You can get in touch with Micah by emailing [email protected]. A dwindling Japanese village has found a creative way to combat loneliness amid rural depopulation and declining birth rates.

The small population of a village in Japan is now "outnumbered by puppets" - after using life-like mannequins to replace those who have left the area. Fewer than 60 people live in the southern ...

These realistic puppets now inhabit the village, providing companionship and vitality. In the rural Japanese village of ... the village is now using life-like mannequins to replace those who ...

A Japanese village struggling with a low population ... is trying to fill the void with stuffed mannequins, which they dress up and place around the community — and even pose on swings and ...

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Today, it is Japan's most aged village, with two-thirds of residents over age 65. Many of the settlement's buildings are dilapidated or abandoned, and there's little new construction. Nanmoku's ...

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 ...

Today, it is Japan's most aged village, with two-thirds of residents over age 65. Many of the settlement's buildings are dilapidated or abandoned, and there's little new construction. Nanmoku's ...