A Japanese village struggling with a low population created life-sized dolls to mimic the feeling of a bustling society.
The hamlet of Ichinono, which has less than 60 residents and only one child, is trying to fill the void with stuffed mannequins, which they dress up and place around the community — and even pose on swings and bicycles.
“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” 88-year-old resident Hisayo Yamazaki told AFP.
Yamazaki explained that although older inhabitants there had children, they encouraged them to attend college away from the tiny community about an hour northwest of Kyoto.
“We were afraid they would become unmarriageable if they remained stuck in a remote place like this,” she told the outlet.
“Out they went, and they never came back, getting jobs elsewhere. We’re now paying the price.”
“If the village is left as it is now, the only thing that awaits us is extinction,” Ichiro Sawayama, 74, head of its governing body, told Japan Today.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was elected on Oct. 1, has vowed to help build up rural areas, as Ichinono is just one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where most residents are 65 and above.
The country, which doesn’t allow many immigrants, has the second-oldest population in the world, after Monaco.
