Japanese Village Replaces Youth Population with Puppets

As depopulation deepens around the world, a small village in Japan turns to puppets to stitch their community back together. Ichinono is only one of several "doll villages" in Japan where life-sized mannequins are used to combat feelings of loneliness, though the town's majority elderly population drives a need for a lacking youthful comfort.While these puppets bring stories of ghost towns and haunted dolls to mind, it opens a conversation about ways to tackle the country's declining birth rate ...