In this tiny Japan village, scarecrows outnumber humans

Creepy or cool?

In recent decades, the population of Nagoro, a village in southwestern Japan, has dwindled to just 35 people.

Its scarecrow population, by comparison, is booming.

There are now about 150 life-sized dolls occupying the town’s empty buildings and abandoned bus stops. In Nagoro’s school, which shut down in 2012 after its last two students graduated, scarecrows fill the desks, staring attentively at their scarecrow teacher at the front of the class.

Tsukimi Ayano, 65, made every single one of them.

She told NBC News that she made her first scarecrow — in the likeness of her father, to honour him after his death — about 13 years ago. Since then, she’s been creating the dolls to help bring back memories in the shrinking town.

She even made one in the likeness of herself.

She now makes the scarecrows to order, trying to capture the likeness of individuals who have left town or died.

Ayano estimates she’s made more than 350 of the scarecrows over the years, but many have had to be replaced because of the weather wreaking havoc on the newspaper- and cloth-stuffed townspeople.

Every morning, she visits the scarecrows throughout the village, making repairs and adjustments.

Ayano plans to continue making scarecrows for as long as she can.

"I enjoy it," she told NBC News, adding that her goal is to “make them more life-like, so when people look at them they have to look twice and say: ‘Oh, that wasn’t a person!’”

Ayano’s scarecrows are starting to help the dwindling village. Guarding the road to the Nagoro, two scarecrows stand next to a sign directing tourists to the “scarecrow village.”