THIS village was on the cusp of being abandoned for years, until it was suddenly repopulated – by one lone woman.
But these are no ordinary citizens, these are 350 life-size dolls, handmade to represent the village of Nagoro’s former residents – alongside a replica of the former Top Gear presenter James May.
From afar the dolls look like villagers, working in the fields, soaking in the sun, and watching traffic go by.
The local school has even been filled with a dozen youngster-esque dolls, eagerly awaiting a lesson.
Tsukimi Ayano is the resident responsible for these dolls.
The 74-year-old was born in the Japanese village of Nagoro, and watched as the population shrunk from more than 300 people to just 30.
Most of its residents left to find work in the cities, and the population has continued to decline as older villagers die.
Now, Nagoro is entirely made up of elderly locals. A baby hasn’t been born in the area for over 20 years.
Tsukimi initially began creating life-size dolls of the village’s former residents to make the area feel more lively.
“I’ve always made dolls as a hobby,” she told ABC News.
“I never thought that my hobby would turn out like this.”
Her hobby was born out of necessity, as she started creating the dolls to scare away birds that were eating seeds from her property.
But they’ve now taken on a life of their own – outnumbering the human population of Nagoro by 10 to one.
The dolls have also revitalised the village in another, accidental way.
Tsukimi revealed: “Nobody stopped by this village when there were no dolls.
“Now that the number of dolls has increased, people from all over the country and even from abroad have come to see them.
“This town has become very lively.”
Tourists have been trekking form far and wide to visit the now infamous doll village.
Its been featured on television, such as in an episode of James May’s series Our Man in Japan, and in Fritz Schuman’s 2014 documentary Valley of the Dolls.
Celebrities and journalists alike have had themselves immortalised in doll form after visiting the village – like James May who had a scarecrow replica of himself produced whilst he was there.
Nagoro is now more well known as Nagoro Doll Village, and has become a bustling tourist attraction.
Although some visitors have been slightly sceptical.
One Google review from Antonio Ezio Frascarelli read: “This village is… I don’t know. A concept between scary, weird, peaceful…
“You’ll see dozens of scarecrows on the way to the ‘village center’. Placed where normally humans do stuff.
“An entire room has been filled with ‘not-people’ reading, sleeping or talking among each other. The most weird part is the school.
“Everything is clean, and well kept by the locals, but seeing the building, with shadows at the windows watching outside, and no other sound than the river and the cicadas is unsettling.”
While Gareth Morris said: “Equal parts fascinating, touching and creepy, the scarecrow village is an homage to the former residents of this now-near-deserted mountain village.
“The mountain roads make it more than a little hair-raising to get to, though the trip was definitely worth the trouble.”
This comes as Japan’s ageing population has reached a new world record with one in three people aged over 65.
New government figures show that the country now has the highest ratio in the world at 35.6million senior citizens, which is about 28 per cent of the population.
It’s followed by Italy at 23 per cent, then Portugal and Germany, both with 22 per cent, while the number of over-65s in the UK is around 18 per cent.
The demographic in Japan is expected to reach more than two thirds of the population by 2040, according to the new data.
