NANMOKU, Japan — This village sits along a river running through the mountains, surrounded by forests of cedar and bamboo. The once-thriving hamlet was known for its silk, timber and a starchy root ...

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 ...

Entrepreneurial young Japanese people are trying to reinvigorate Japan's most aged village — where more than two thirds of residents are over 65 — and keep it from vanishing from the map. Villages ...

This village sits along a river running through the mountains, surrounded by forests of cedar and bamboo. The once-thriving hamlet was known for its silk, timber and a starchy root called konjac.

A dwindling Japanese village has found a creative way to combat loneliness amid rural depopulation and declining birth rates. Ichinono, a community of fewer than 60 people north of Osaka, has been ...

Dotting a remote village in western Japan, a population of life-sized dolls outnumber actual humans 10 to one, a result of depopulation that has affected areas throughout the Prefectures. To help ...