Lonely Deaths and Demogrpahics in Japan

From April 6 Japan: 'Lonely Deaths' Rise Among Unemployed, Elderly

"In Japan, kodokushi, a phenomenon first described in the 1980s, has become hauntingly common. In 2008 in Tokyo, more than 2,200 people over 65 died lonely deaths, according to statistics from the city's Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health. The deaths most often involve men in their 50s and the nation's rapidly increasingly elderly population. Today, 1 in 5 Japanese is over 65; by 2030 it will be 1 in 3. With senior citizens increasingly living away from family and a nationwide shortage of nursing homes, many are now living alone. "There is a kind of myth that older people in Japan are living in three-generational families, but that's not so anymore," says Takako Sodei, a gerontologist with Ochanomizu University in Tokyo. (See pictures of Japan in the 1980s and today.)"

Japan's low birth rate poses demographic dilemma

Tokyo doesn't have an official one-child policy like the one the Chinese government has tried to implement, but you'd never guess that by looking at the average family size here in the capital. This lost generation, he said, is now reaching the 35-44 peak age range for consumption. "Although child allowance appears on the surface to be about children, upon closer examination it seems more like assistance for this generation," Kitano said. And the good news about rising average life spans here is bad news for demographic planning, as few workers support more and more older folks. But the ratio of the dependent population -- the sum of the elderly and young population, divided by the working-age population -- was 55.2% in 2008, according to the Statistics Bureau. The proportion of elderly in the total population has remained above that of the younger age group since 1997."

Men and women are more then just their procreative abilities, yet when families become null and void as a virtue initially we don't see the problem but in time it becomes evident.