00:00This is grim work, but someone's got to do it.
00:10Takuya Shiota has come to clean up a lifetime of possessions after the elderly resident
00:15in this apartment died.
00:17With no friends or family, the occupant was undiscovered for three weeks until her rent
00:23went unpaid.
00:26The deceased passed away here and the smell was quite strong because of the fluids that
00:30came out of her body.
00:32So we cut out all hair and disinfected it.
00:36Japan's suffering from a lonely deaths crisis.
00:38For the first time, the government has crunched the numbers.
00:42It's now expected some 68,000 people will die alone this year and left undiscovered
00:48for a prolonged period.
00:51It's increasing considerably.
00:53We do roughly more than 100 cases a year.
00:56Japan is getting older.
00:58Its population is shrinking.
01:00Once bustling suburbs and villages are emptying and elderly people are left vulnerable.
01:07It was 20 years ago when Dr Osamu Yamanaka opened a clinic in one of Yokohama's poorest
01:13suburbs.
01:15Back then, four people a day were dying at home alone.
01:18Many undiscovered for long periods.
01:21Some were skeletal if no one found them.
01:23I was young and I thought it was unforgivable.
01:26Dr Yamanaka pioneered home care.
01:30There aren't many people who are willing to deal with people from the lowest strata
01:33of society, but he is willing to come to me.
01:37I appreciate it.
01:39If I wasn't doing it, there would be an awful lot of lonely deaths.
01:44Services like this are now much more common across Japan, but there will always be limitations.
01:49Dr Yamanaka says communities need to fill the gap.
01:54If they do not socialise with their neighbours, they will end up with a solitary death.
01:58It's very difficult to prevent it.
02:07It's a challenge Yoshiko Sato has accepted.
02:10At her massive apartment complex on Tokyo's outskirts, there are almost 400 elderly residents
02:16living alone.
02:17Today, she's visiting one of them.
02:19Yoshiko Sato set up a zero lonely deaths program two decades ago.
02:26Every year, four or five people died alone.
02:29It was like that constantly.
02:31It established a network of volunteers that check up on local residents, leading to a
02:36remarkable improvement in the quality of life.
02:40She usually visits me about once a week.
02:43I look forward to cooking with the vegetables she brings me.
02:46It's what makes my life worth living.
02:49Yoshiko's mission of zero lonely deaths was soon achieved.
02:53After five years, the number of lonely deaths became zero for the first time.
02:59But she worries about the future.
03:04A future where people are becoming more withdrawn from their community.
03:09A community must be built by everyone, but that's not possible in Japan at the moment.
03:14People are becoming selfish.
03:16If everyone was more considerate of the people around them or looked after them, there would
03:20definitely be no more lonely deaths.
03:23This is a crisis that's only going to get worse.
03:27Japan has the world's oldest society with one in ten people aged over 80.
03:32And as the country continues to grow old, there's increasing pressure on the government
03:36to do more to care for the vulnerable in life and in death.
03:42For those on the front line, government support for community groups is a priority.
03:48There is data that loneliness is the biggest factor in shortening life expectancy.
03:52In Japan, there's a lack of community ties.
03:55I feel it's very common.
03:58A need to keep connections until the inevitable end.
Comments