'Outnumbered by puppets': Depopulated village in Japan crafts dolls for sense of life

With most of the population gone, residents of one village in Japan have come up with a novel plan to make it less lonely — replacing people with puppets.

Fewer than 60 people live in Ichinono, and most of them are past retirement age as younger people have moved away for jobs or education.

So, using old clothes, fabrics and mannequins, residents have stitched together their own population of puppets to keep them company.

Some of puppets ride swings, others push firewood carts, smiling eerily at visitors.

“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Hisayo Yamazaki standing next to the puppets outside her house in Ichinono.Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

Most families in Ichinono used to have children, Yamazaki said, but the kids were encourage to go somewhere else. “We’re now paying the price,” she added.

Japan has the highest percentage of people age 65 and over in the world, according to data released last month by the country’s statistics bureau ahead of its “Respect for the Aged Day.”

While the total population is decreasing, the data showed that the population age 65 and over is at a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3% of the total population.

Separate data from Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry, shows the country’s total population declined for the 15th consecutive year in 2023, with a record low of 730,000 newborns but an all-time high of 1.58 million deaths.

Japan’s median age has been rising since 1950, with the figure reaching to 49.1 in 2023, according to an estimate by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.

So in Ichinono, the dolls are injecting some youth.

Amid the overgrown greenery, a puppet girl wearing a sweater hood sways gently on a wooden swing, as if caught between stillness and life. Her friend, a boy with a big, warming smile, stands on a scooter, ready to go.

Nearby, another puppet girl in a red helmet has been placed on a bike.

Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

Elsewhere, two life-size mannequins in farming clothes stand by an open metal tent in a crop field. The one on the left, in a hat and coat, leans forward, while another one in an orange jacket stands nearby.

Under leafless trees in another part of the village, a family of three puppets collects wood and puts the logs in a smart cart.

Propped outside a building and surrounded by a wheelbarrow and chairs, two more puppets appear to be enjoying the sunshine.

Another, dressed in a checkered shirt and hat, looks out over a crop field toward a few small houses in the distance.

Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

There are some younger residents including Rie Kato, 33, and Toshiki Kato, 31, who moved to the village from the city of Osaka after flexible working became possible due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Their son, Kuranosuke Kato, now 2, was Ichinono’s first baby in two decades when he arrived, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry data.

Rie Kato playing with her son, Kuranosuke, in their house in the village of Ichinono.Philip Fong / AFP - Getty Images

“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 said.