Genkai shūraku (限界集落, literally limitative or limitational hamlet, also translated as marginal hamlet) is any village or hamlet within a merged town or village in Japan that has experienced depopulation and in danger of disappearing altogether, largely because half of the people living there reach the age of 65 and over.
Such villages are typically found in mountainous areas and remote islands.
Communities facing these conditions have witnessed a rapid decline in local government functions, road maintenance, and ceremonial activities, and are at risk of losing these altogether.
In 2005 the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries commissioned a rural development committee to do a survey on the true state of genkai shuraku (March 2006).
[1] In April 2006, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism commissioned a survey on the state of depopulating areas.