At first glance, Nagoro looks like a village populated by people who have simply stopped moving. A farmer stands in a field. Someone waits at a bus stop. Children sit at classroom desks. Look closer, and the reason for the stillness becomes clear: they are all dolls, painstakingly made to resemble people who once lived there.
The village, in Tokushima Prefecture, once had more than 300 residents. Today, fewer than 30 people remain. Like many remote communities across Japan, Nagoro has been hollowed out by an ageing population, deaths and migration.
