Abandoned Japanese village home to live-sized dolls

A 64-year-old woman in Japan is credited with populating an abandoned village - but not in the way you'd expect.

Over the years, people have slowly left the village of Nagoro on Shikoku Island. There are only a few dozen people left, but thanks to one woman's craftiness, she's been able to populate the small island with a division of life-sized dolls.

The handmade dolls are based on the people who have left - but their life spans are considerably shorter as each one only lasts three years.

Filmmaker Fritz Schumann featured the woman's ambitious art project in a documentary called "The Valley Of Dolls."

She says she's made roughly 350 dolls since she started more than a decade ago.

But that's not the only town where dolls outnumber people.

More than 23,000 dolls were displayed at an annualfestival in Japan's Chiba Prefecture - which is home to just 20,000 people.