‘Lonely deaths’ among Japan’s elderly surge amid calls to curb social isolation, learn from Okinawans
- A total of 17,034 individuals aged 65 or older in Japan died alone in the first three months of the year, according to a new report
- To tackle the problem, one expert suggests learning from Okinawa where regular social events are held to foster community interaction
Rapid changes in Japanese society, particularly the evolving family unit, have not been countered by the creation of networks to support the rise in the number of elderly individuals who have to fend for themselves, analysts say.
Masataka Nakagawa, a senior researcher with the government-run National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, said there were three main reasons for the high number of kodokushi, or lonely deaths, in Japan.
“There have been big changes in living arrangements within Japanese families,” he told This Week in Asia. “We used to have multiple generations of the family all living together in the past, but that is no longer the case as children tend to move away from their parents for work reasons.
“On top of that, the marriage rate has been decreasing for some years and that means there are many single people, even among the elderly now,” he said.
The third factor was the longer average life expectancy, leading to one half of elderly couples – usually women – living alone, Nakagawa said.