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 ...

A Japanese village struggling with a low population created life-sized dolls to mimic the feeling of a bustling society. The hamlet of Ichinono, which has less than 60 residents and only one child, is ...

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 ...

Villages across Japan's countryside are facing extinction as the population ages and shrinks. NPR's Anthony Kuhn visited Japan's most aged village, where most residents are over age 65. He reports on ...

Shiroki Mitsunari does not remember seeing bears in the picturesque Japanese mountain village of Shirakawa when he was a ...

With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support ...

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 ...

Today, it is Japan's most aged village, with two-thirds of residents over age 65. Many of the settlement's buildings are dilapidated or abandoned, and there's little new construction. Nanmoku's ...