A Ghost Town Where Life-Size Dolls Outnumber Residents

Life-size dolls are keeping the remote village of Nagoro, Japan, alive. Tsukimi Ayano tells AJ+ how the dolls are enlivening this ghost town. From video journalist Richard Atrero de Guzman in Japan.
Subscribe for more videos: / @ajplus
Like us on Facebook: / ajplusenglish
Download the AJ+ app at www.ajplus.net/
Follow us on Twitter: / ajplus

[@kecola]

I can only imagine what it's like when night time rolls around in a town full of dolls. That's nightmare fuel.

[@bestatnba2k]

They begin to move

[@zonilo1]

+nick jones They become Tsukumogami if you know Japanese folklore...

[@Fearsome4some74]

I was thinking the same thing 😲

[@bastiantabaresdenim3141]

They will move and... 👻👻👻

[@Dmitri300]

The Japanese always manage to think of something that is beyond creepy.

[@GroundhogDayisAWESOME]

Understatement of the millenium

[@kayleighbrown459]

I know I'm in the vast minority here but...I just think this is utterly adorable. It's like there's this little old trying to keep those that have departed alive by little dolls of them. Just so they won't be forgotten. I'm sorry, but that's freaking cute. It just is.

[@charmainepearlfundal1415]

It’s not creepy. It’s just a creation of a woman who wanted this Place to be lively as it was before.

[@MrPaperkit]

It must be terrifying getting lost and accident driving through this town

[@carmelastacruz2641]

Yes you need to drive through that place to go in another attraction VINE BRIDGE

[@NaderR]

I'm confused either they're so strong emotionally or mentally crazy.

[@ikywtootw4225]

Lol

[@meghashaw4256]

I think it's the second one.

[@kcthewanderer]

That's the saddest thing I've seen in a while. It reminds me of the nuclear test cities in Nevada. Just.....fuzzier. In another way, if the community is an organism (much like we, as humans, are communities of cells, viruses, bacteria, and possibly parasites), the dolls act as a form of scar tissue - novel, noticeable, a reminder of past events, and fading with time as each extracted member wounds the entity that remains. Now, the town bears its scars and reaps our collective need for the curious - a carnival act for us to pity and revel in its odd, beautiful survivorship.

[@CuppaGi]

Sounds like a plot point for an anime...

[@zonilo1]

This is good inspiration for a creepypasta/horror story here... Then again, knowing about how scary Japanese folklore can get where inanimate objects can actually be possessed by spirits and become Tsukumogami Yokai, hope those Dolls don't come to life and become as such but you never know....

[@SteelBallRun1890]

I would find this creepy if there was never any explanations for the dolls, but knowing they're made by one passionate woman who just wants her dying town to look lively again, I can't help but feel a sort of sadness but also wholesome feeling about it.

[@ashflint23]

How is this that creepy? I would visit there to see this beautiful village? I mean I can still sense the unsettling vibe of dolls just standing where they're at.

[@mahari893]

I thought to myself. "This must be in Japan" before the video I was right

[@fleducation001]

Ironically, the dolls bring people to the village that would otherwise be ignored by the rest of the world. That's one way of countering the loneliness of the village.

[@Lucy-ng7cw]

Ahh come on its not creepy

[@wekutemero5981]

30 residents and in the recent video that I watched it was 27 💔 It's really heartbreaking 💔

[@mlpsenpaii1023]

Darn such beautiful location and yet an creepy village :< if they didn't made the dolla I would Live there as well

[@remoney]

Scary and sad but beautiful. I want to visit.

[@lelupus]

I would gladly live there, just give easy access to Japan 😄

[@arwenen]

In a way, this is so heartbreakingly sad. She just made these dolls to replicate the once lively village and get more people to go there. She spent so much time making them.

[@Azubjourni]

That is so adorable. She doesnt want to feel loneliness. 😢

[@shinypinecone]

This gives me shivers. All I have to ask these people is Don't you shivaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeer? Don't you shivaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeer?

[@manabluerose]

This says a lot about how jobs and job opportunities are city focused, while smaller areas and villages get left behind. It's very sad. I find it much more sad than creepy. It's a big statement, whether she means to do it or not. Tokyo is over crowded enough

[@oolong2]

Gee.... Why wouldn't you want to live in a Stephen King movie?

[@killertheweebwarriors2685]

Just like I'm watching horror.

[@rdstr2786]

This is so Japan

[@ikywtootw4225]

Ghosttown and Haunted Love.

[@tammydavid]

Dolls are better dressed than me

[@dr.ing.salmanstmsc538]

The tourists and journalists everyday visit her apparently so no longer loneliness

[@cbernasol]

This is so creppy and scary😨😨

[@Creed12able1]

How come this Town never abandoned?

[@jillianmorrison6017]

This is creepy af

[@mandero6682]

I will for sure go there in my lifetime and make a vlog about it and upload it to KZbin I’m from California

[@cbernasol]

My mom said she will go here but exept me i want to go but im scared

[@anime4me224]

this reminds me of shiki

[@abby-a]

This is creepy

[@toothless2250]

It's like Canaan, If you've watched "Teen Wolf"

[@aliasahar4700]

Can we apply citizenship in Japan and stay at your village and become a farmer...? Heheh

[@jari2018]

I guess unimaginative leaders that cant go beyond borders and young that thinks they deserve better , same as in any place around the world , and maybe cowardness and fear.

[@lopezmt5]

Japan is dying. Massive negative birthrate. In Hiroshima you don’t see “dolls”, you now see small 6-7 car parking lots popping up on the lot sites of homes torn down after the last family member dies and there is no one to inherit the property or it’s sold to parking lot companies, because there are no new homes being built because aren’t enough people... You also see it in their world class universities, which back in the 1980’s only served native Japanese students (with rare exceptions of course). Today Japanese universities are recruiting massively overseas to bring in foreign students to keep the universities open. You also see it in television programs that have large numbers of foreigners who speak perfect Japanese hosting many TV programs or are the star actor or actress. Something almost unheard of 25 years ago.

[@kyjenk6404]

This is so sad

[@GroundhogDayisAWESOME]

Top5s brought me here. lulz ;-)

[@kingmarie7286]

Jinns will take over these dolls I wonder how creepy it'll be at night

[@ShadowBloxStudios]

Eerie

[@jhonpaulcabales8875]

nandito ba kayo dahil kay claro?

[@poeperdhe]

I expected tentacels japan..

[@mohammadjj]

Creepy as fuck! ... But I like it

[@firanurmino2173]

Imagine if immigrants start living there, then there will be people just that they're not japanese

[@angel-cf3qm]

Im here bc of tiktok

[@Jay-mc7vq]

fuck nah

[@PennyDreadful1]

Western tourists would just end up stealing them.

[@Beastkingzetta]

HEY JAPAN !!! LET MORE PEOPLE IN YOUR COUNTRY NOW !!! THEIR ARE NORTH AFRICA & SYRIA REFUGEE's LOOKING FOR A NEW HOME or CAMP SITE

[@Beastkingzetta]

BakaRamen 5000 MILES GIVE or TAKE

[@mahari893]

Beastkingzetta By land or sea? Also, how do you propose to send these refugees to Japan?

[@Beastkingzetta]

BakaRamen BY AIR PLANE

[@mahari893]

Beastkingzetta They would have to travel across the airspace of Syria and Iraq. If the refugees went to another country to fly to Japan, the cost would be tremendous.

[@Beastkingzetta]

***** LOL :]