日本北海道的小鎮新冠町有官員于近日宣布，由于該地區出生率持續下降，他們將在下月通過因特網拍賣轄區內的四所小學。這個只有1.1萬人口的小鎮共有九所學校，去年關閉了其中七所。其中有三所分別轉為辦公樓、療養院以及跑馬場，而余下的四所至今尚未找到買主。當地官員表示要將這四所學校放到日本最大的拍賣網站去尋找買主。日本近年來一直受出生率下降的困擾。年輕人進城務工，老年人在家中看護田地，使得人口下降這個問題在農村地區尤為嚴重。

A small Japanese town with a falling birthrate plans to auction off four primary schools on the Internet, according to a local official.

A small Japanese town with a falling birthrate plans to auction off four primary schools on the Internet, according to a local official.

Niikappu, on the northern island of Hokkaido, plans to start the auction next month on the Yahoo! Japan online auction site, said Hidenori Tsutsumi, who is in charge of the auction.

The farming and fishing town of 11,000 people last year closed seven of its nine schools.

Three were turned into a corporate office, a nursing home and a horse-racing centre but the town was unable to find buyers for the others.

"It became necessary to consolidate the schools due to the falling birthrate," a municipal statement said.

With no immediate buyers for the other four, the town said it "decided to list the schools on Japan's largest auction site".

Three of the four schools up for sale boast spacious teachers' residences and swimming pools. The asking prices range from 21.8 million to 67.4 million yen (220,500 to 682,000 dollars), the town said.

No local population statistics were immediately available. But Japan has been struggling with a falling birthrate, which is especially acute in rural areas where the older population has been left to till the lands while the younger population has moved to the cities.

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(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

asking prices: 賣方開價，要價

（英語點津 Helen 編輯）