JAPAN-SOCIAL-AGEING

This picture taken on March 16, 2019 shows local resident Tsukimi Ayano checking a life-size doll displayed at an elementary school, which closed seven years ago as there was no one left to teach, in the tiny village of Nagoro in western Japan. - In the tiny village of Nagoro, deep in the mountains of western Japan, the wind howls down a deserted street with not a living soul to be seen. But yet the street appears busy, dotted with life-sized dolls that outnumber humans 10 to one, the product of a one-woman bid to counter the emptiness and loneliness felt in Nagoro, like many Japanese villages decimated by depopulation. - TO GO WITH AFP STORY JAPAN-SOCIAL-AGEING,FEATURE BY NATSUKO FUKUE (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY JAPAN-SOCIAL-AGEING,FEATURE BY NATSUKO FUKUE (Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)