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Missing centenarians cause angst in aging Japan

15 Comments
By Shino Yuasa

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15 Comments
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Instead of centenarians, police are going to find hundreds of relatives scamming Grandpa's or Grandma's pension checks.

I find it impossible to believe that nobody realized that Sogen guy was dead for 32 years. I can understand one or two years, but 32?!

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So, by reading between the lines, we're to assume that this is all actually a good thing.

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Crime, alcoholism and suicide among the elderly are rising because of low incomes, unstable employment and poor living conditions

The elderly shouldn't be worried about 'unstable employment' especially if they're over 100. The low incomes are a responsibility of the government pension system. Living conditions, well, I've seen occupied 'homes' in Japan that would qualify as a slum in Thailand or Malaysia.

Lack of human contact (loneliness) might also be contributing to alcoholism and suicide - one reason so many older people go to the doctor everyday - to socialize. Once retired, what can older Japanese people do (especially the men who never had a life except for work.)?

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"Japan has 40,399 people aged 100 or older, according to last year’s annual health ministry report marking Respect for the Aged Day, a national holiday on Sept 21—though that total now may be a few hundred lower."

Ha! That total is now more likely to be thousands lower. This is truly a national disgrace - local governments, families, and the Health Ministry should all be ashamed of themselves!

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Perhaps the government needs to start doing checks on these people who claim pensions? Either go and check in at city hall/ward office or have someone do a home/hospital visit.

As for the old folks worried about being left to die, perhaps if they were nicer to their families they wouldn't be left alone to wither and die?

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Already here in Kobe they've found shiboutodoke for a few. What happened is that some people who died 25 years ago or so weren't added to the system when it became computerized.

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Yeah, if only some of these old people were nice to deal with but most of the time they are simply just...better the other way of.

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goodbye fabled stats...

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Japan has 40,399 people aged 100 or older, according to last year’s annual health ministry report.

How many of them are dead in the other room while their family members collect on their pensions???

I think this count is off because the office that checks on these people dont really thoroughly check at all. That is why they are missing centurions who cant be found.

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That is why they are missing centurions who cant be found

LOL! "Centurions" cannot be found because they haven't been around for centuries! A centurion is the commander of a group of 100 in the Roman army. Perhaps you were referring to a "centenarian."

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Does this even weigh on the consciences of people? You'd expect that the first thing people would do after reading this is to check up on their parents, hopefully..

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Angst? I think 'disgust' and 'embarrassment' would be more appropriate. Between this scandal, that fool Ozawa and all the Yak gambling in Sumo nobody will ever believe anything that comes out of Japan anymore. Land of the rising sun??? Land of the rising embarrassment is more like it.

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How dare these old people cause the rest of Japan angst!

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This is a good example of why we Japanese need to trash the Family Registry System and develop a reliable ID and something like the Social Security number system, so people can actually prove identity and not who their father is/was.

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ikkochan>>> Good luck for that to happen. With all of these corrupt politicians in office, the chances of that to happen is very slim.

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