(Peter Guo’s article appeared on NBC News, Oct. 27, 2024. Photo: Puppets in the tiny rural village of Ichinono, Japan.Philip Fong / AFP – Getty Images.)
Ichinono has fewer than 60 residents, so they stitched together their own population of puppets to keep them company.
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 most of them are past retirement age as younger people have moved away for jobs or education.
So, using old clothes, fabrics and mannequins, residents have stitched together their own population of puppets to keep them company.
Some of puppets ride swings, others push firewood carts, smiling eerily at visitors.
“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told the Agence France-Presse news agency.Philip Fong / AFP – Getty Images
Most families in Ichinono used to have children, Yamazaki said, but the kids were encourage to go somewhere else. “We’re now paying the price,” she added.
