Mysterious village with more dolls than people living in Japan, the atmosphere is gloomy

Located in Iya Valley, Japan, if you look at it from the outside, Nagoro is just like any other riverside village. Everything seemed extremely ordinary, until people realized that most of those "people" were not people.

In fact, they are dolls that are about the same size as real people, and are 10 times larger in number than the population here.

These stuffed dolls are the product of Tsukimi Ayano, an old woman who enjoys making crafts in the village. Ayano moved here in 2002, after spending most of her life in the city of Osaka.

Initially, Ayano just wanted to create a doll that looked like her father to scare away the seed-eating birds in the garden. However, after a while, this project was increasingly expanded, dolls appeared scattered in every corner of the small village.

Ayano came up with the idea to create effigies of the villagers who once lived in the village as a way to commemorate the elders who died in the village and breathe life into the village that is in danger of disappearing. "Before the scarecrows, it was just a normal village and nobody really cared about it," she said.

In fact, even if the dolls were placed all over the village, it was an "unknown" place until a visit by a German filmmaker named Fritz Schumann. Interested in this unique village, he made a short documentary titled "Doll Valley" to tell the story of the village. The film then achieved resounding success, attracting public attention across the globe.

According to data from Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs, only one baby has been born in Ichinono during the past two decades. Two-year-old Kuranosuke is the youngest member of the village. In 2021, she moved from Osaka to live in this small village with her parents, Rie Kato (33 years old) and Toshiki Kato (31 years old).

The Kato family is a stark reflection of the younger generation in Ichinono who were encouraged by their parents to move to the big city in pursuit of better opportunities for education, employment and marriage. Many people come to the city but never come back.

"We are afraid that the children will not be able to get married if they are stuck in such a remote place forever. Those children were gone and never returned, looking for work somewhere else. And now, we are paying the price," Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told AFP.

Stuffed dolls, all made by hand, placed on swings, bicycles... like they are playing or working in the fields. An eerie replica of what families here used to do.

"If the village continues like this, the only thing that awaits us is destruction," said Ichiro Sawayama, 74, the head of the Ichinono administration.

Faced with this situation, Kato's family does not seem to be too worried about their son not having a playmate.

"The village chief called him "our pride". Just being born here, our son has enjoyed a lot of love, support and hope from so many people. Although he hasn't achieved anything in life," said his father, Toshiki.

Ichinono is one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan, where the majority of residents are aged 65 or older. This situation underscores the enormous challenge that the country of the rising sun faces as the birth rate declines rapidly.

Preliminary government data released in early 2024 shows that the number of babies born in Japan has fallen for the eighth year in a row and to a record low in 2023. The number of births decreased by 5.1% from a year earlier, at 758,631. The number of married couples fell 5.9%, to 489,281.

In 2023, Japan recorded twice as many deaths as the number of babies born. This is the first time in 90 years that the number of newborns has fallen below 500,000, signaling a severe population decline.

"The birth rate is declining at an alarming rate," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said, "The next six years will be the last chance to reverse this risk."

The declining birth rate has left the island nation struggling with a dwindling workforce. This can significantly affect retirement benefits and health care services for the elderly.

According to government data, as of September 15, 2023, there are about 36.23 million individuals in Japan who are 65 years old or older. This number reached a record level, accounting for 29.1% of the total population.

According to estimates by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security, the country's population is likely to decline by about 30% to 87 million by 2070, of which 4 out of 10 people are 65 years old or older.

The government has launched various initiatives to address the declining birth rate, including financial incentives for couples giving birth, expanding childcare facilities, and even a state-sponsored dating app in Tokyo that uses AI to connect singles.

The declining birth rate is an increasingly serious problem in East Asian countries such as South Korea, China, etc. These countries are facing the daunting task of motivating young people to have more children, even as they struggle with the rising cost of living and inequality in society.

Last year, South Korea set a new record for the world's lowest birth rate. Earlier this year, China's population declined for the first time since the 1960s.

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