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, has been ...

A Japanese village struggling with a low population created life-sized dolls to mimic the feeling of a bustling society. The hamlet of Ichinono, which has less than 60 residents and only one child, is ...

With most of the population gone, residents of one village in Japan have come up with a novel plan to make it less lonely — replacing people with puppets. Fewer than 60 people live in Ichinono, and ...

Entrepreneurial young Japanese people are trying to reinvigorate Japan's most aged village — where more than two thirds of residents are over 65 — and keep it from vanishing from the map. Villages ...

NANMOKU, Japan — This village sits along a river running through the mountains, surrounded by forests of cedar and bamboo. The once-thriving hamlet was known for its silk, timber and a starchy root ...

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