Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

roadsandkingdoms.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 174 posts

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#81

Post by IndianAstronaut »

DanBC wrote: post #79
irishcoffee wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more interesting question is: how has one traversed their entire life up to gainful employment and has no friends? This seems to be the more telling question.

There are several ways this can happen. A person can be at school and have a small number of friends. They then leave to go to college and lose those friends. They may make a few more friends at college. They then leave college and go to work - and again they lose their friends. Once you're at work it is hard for some people to male friends. This isn't a new or unusual point of view. We freqently hear about how lonel…

I do wonder what it is about the psychology of the 40 year old which makes it harder to form new friendships than say a 20 year old.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#82

Post by stickfigure »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #55

Sad but not uncommon I think. There was a guy who had a radio show that interviewed people with odd jobs. One such jobs was sort of like Toru's but was "special cleaning". Basically the guy started a business to clean up crime scenes. But found that most of his business came from landlords and others discovering deceased elders in their rooms. His suggestion was to crawl your grandparents from time to time to say hi.…

Cue 80s tv advertisement: "I've fallen but I can't get up"

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#83

Post by Johnythree »

tsotha wrote: post #76
reddytowns wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having children is the single most damaging thing to the environment a person will realistically do in their lifetime. Edit: why all the downvotes?

The way I see it the environment exists for people. Otherwise it has no use at all.

> the environment exists for people. Otherwise it has no use at all.

There's some disgusting and ignorant comments on this page, but this one takes the prize.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#84

Post by white-flame »

smil wrote: post #65
teek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan is incredibly stubborn and ignorant when it comes to addressing core social and psychological problems in their society. It isn't even recognized by most of the population so when people begin to complain of their own social issues or depression, people around them will slowly distance themselves from that person. As a result, most people will choose to hide their issues until it is unbearable. At the point the…

How has your country (you must be American) distinguished itself by doing these same core social and psychological issues? Or are Americans stubborn and ignorant?

America is home to thousands if not millions of volunteer groups, social change movements, debates and university studies on these sorts of situations. There isn't any sort of central government ministry dealing with stuff like this, but large independent swathes of society do try to work to establish where these problems come from, and how best to deal with them.

If anything, Americans would suffer more from fatigue by being bombarded with tons of national social issues to genuinely worry about and try to work against, rather than remaining in denial about them.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#85

Post by tsotha »

Johnythree wrote: post #83
tsotha wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it the environment exists for people. Otherwise it has no use at all.

> the environment exists for people. Otherwise it has no use at all. There's some disgusting and ignorant comments on this page, but this one takes the prize.

"Disgusting and ignorant"? Because I don't share your religion? That's pretty narrow minded.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#86

Post by intended »

jodrellblank wrote: post #75
mc32 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of the elderly living in homes/apartments by themselves, why not try to get them to live in elderly communities where they can engage with other elderpeople and have caregivers oversee their journey into eol. @timhon, I meant as a society, why not invest in elderly communities. Their pop is only going to get older, so it behooves them to address this option. As, a side note, there is a curious phenomenon of r…

Why not put untouchables in communities where they can engage with other untouchables, with software monitors which call robot helpers if there's a problem and they are dying of loneliness and despair unacceptably quickly. As long as it all happens to them , at a distance, and we're not having to get involved, eh?

That's basically segregation/caste systems and the foundation of ensuring that the rest of the population considers it "that groups problem." And a few short steps from "god what is their problem."

It's the opposite of what you want a group to do, which is to engage with the problem, internalize it and reduce barriers with other humans.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#87

Post by intended »

icebraining wrote: post #11
no1youknowz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand it either. Why is it frightening? I also didn't quite understand the family comment either. Whose family are you talking about? When you are born, you have your mom (and possibly Dad) around you. But as you grow older, Mom and Dad will pass away and you'll thus be alone. Unless you have kids, you'll die alone. Even if you do have kids, life happens. I know plenty of people who don't talk to their k…

I think some people have this fantasy, that they are on their death bed and there is 3 generations weeping around them. Sorry, but is this even true any more? Well, at least here in my Southern European country, it sure is. While there are many more elderly people dying alone than a couple of decades ago, I'd say most people I know still keep in close contact with their parents and grandparents, and they spend their…

No kidding. I'm willing to die alone, but that's because of a legion of horrible experiences. Without those I would be glad to be with people in are about and who care about me in turn.

I've regretted not being able to be there for the passing of one of my grandparents, and in general the entire family has and will be there at their last moments if they can make it. Not to mention doing what we can to ensure that they are taken care of and happy.

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#88

Post by [deleted] »

NhanH wrote: post #29
Spooky23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society is bizarre in innumerable ways. The number of people who I know that have contempt for children or people having children is repugnant to me. I think the disdain for the young and old is a sign of decadence.

Is it the contempt for children, or the contempt for people who believes that having children is the only way to live a life?

[deleted]

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#89

Post by [deleted] »

mc32 wrote: post #63
ChuckMcM wrote: post #55

Sad but not uncommon I think. There was a guy who had a radio show that interviewed people with odd jobs. One such jobs was sort of like Toru's but was "special cleaning". Basically the guy started a business to clean up crime scenes. But found that most of his business came from landlords and others discovering deceased elders in their rooms. His suggestion was to crawl your grandparents from time to time to say hi.…

This could be addressed with monitoring. We have more and more alternatives to choose from. Either from external sensors (movement within the house, toilet usage, phone activity, bank account activity; or, alternatively, from devices worn by the people. This would be a great use of the IoT.

[deleted]

Re: The Lonely End: in aging Japan, thousands die alone and unnoticed

#90

Post by cubancigar11 »

kentt wrote: post #14
civilian wrote: post #9

> His epiphany came when his current partner told him how she had lost her grandmother. Unlike Koremura’s loss, her grandmother had died alone—a kodokushi. It was seeing the deep regret in her, and accepting his own ennui, that made Koremura finally take action. He left his job as a stockbroker and set up his own removal company dedicated to the cleanup of kodokushi victims. He wanted to give something back to the ge…

I think this is very cultural. It's about honouring them in their death. Though I understand, that does sound off to my western mind.

I think the problem is present in all the countries where traditional marriage system has been broken. The only difference between USA and Japan will be that you can find old-homes very easily in USA. Japan being a very conservative country that prides itself over 'protecting' all the bad symptoms of its culture will not solve this problem because, ironically, they think that this is what makes them 'Japanese'.
Post reply on HN