Inside Japan’s ‘miracle town’

Happy family: A woman plays with her 18-month-old daughter in Nagi, where nearly half of local households have three or more children. — Photos: ©2023 Los Angeles Times/TNS

FOR decades, this lush mountain town’s specialty was growing rice, black soybeans and satoimo, a taro root that features widely in Japanese cuisine and serves as the town’s official mascot.

But visitors are flocking to Nagi from across Japan and even other countries these days out of reverence, and maybe a touch of envy, for its spectacular success at producing something else: babies.