As depopulation deepens around the world, a small village in Japan turns to puppets to stitch their community back together. Ichinono is only one of several “doll villages” in Japan where life-sized mannequins are used to combat feelings of loneliness, though the town’s majority elderly population drives a need for a lacking youthful comfort.
While these puppets bring stories of ghost towns and haunted dolls to mind, it opens a conversation about ways to tackle the country’s declining birth rate after hitting a record low just last year. According to a report published by the World Economic Forum, 29.3% of Japan’s residents are over the age of 65, making it home to the world’s oldest population. In the face of a national crisis of age, perhaps a group of mannequins seems less slightly scary.
Scattered amidst Ichinono’s lush greenery, these puppets aim to create the illusion of youthful life. You can find a girl on a wooden swing swaying beside a boy standing on a scooter posed on a once empty playground. On the side of the road, a small biker – helmet and all – rides with caution. Sitting against the side of a house, another pair gleefully lounges in the sun. “We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” 88-year-old Hisayo Yamazaki told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The village did not always look like this. Many of Ichinono’s current residents once had children, though they’ve fled town to take up jobs or attend college elsewhere and are yet to return. While the band of cloth puppets still stands, a two-year-old named Kuranosuke serves as a beacon of hope. The first baby in two decades, it is up to him to captain the village’s youth culture.