Japan Ninja Council member Kunihiro Takeishi recently made a statement about Japan seriously lacking ninjas across the country.
This sentiment seems to be pretty common in the ninja community as ninja village Hizenyumekaidou in Saga Prefecture currently only has 3 active ninja for their live shows. "We want more ninja," says one of the local ninja of the village.
The country that ninja were born from and were made infamous across the world is experiencing a ninja shortage. Why there's a shortage isn't totally clear, but interests in ninja are high. Foreign tourism is as alive as ever, with many tourists interested in ninja and looking for them.
Via their Livedoor blog, Nippon Television reported that many ninja shows don't have the ninja they need, and the number of crowds wanting to see the shows outnumber the amount of ninja who can perform on a regular basis.
Besides tourism there are still a load of Japanese children who love ninja and want to see ninja shows as well.
Noboribetsu Date Jidaimura is a ninja theme park in Hokkaido and even made a YouTube video to promote ninja recruitment hoping to "massively recruit ninja performers" with all the instructions on how to join and apply.
So what could be the reason for such a shortage, causing the ninja community to seek emergency ninja recruitment?
Pretty much all the "ninja" or ninja needed are in fact stunt performers who in fact also need to make money and the present salary for ninja performers is reportedly insufficient for making a living.
So the issue probably isn't totally based on training or finding trained ninja out there. The Japan Ninja Council is doing their best to take care of the issue and discover what can be done to help ninja shows in need of performers to get the ninja they need while promoting ninja ways and recruitment more often.
Did you know that ninja have an official website?
Also in the air is The 2020 Olympics which is growing closer by the months and the Ninja Council wants to make sure they can meet expectations of the expected tourists when the Tokyo Olympics are held. Takekishi commented, "I think it might be difficult."
Here's hoping that things work out for everyone! I'm sure they'll come up with solutions, even if not ready in time for 2020, there's no way ninja can die out...right?
If you know anyone in Japan who may have the skills and may be interested, please show them this news!
Another thought of mine was that if pay really is the main issue, that means that there are in fact individuals out there who already have the skills but have stopped performing. After all I wouldn't expect samurai to fight for lords who didn't pay them at all, (some only earned grains of rice though) or pirates to stay as a loyal crew when they didn't get their bounty or enough to survive.
If there are ninjas out there or performers capable of the training who may have even some background, its possible the ninja community could see an increase in them joining shows again if good plans come to fruition. Believe it!
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