There are fewer than 60 residents living in the tiny Japanese village of Ichinono. Most of them are elderly, which is not surprising: Japan has the second-oldest population on earth. Kids born in the tiny village eventually went to college in big cities, found jobs elsewhere, and never returned.
So, to make the city feel vibrant again, residents have crafted crude life-sized dolls and stationed them around town to liven up the joint.
Videos by VICE
Townspeople, like 88-year-old Hisayo Yamazaki, took it upon themselves to create mannequins that they wrapped in old clothing and positioned them at various points around town to make it seem like the “residents” were collecting firewood, swinging from a swing set, or riding bikes.
29.3 percent of Japan’s total population is over 65 years old—that’s the highest percentage of people over 65 in one country in the world. Japan’s overall population declined for the 15th year in a row as of 2023, too. A new record low of only 730,000 babies were born, with an all-time high of 1.58 million deaths. People are dying at a faster rate than they can be replaced with new babies.
In Ichinono, the village leader, Ichiro Sawayama, warns that if something isn’t done, entire villages are at risk of extinction. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to revitalize small aging villages, but so far there hasn’t been much that’s proven to work. In 2023, the Japanese government started offering residents ¥1 million per child (around $7,700 US) to couples in major cities who have children who are 18 years and younger so they can move into the less populated countryside. At the time, Vice reported that there weren’t many takers.
All that is to say that the country can use a little bit of youth. And when real flesh and blood people aren’t having enough babies, life-size dolls are the next best thing.
But there is a shining ray of hope in the village—a 2-year-old named Kuranosuke, the first baby the village had seen in two decades. His parents moved into town from Osaka during the pandemic to get away from the bustling and congested city life. They’ve been there ever since. Kuranosuke doesn’t have many kids to play with, not real ones anyway. But let’s hope one day, a younger couple with the kid moves to town so he can socialize with someone his own age.
