A dwindling Japanese village has found a creative way to combat loneliness amid rural depopulation and declining birth rates. Ichinono, a community of fewer than 60 people north of Osaka ...

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 ...

As Japan’s government tries to figure out a way out of the crisis, the Katos in Ichinono don’t seem too worried about their son’s lack of playmates. The village head calls the toddler “our ...

The two-year-old wasthe first baby in two decades for Ichinono, one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan wherethe majority of residentsare aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ...

A village in Japan has become so quiet that the people there make puppets to give the facade of a lively and youthful community. Ichinono, in southern Japan, has a population of just 60 people ...

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 declining ...

Their two-year-old son, Kuranosuke Kato, was Ichinono's first baby in two decades when he arrived, according to data from Japan's internal affairs ministry. "Just by being born here, our son ...

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.

Don't miss out on the headlines from Breaking News. Followed categories will be added to My News. The two-year-old wasthe first baby in two decades for Ichinono, one of more than 20,000 ...

Image Credit: AFP 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 two-year-old ...