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Follow UsHovering joyfully on his tricycle, Kuranosuke Kato stands out as the one and only child in his quaint, dwindling Japanese village populated by life-sized puppets.
At just 2 years old, he is Ichinono's first infant in twenty years, part of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where the majority of residents are more than the age of 65, according to data from the internal affairs ministry.
Revitalizing rural regions is a prime promise in Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's campaign as he aims to secure a majority in the forthcoming general election on Sunday.
Ishiba has referred to Japan's reducing birth rate as a "quiet emergency," a situation particularly evident in locales like Ichinono, a pretty village with fewer than 60 inhabitants.
"If we simply allow the village to remain as it is, vanishing away is all that awaits us," conveyed Ichiro Sawayama, a 74-year-old head of the local governing body.
While many developed nations face up to a similar demographic crisis, Japan, with its comparatively low relocation rates, possesses the world's 2nd oldest population, following Monaco.
In Ichinono, silence embraces the surroundings, where residents have crafted stuffed dummies to simulate a lively community.
Some puppets were swinging on swings, while others transport carts filled with firewood, smiling mysteriously at passersby.
"We’re probably surmounted by puppets," said Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, to AFP.
Once, rice harvesting and sake brewing sustained Ichinono, and families regularly welcomed children, as Yamazaki remembered.
However, fearing their children might struggle to find it difficult if they remained in such a remote area, families encouraged them to attend universities in urban areas.
"And so they left, never to return, finding jobs elsewhere. Now we're facing the consequences," she cried.