Nearly 40,000 died home alone in Japan this year amid aging population crisis

During the first half of 2024, almost 40,000 people in Japan have died alone in their homes, the BBC reported citing the country’s National Police Agency.

Among the dead, nearly 4,000 individuals were not discovered until more than a month after their passing while 130 remained undiscovered for an entire year, the agency’s report revealed.

According to the United Nations, Japan is known for having the “world’s oldest population” and the police agency issued the report in hopes to draw attention to the increasing problem of a large portion this population living and dying in isolation.

The data shows that a total of 37,227 people living alone were found dead at home, with those aged 65 and over accounting for more than 70%.

Meanwhile, an estimated 40% of people who died alone at home were found within a day and nearly 3,939 bodies were discovered over a month after death.

Additionally, 130 deaths went unnoticed for at least a year before discovery.

Accounting for 7,498 of the bodies found, the dataset’s largest group belonged to 85-year-olds and above, followed by 75-79-year-olds at 5,920. People aged between 70 and 74 accounted for 5,635 of the bodies found.

By 2050, Japan is expected to have 10.8 million elderly citizens living alone and 23.3 million single-person households, the Japanese National Institute of Population and Social Security Research said earlier this year.

The East Asian country’s aging problem has led to issues of loneliness and isolation, prompting its government to introduce a bill aimed at addressing these concerns.

Last year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan’s declining birth rate may jeopardise the functioning of its society.

Additionally, some neighbouring countries are facing similar demographic challenges.

In 2022, China’s population fell for the first time since 1961, while South Korea has repeatedly reported the lowest fertility rate in the world.