Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 14 - 20 TOP3 [WELFARE]

Establish a society with no ‘solitary deaths’

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

A series of “deaths in solitude” have occurred recently in Hokkaido, Saitama, and Tokyo. The present social welfare programs are inadequate in supporting needy people.

A survey conducted by NLI Research Institute of Nippon Life Insurance Co. shows that the number of people living alone over 65 years old discovered dead reaches 15,600 a year. Something is wrong with the present society allowing some 40 elderly people a day to die alone.

In January, two sisters in their 40s living together died in Sapporo City in Hokkaido. After their parents died, the older sister lost her job because she had to care for her mentally-disabled younger sister full time. The older sister asked the city’s welfare office for public livelihood assistance, but was turned down, and the gas and electricity supplies were shut off due to non-payment of utility bills. The older sister died in the unheated apartment. The handicapped younger sister left behind could not call for help and she froze to death.

In February, a mother in her 40s and a 4-year-old boy were discovered dead in Tachikawa City in Tokyo. She had made frequent visits to several welfare offices in the city to apply for child-rearing allowances and to seek consultations for treatment of her chronic disease. However, she died of subarachnoid bleeding and her disabled child died from prostration. The city said, “Information sharing was inadequate” among the city’s institutions in dealing with this mother-child case.

The rapid increase in the poverty rate in Japan lies behind these cases. With job insecurity and cutbacks in public welfare programs increasing, it is becoming a tougher place to survive for people experiencing difficulties.

It is, of course, important to create a community network to be aware of the needs of neighbors and a system to relay distress to proper authorities. However, this is not enough.

Article 25 of the Constitution guarantees the people’s right to existence and obliges the government to improve public welfare services such as public livelihood assistance for the needy, care for senior citizens and disabled persons, and child-rearing assistance.

The urgent need is to establish a society in which these services exist and function well.