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.

With fewer than 60 people living in the Japanese village ofIchinono, and a majority past retirement age, residents have installed handcrafted stuffed mannequins to recreate the once bustling ...

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 ...

Show more Show less Rie Kato playing with her son Kuranosuke Kato in their house in the village of Ichinono, in the city of Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture Silence pervades the air in Ichinono ...

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.

Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets. 'Our pride': Lone child brings hope to Japan's ...

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

The puppets in the village of Ichinono were created to ease the loneliness of residents caused by depopulation ... ‘Our pride’: Lone child brings hope to Japan’s puppet village. By. AFP.