Japanese ‘old heartthrobs’ dance on TikTok to raise awareness of their town’s declining population

A group of four Japanese guys in their 50s and 60s is producing waves on TikTok by donning vibrant stomach warmers although awkwardly dancing to raise recognition of their countryside town’s inhabitants decline.

Known on TikTok as “Ojiqun” (“old heartthrobs”), the gentlemen, dressed in their belly heaters, very long-sleeved shirts, ties and slacks, posted their initial online video in February. Takumi Shirase, 52, advised Agence France-Presse that he created the group to advertise Wake, their city in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture.

“We required to arrive up with something that would revitalize our aging countryside neighborhood, which is struggling from inhabitants decrease with much less and less little ones,” Shirase, who operates an IT company and a gardening business, was quoted as stating.

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Wake, which has all around 14,000 inhabitants, is presently struggling with a inhabitants decrease. Shirase mentioned that his outdated main university and a community purchasing middle experienced to shut down.

In their videos, the gentlemen ordinarily dance to fashionable-day pop music although battling to preserve a straight experience. They hope that the videos, which have been seen about 16 million periods whole, can assist carry a lot more attention to their town. They currently have in excess of 34,500 followers on TikTok, and quite a few of their viewers have called their video clips “adorable.”

The group’s most-viewed movie so far, which was posted in March, features them dancing to the children’s song “My Name Is” by D Billions. Their movie has been given around 13.7 million views as of this creating.

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“We hope to really encourage men and women to arrive to Wake, either as visitors or as new inhabitants,” Shirase reported.

 

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Featured Impression through @ojiqun

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