Plenty of new people have been coming to the village of Nagoro. There’s just one problem. They aren’t real people. They’re scarecrows.

Only 35 people remain in the tiny Japanese town. Tsukimi Ayano is one of them. When she got lonely, she started making scarecrows. She propped them up all over the village.

"They bring back memories," Ms. Ayano said. The life-sized dolls are crowded into corners of her farmhouse. They perch on fences and trees. They huddle side-by-side at a produce stall. They “wait” at the bus stop. Now for every one person in Nagoro, there are three scarecrows.

Where have all the people gone? The answer isn’t easy. Most of the young people moved to the city for jobs. But even the city is running out of people.

Imagine if almost every kid you knew was an only child. That’s what life is becoming like in Japanese cities. The Japanese work long hours. They spend a long time driving to work, too. Living in Japan is expensive. In that atmosphere, it is hard to convince people to have more children. Besides that, Japan doesn’t allow people from other countries to move in. That’s a recipe for a lonely neighborhood!

The Bible says that “God sets the lonely in families.” (Psalm 68:6, NIV)

We can pray that God will heal loneliness in Japan.