Japan faces shortage of Ninjas

The famous birthplace of ninjas in Japan doesn’t have enough martial artists to entertain tourists at its annual festival, according to New York Post.

Professional ninjas in the small city of Iga can make up to $85 000 per year, or more than a million rand, according to the publication.

This amount is not enough to send prospective ninjas to the city, which is suffering from depopulation.

Training as a ninja who can participate in Iga’s ninja shows is an intensive process, and since Japan fortunately has an extremely low unemployment rate of 2.5 percent, not enough young people are being enticed to answer the call for more ninjas.

READ MORE: The Japanese lesson for SA

Iga is a rural city, which is losing young people to larger cities like Tokyo, a podcast called Planet Money that the New York Post based its story on explains.

“It’s facing a shortage of those two key things you need to keep an economy humming: stuff to sell and people to buy the stuff,” according to Planet Money host Stacey Vanek Smith.

But while Japan’s population dwindles, the country is seeing a 20 percent surge in tourism, according to Business Insider.

Iga has a population of just 100 000 and attracts 30 000 tourists per year for its ninja festival alone. Iga mayor Sakae Okamoto hopes the town can do even more to attract tourists year round.

“Right now in Iga, we are working very hard to promote ninja tourism and get the most economic outcome. For example, we hold this ninja festival between late April to around the beginning of May. During this period, visitors and also local people come here. Everybody will be dressed like a ninja and walks around and enjoys themselves — but recently I feel that it’s not enough,” Okamoto told Planet Money host Sally Herships.

While a budget is not disclosed, the Japanese government funds ninjas and there are plans to add a second ninja museum in Iga in an attempt to draw more visitors, Herships explained.

Anyone who is unemployed in South Africa and feels they have what it takes may want to head over to Iga, although whether or not they accept non-Japaneses ninjas is unclear.

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