Ishiba has called Japan's low birth rate a "quiet emergency", one that is starkly evident in places like Ichinono, a bucolic hamlet home to fewer than 60 people.

In Ichinono, Japan, life-sized puppets now occupy the village as a response to population decline and rural depopulation. Once bustling with families and children, the village is now mostly ...

Ichinono is one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where a majority of the residents are aged 65 and above, underscoring the formidable task ahead of the country as it sees a rapidly ...

ICHINONO: Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets.

Ichinono (Japan) (AFP) – Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets.