They are found after months, sometimes a year. In the first half of 2024, the bodies of almost 40,000 lonely people who died in their homes were discovered in Japan, according to Japanese police. The vast majority of them are aged 65 and older. According to the UN, Japan currently has the oldest population in the world.
According to a report by the Japanese police agency, in the first half of 2024 Japan 37,227 people living alone were found dead in their homes, with more than 70% of them aged 65 and over.
It is estimated that about 40 percent of people who died alone at home were found the day after their death. The bodies of almost 4,000 people were found more than a month after their death, and 130 people died at least a year before their bodies were discovered.
Police hope their report will shed light on the country's growing problem of the huge number of elderly people living and dying alone. They will pass their findings on to a government task force investigating deaths of people without care.
In Japan, almost 40,000 people died alone (illustrative photo)Shutterstock
Disturbing statistics
UN reports that Japan currently has the oldest population in the world. Earlier this year, Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research announced that by 2050, the number of elderly people (aged 65 and over) living alone is expected to reach 10.8 million.
It is estimated that in the same year the total number of single-person households will reach 23.3 million.
Last year the Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated that Japan is on the brink of being unable to function normally as a society due to falling birth rates. In April of this year, the Japanese government introduced a bill aimed at addressing the country's decades-long problem of loneliness and isolation, which is partly caused by an aging population.
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