Inside lonely Japanese village where residents are outnumbered by creepy puppets keeping them company
A LONELY Japanese village has become overrun by creepy life-size puppets who have been slowly replacing the residents.
Eerie pictures show dozens of dolls riding on bikes, playing around on swings and even collecting wood across the bizarre village of Ichinono.
Less than 60 people still call Ichinono their home with the population dwindling in recent years with many leaving the area to find a good job.
This prompted locals to create mannequin versions of the former residents to keep the village alive and well.
But as more and more villagers left Ichinono the puppets are now said to outnumber the humans.
These dolls - often made of unwanted old fabric - have been placed across the area to help make the village feel more alive.
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Many are dressed up in old clothes to make them seem as lifelike as possible.
One picture shows a little girl puppet in a pink helmet riding a bike across some grass.
As a family also appears to have been created with a little girl and her parents all out collecting wood.
Some locals have even placed the dolls outside their own homes to give them an extra friend in case they ever get lonely.
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An 88-year-old widow called Hisayo Yamazaki told AFP: "We're probably outnumbered by puppets."
Hisayo revealed that most of the remaining residents are now the elderly who encouraged their children to leave the village and look for a better opportunity in a major city.
This surge of locals moving out meant a huge void was left behind which left many people lonely.
The village only has a handful of people under 35 with the latest baby being born in 2022.
The two-year-old made history when it was safely delivered as it became the first Ichinono-born child in over two decades, according to the Internal Affairs Ministry.
Kuranosuke Kato's parents Rie Kato, 33, and Toshiki Kato, 31, say their baby is always the talk of the town.
The dad said: "Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people - even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet.";
Elsewhere, the village of Nagoro has undergone a similar puppet-themed overhaul to its citizens.
Over 350 life-size dolls, handmade to represent the village's former residents, sit in the town today.
Tsukimi Ayano was responsible for creating the doll population as the elderly man couldn't bear to watch the population shrink anymore.
In the years since, Nagoro has become better known as Nagoro Doll Village, and has become a bustling tourist attraction.
With many celebrities even visiting such as Top Gear's James May.
Japan is known for its vibrant towns and villages with Ichinono and Nagoro being just two of the wackiest places to live.
A robotic utopia is being built at the foot of an active volcano just a few miles away from Mount Fuji.
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Known as Woven City, the futuristic place will act as a "living laboratory" for creators Toyota to test its renewable and energy-efficient self-driving cars dubbed 'E-palettes'.
The first 2,000 residents are set to move in by the end of the year as part of an £8billion study to understand patterns in driver and pedestrian behaviour.
