There is a fact in Japan more terrible than the number of elderly people who are dying alone. How long it takes to find them

Over the past year we have heard many times about the same problem that Japan, among others, is facing. The country has aged so much that schools are closing and local diaper companies are going to focus on adult sizes. They are also offering money to combat the depopulation of areas and the appearance of empty houses is multiplying every month. However, of all the data that dramatizes the problem, none like the one that has just been revealed.

Dying alone. Japan has long grappled with what are known as “lonely deaths,” where people living without a support network die and remain undiscovered for extended periods. This year, the Japanese government revealed its first official tally of lonely deaths in the first six months. The figure: 28,330 elderly people.

However, as we said, there is something much more terrible that indicates the level of loneliness of these people. This data reveals the number of elderly people who died and took a long time to find them, nobody “claimed” them. According to the National Police Agency, the authorities It took two weeks or more to recognize the death in 4,913 cases, or 17.3%, according to data from the agency to understand the situation of the problem of loneliness and isolation, which the government is working to address.

The most infamous case. The “lonely deaths” became a concern for the population following a case that occurred two decades ago in the country. The landlord and the public services were automatically deducting from the bank account of an elderly man, and when it finally ran out, the authorities were alarmed and began to investigate. The man was discovered three years after his death.

Among the current cases, the media has recently reported on the case of an elderly woman. She lived in a house and had been dead on the floor for more than three weeks. The occupant, aged around 70, was discovered when her landlord tried to claim the unpaid rent. She had no relatives or friends to watch over her.

More data. In the first half of 2024, police nationwide handled a total of 102,965 bodies, including those left by suicide. Of these, 37,227 were people who lived alone and died at home. Those aged 65 or older accounted for 76.1% of the cases, while 473 were people aged between 20 and 30 and 71 were cases whose identity could not be determined.

In 39.7% of cases, the police confirmed the death on the same day or the next day. In 19.8% of cases, the delay was two to three days, in 12.5%, four to seven days, in 8.8%, eight to 14 days, and in 19.3%, at least 15 days. In 2.7% of cases, at least 91 days were required.

Perspectives. The government estimates that, given current figures, Nearly 70,000 Japanese will die alone this yearand it looks like it’s a crisis that’s only going to get worse: Japan has the oldest society in the world, with more than one in ten people over 80 years old.

Loneliness is nothing new. In fact, a few years ago a Ministry of Loneliness was created after the nation saw how suicide cases had skyrocketed in 2020 after several years of decline. For a country where 15% of its inhabitants say they have no social relationships outside the family (the highest rate in the OECD), the lockdowns and isolation of the pandemic had taken their toll on collective mental health. That, together with low birth rates and increased life expectancy, has created a breeding ground whose ultimate victims are the elderly.

What’s more, According to studies15% of older men in Japan who live alone have less than one conversation every two weeks, and the same goes for 8.4% of young and middle-aged single men. On a human level, we are talking about the quietest country on Earth. There are even elderly people who seek prison time to avoid being alone (and poor).

Help. This week, ABC reported: Across Japan, elderly residents with health problems may be eligible for varying levels of home care, but the country’s health services say they can only do “so much” to address the dilemma of lonely dying.

They refer to many cases where, sometimes, People don’t know how to ask for helpothers have chosen to isolate themselves from family and society in general. That is why associations have been created in the country such as Zero Lonely Deaths who fight against this problem. They are community services where A group of volunteers perform routine checks to the elderly residents of the neighborhood. If they see something suspicious (no electricity, no noise, no one leaving on time…), they contact the authorities to alert them.

Ultimately, Japan faces a demographic challenge of enormous proportions, and the lonely deaths of all these elderly people is a sign of the long road ahead.

Image | Timelessmoon, Kerosene

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