rough and it’s rough and it’s weird,” says the photographer. “We felt like we were in an Edward Hopper painting with no people.”
“Once you start looking for empty houses,” says Limburg, “they are everywhere.”
Maan Limburg/The Lost World
Reflections
In total, Limburg has been to Japan about 10 times, starting when she was a teenager.
Being a freelancer, she can be away for a long time, so her average visit to Japan was three weeks. Multiple trips allowed her to see different parts of the country, as well as meet people she met along the way.
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