This Japanese village has replaced its young people with mannequins. Here’s why

A small village in Japan is overflowing by puppets who are being used not to decorate the area but to stave off loneliness among the locals.
The life-like mannequins have been placed to replace all those who have left Ichinono. The village now has less than 60 people living in it most of whom have retired. The village was slowly abandoned after younger people moved to nearby cities for work and education
Feeling empty, the villagers began using old clothes to create colourful puppets that looked like their loved one and placed them around the area to mimic life. Now this new population of puppets outnumbers the people living in the village.
“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency. She said that Ichinono once had big families with children living here but they were soon encouraged to go beyond the village to study. “We’re now paying the price,” she added.
Now, mannequins resembling little girls and boys are placed all across the town to fill in for the children the town lost. A mannequin of a little girl wearing a beanie hat sits on a wooden swing, while another one resembling her stands on a scooter. Another puppet child wears a red helmet and sits on a stationary bike.
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The town also has mannequins for adults. A couple of them resembling two women are seen watching on as a another mannequin of a girl put logs in a cart.
But all is not over for the little village. It recently had a new couple move in who chose to leave their life in a big city to look for a quieter alternative in Ichinono.
Rie Kato, 33, and Toshiki Kato, 31, moved to the village as hybrid work became possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They soon had a child and their two-year-old son, Kuranosuke Kato, became the village’s first baby in two decades.
The baby is loved by all and is something of a celebrity around town. “Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people – even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet,” his father told AFP.
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Japan is facing a growing population decline crisis. Its population now has the highest percentage of people aged 65 and over in the world.
The population of Japan is steadily decreasing, with people aged 65 and over now at a record high number of 36.25 million — making up nearly 30% of the total population.
The country’s total population declined for the 15th consecutive year in 2023, with only 730,000 newborns born.