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This photo taken on October 21, 2024 shows a puppet on a bike in the village of Ichinono, one of the “puppet villages” in Japan created to ease the lonesome feelings due to depopulation, in the city of Tamba-Sasayama, Hyogo Prefecture. Many developed nations are facing a demographic timebomb, but Japan, which allows relatively low levels of immigration, already has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco. Silence pervades the air in Ichinono, where residents have handcrafted stuffed mannequins to create a semblance of a bustling society. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)
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