Shōwa era

The Shōwa era in this account is remembered through the rise and decline of Town S’s commercial center: redevelopment once brought the town’s heart to life, but a later wave of closures left its main shopping street with the rueful name “Showa Burial Mound.” The contrast turns an era of prosperity into part of the landscape of depopulation.

Prosperity and the Town Center

During the Shōwa era’s economic bubble, the center of Town S flourished after redevelopment. The commercial district along Mera Road stood as evidence of that period’s growth, when the town’s center could be renewed and its businesses sustained.

From Shopping Street to “Showa Burial Mound”

That prosperity did not last. A low birth rate and an aging population gradually weakened the town’s commercial life, leaving many businesses along Mera Road permanently shuttered. The surviving street acquired the rueful nickname “Showa Burial Mound,” which joins the memory of an earlier boom to the visible remains of decline.

What Remains

Rié’s family business, Seibundo Stationery, was among the few shops still operating on the shopping stretch. Its continued presence gives the abandoned storefronts a local, lived context: the town’s history is not only a story of economic change, but also the setting of the family business that anchors Rié’s life in Town S. The burial-mound nickname thus carries a double association, linking the town’s past prosperity with the emptiness left behind.