This week, I’ve been reading Alone in Japan: a disturbing yet strangely beautiful meditation on Japan’s declining population, written by Tom Feiling and due out at the end of this month.
Great article Chris and looking forward to the book. Every time my wife and I visit her home town in rural Nagano there are more shops shut, less people in the town and a general decline in amenities. The local government has tried lots of different things to promote the town but it can't compete with the surrounding cities as a place to live. I have no idea what the answer is. Let's hope services that do exist for people still in the town don't disappear completely. There are alot of elderly people there who live alone.
That's a very good question Chris. There is a day centre in the town run by the local government but as the number of people using the centre increases I wonder how far the resources can be stretched. My wife's parents lived with the eldest son's family before they passed away but that tradition is disappearing. Fewer children, the financial burden, children moving away for work. I saw your stats on the aging population, it's scary. I wish I had answer but I don't.
Thanks for your reply, Steve. I think this feeling of hopelessness is shared by quite a few people who love Japan, isn't it. I didn't hear PM Takaichi say much about it on the campaign trail, in the recent election, but perhaps if hers ends up being a long and productive premiership then there may be progress (though I confess that I don't know what that ought to look like...).
Hi Steve, thank you for this. It's so hard, isn't it, to imagine whether Japan will be able to pull off this rebalancing between city and countryside. Now and again I hear about businesses setting themselves up in converted rural homes, and/or letting their employees work from home in the countryside. But for people who need schools for their children, or who want convenience and interesting things happening around them, the hollowing-out of rural towns is so hard to reverse.
Every time I come across a story about aging and loneliness in Japan I'm reminded of Ozu's remark that he was portraying the dissolution of the Japanese family in his postwar films. He was no traditionalist die-hard, as interested in the modern as the ancient and it wasn't reactionary even then, just questioning. Now it seems very far-sighted.
When I saw Chieko Baisho in Plan 75 (2022) I even thought the film might have been titled "The Last Days of Noriko". The Noriko most people think of would have been about 100, not 75 of course, but for me the link was there.
I hope Japan finds a way forward. I shall look out the book.
I am very glad I watched Plan 75 - and I'm wholly alone, no family anywhere, out in the country and nearly 73.
I found it a quietly absorbing film that sets out to make us think without melodrama or bullying.
We all react differently, but for me it was not the stressful form of story telling that deliberately jerks your emotions one way and another from extreme tension to release and back again. As someone who is stressed by a tennis match these days, I think I'm a good test case, though as I say we are all different. It certainly deals with tragic matters but I wouldn't call the overall tone tragic.
I can't make more of a case without spoilers. Chieko Baisho is, not unexpectedly, excellent.
Thank you for this thoughtful read, I split my life between Tokyo & the mountains & it’s such an interesting contrast of both places being community & loneliness • Tokyo I feel one can feel the extreme sting of loneliness especially when surrounded by millions of people & if you feel disconnected - but you can also find the individuals that you instantly bond with • the mountains it’s almost like, for some the loneliness - to have a smaller circle of peers is intentional as people are burnt out by city life & want nature — yet because the community is smaller & less conbinis - there is much more camaraderie & the push for gatherings. However it’s heartbreaking & frustrating the lack of help & support from local governments & the amount of paperwork to get anything approved - to try & improve/change things in a more rural setting that would perhaps help abandoned buildings have new life & in turn start to revitalise the areas
Thank you so much for your comment. A smaller circle of peers, in the mountains, sounds potentially really wonderful. I hope that local government will begin to do more, though. People really need their support.
Loved the article. It sounds like a doom and gloom story, and if you're elderly in Japan, it probably is. For me, this reading brings me hope. Here are just a couple of phrases worth pointing out:
"People no longer feel that they are being propelled into the future." And "running their lives according to the wishes of others simply won’t pay off anymore. The old social contract is broken, and it’s not coming back."
Surprise isn't the proper reaction to what's happening in Japan. An isolated island nation in the middle of the pacific turned out to be a revealing experiment in consumer capitalism. Over the last 80 years, the model was imported and implemented with more success than anywhere else in the world. The results are in: their society is slowing killing itself.
We should see Japan as example of the urgency for creating a new social contract. One where we're not by force "propelled into the future" and where we're given the chance to dream up our own wishes:
Driving along the coast and the sheer amount of abandoned fishing gear. Old warehouses and houses, falling apart. It was weird in contrast to how beautiful Aomori is.
:that there is still enough energy and willpower in Japan for its loneliness crisis to be successfully tackled and perhaps become a guide for countries like the UK, which are heading slowly but surely in the same direction."... This is true.
A couple of years ago I saw a short documentary about the rising elderly population in Japan and how it’s impacting their economy.
The doc highlighted something that my mind still highlights anytime I hear the social climate we’re in in regard to isolation, particularly when we speak of my generation Z :
One farmer had a company in Japan was looking to sell his company as he wanted to retire— more so because of age than work— he was continuously lowering the price, offering deals but eventually he decided to give his company away for… FREE.
Zero cost, no payment and he STILL had trouble finding people that were able to take on the work, responsibilities and commitments. He simply could not find anyone below the age of 70.. That blew my head backwards.
He finally found someone… But he was 55+ years of age. That was the youngest candidate he got in the pool of suitable candidates.
Socially they’re eroding in more ways than one with so many people opting out of interaction in lieu of tech which is far easier and less worrisome; especially in a culture dictated by shame. You have way less opportunities to mess up or create mistakes behind a screen than in person.
Stephen J. Shaw has a new documentary and in that one it’s pinpointing exactly what you’re talking about : isolation & loneliness 🟰suicide. In part of the doc he visited a block of flats and just sometime before he came to film, a lady threw herself from her balcony due to no human contact..
That’s absolutely devastating.
What you see a lot is the avoidance (or at least a reluctance to have an in depth analysis without biases) of discussing the following topic : gender dynamics and relationships.
I hope and pray that Japan will recover as well as serve as an example to the rest of the world : we are social beings and if we do not act now, this will soon be devastating.
We’re speaking about Japan here but South Korea is in even more dire circumstances and that’s.. well I just don’t know what to say.
But I digress. I cannot imagine the dating culture there, the suppression of sexuality and expression, not in a barbaric or pornography sense, but in a ‘ I like women or I like men’ vice versa for same sex couples is not encouraged there whatsoever and I think it definitely has ties to the western feminism ideology and how the gender wars are in real time creating a wedge in between men and women.
Absolutely other factors at play but they’re not the only ones.
I’m not sure where I read this or if it was correct but this problem has been simmering for a long, long time. Perhaps since the late 90’s but we’re just catching up now.
Correct me if I’m wrong but, when people in Japan see tiny humans, they absolutely adore them due to their scarcity and almost all want to pick them up..?
Thank you so much for this. I will have a look at the Shaw documentary.
It’s sad to hear these stories, and I keep hearing more of them. Writing now, in the aftermath of the Takaichi landslide, I wonder whether she and her party might be able to do something. But then again, Abe Shinzo had long years as PM and it’s not clear that anything dramatic happened as a result.
I ought to look into how South Korea is approaching this. Thank you for pointing out the parallel.
The convenience store observation is brilliant, how infrastructure designed for efficiency can accidentally enable isolation. That seeds-being-sown metaphor for the timing is pretty apt too, 50 years is exactly the lag you'd expect between demographic shifts and their visible consequences. I visited rural Shikoku a few years ago and the emptiness was striking, but nobody seemed panicked, just quietly adapting.
As if to compound the sense of innovation actually enabling isolation, one of the people mentioned in the book is portrayed as just needing a convenience store nearby plus an internet connection at home. That's pretty much his life.
Japan obviously still has a huge amount going for it, but those stories are just so sad.
I really liked this review and I thank you for writing it. I am looking for reading that book. I wish I could do something to help this situation. It makes me sad that it's happening.
I couldn't agree more. Sometimes I feel that my only contribution has been to take my three children (whose mother is Japanese) out of the country, thereby making things very slightly worse...
Great article Chris and looking forward to the book. Every time my wife and I visit her home town in rural Nagano there are more shops shut, less people in the town and a general decline in amenities. The local government has tried lots of different things to promote the town but it can't compete with the surrounding cities as a place to live. I have no idea what the answer is. Let's hope services that do exist for people still in the town don't disappear completely. There are alot of elderly people there who live alone.
A question, if you don't mind. What does your wife and her family think needs to happen locally, for things to get better?
That's a very good question Chris. There is a day centre in the town run by the local government but as the number of people using the centre increases I wonder how far the resources can be stretched. My wife's parents lived with the eldest son's family before they passed away but that tradition is disappearing. Fewer children, the financial burden, children moving away for work. I saw your stats on the aging population, it's scary. I wish I had answer but I don't.
Thanks for your reply, Steve. I think this feeling of hopelessness is shared by quite a few people who love Japan, isn't it. I didn't hear PM Takaichi say much about it on the campaign trail, in the recent election, but perhaps if hers ends up being a long and productive premiership then there may be progress (though I confess that I don't know what that ought to look like...).
Hi Steve, thank you for this. It's so hard, isn't it, to imagine whether Japan will be able to pull off this rebalancing between city and countryside. Now and again I hear about businesses setting themselves up in converted rural homes, and/or letting their employees work from home in the countryside. But for people who need schools for their children, or who want convenience and interesting things happening around them, the hollowing-out of rural towns is so hard to reverse.
Every time I come across a story about aging and loneliness in Japan I'm reminded of Ozu's remark that he was portraying the dissolution of the Japanese family in his postwar films. He was no traditionalist die-hard, as interested in the modern as the ancient and it wasn't reactionary even then, just questioning. Now it seems very far-sighted.
When I saw Chieko Baisho in Plan 75 (2022) I even thought the film might have been titled "The Last Days of Noriko". The Noriko most people think of would have been about 100, not 75 of course, but for me the link was there.
I hope Japan finds a way forward. I shall look out the book.
Thank you, Lynne, for your comment. Great point about Ozu - it reminds us how far back some elements of this loneliness crisis go.
I haven't dared watch Plan 75 yet. It sounds simply tragic, from what I've read - but worth a look, would you say...?
Chris, thanks for the kind response.
I am very glad I watched Plan 75 - and I'm wholly alone, no family anywhere, out in the country and nearly 73.
I found it a quietly absorbing film that sets out to make us think without melodrama or bullying.
We all react differently, but for me it was not the stressful form of story telling that deliberately jerks your emotions one way and another from extreme tension to release and back again. As someone who is stressed by a tennis match these days, I think I'm a good test case, though as I say we are all different. It certainly deals with tragic matters but I wouldn't call the overall tone tragic.
I can't make more of a case without spoilers. Chieko Baisho is, not unexpectedly, excellent.
Thank you, Lynne. ‘Quietly absorbing’ sounds great. I’ll make sure I sit down and watch it asap. All the best to you.
Thank you for this thoughtful read, I split my life between Tokyo & the mountains & it’s such an interesting contrast of both places being community & loneliness • Tokyo I feel one can feel the extreme sting of loneliness especially when surrounded by millions of people & if you feel disconnected - but you can also find the individuals that you instantly bond with • the mountains it’s almost like, for some the loneliness - to have a smaller circle of peers is intentional as people are burnt out by city life & want nature — yet because the community is smaller & less conbinis - there is much more camaraderie & the push for gatherings. However it’s heartbreaking & frustrating the lack of help & support from local governments & the amount of paperwork to get anything approved - to try & improve/change things in a more rural setting that would perhaps help abandoned buildings have new life & in turn start to revitalise the areas
Thank you so much for your comment. A smaller circle of peers, in the mountains, sounds potentially really wonderful. I hope that local government will begin to do more, though. People really need their support.
Loved the article. It sounds like a doom and gloom story, and if you're elderly in Japan, it probably is. For me, this reading brings me hope. Here are just a couple of phrases worth pointing out:
"People no longer feel that they are being propelled into the future." And "running their lives according to the wishes of others simply won’t pay off anymore. The old social contract is broken, and it’s not coming back."
Surprise isn't the proper reaction to what's happening in Japan. An isolated island nation in the middle of the pacific turned out to be a revealing experiment in consumer capitalism. Over the last 80 years, the model was imported and implemented with more success than anywhere else in the world. The results are in: their society is slowing killing itself.
We should see Japan as example of the urgency for creating a new social contract. One where we're not by force "propelled into the future" and where we're given the chance to dream up our own wishes:
https://writerbytechnicality.substack.com/p/oneiric-labor?r=3anz55
My wife is from Aomori. Driving around there feels bleak sometimes.
Thank you for your comment. If you have a chance at some point, I’d love to hear a bit more about what you’re seeing up there.
Driving along the coast and the sheer amount of abandoned fishing gear. Old warehouses and houses, falling apart. It was weird in contrast to how beautiful Aomori is.
So sad - maybe these parts of Japan are now into a long-term return to nature. Thank you for sharing. Much appreciated.
:that there is still enough energy and willpower in Japan for its loneliness crisis to be successfully tackled and perhaps become a guide for countries like the UK, which are heading slowly but surely in the same direction."... This is true.
A couple of years ago I saw a short documentary about the rising elderly population in Japan and how it’s impacting their economy.
The doc highlighted something that my mind still highlights anytime I hear the social climate we’re in in regard to isolation, particularly when we speak of my generation Z :
One farmer had a company in Japan was looking to sell his company as he wanted to retire— more so because of age than work— he was continuously lowering the price, offering deals but eventually he decided to give his company away for… FREE.
Zero cost, no payment and he STILL had trouble finding people that were able to take on the work, responsibilities and commitments. He simply could not find anyone below the age of 70.. That blew my head backwards.
He finally found someone… But he was 55+ years of age. That was the youngest candidate he got in the pool of suitable candidates.
Socially they’re eroding in more ways than one with so many people opting out of interaction in lieu of tech which is far easier and less worrisome; especially in a culture dictated by shame. You have way less opportunities to mess up or create mistakes behind a screen than in person.
Stephen J. Shaw has a new documentary and in that one it’s pinpointing exactly what you’re talking about : isolation & loneliness 🟰suicide. In part of the doc he visited a block of flats and just sometime before he came to film, a lady threw herself from her balcony due to no human contact..
That’s absolutely devastating.
What you see a lot is the avoidance (or at least a reluctance to have an in depth analysis without biases) of discussing the following topic : gender dynamics and relationships.
I hope and pray that Japan will recover as well as serve as an example to the rest of the world : we are social beings and if we do not act now, this will soon be devastating.
We’re speaking about Japan here but South Korea is in even more dire circumstances and that’s.. well I just don’t know what to say.
But I digress. I cannot imagine the dating culture there, the suppression of sexuality and expression, not in a barbaric or pornography sense, but in a ‘ I like women or I like men’ vice versa for same sex couples is not encouraged there whatsoever and I think it definitely has ties to the western feminism ideology and how the gender wars are in real time creating a wedge in between men and women.
Absolutely other factors at play but they’re not the only ones.
I’m not sure where I read this or if it was correct but this problem has been simmering for a long, long time. Perhaps since the late 90’s but we’re just catching up now.
Correct me if I’m wrong but, when people in Japan see tiny humans, they absolutely adore them due to their scarcity and almost all want to pick them up..?
Thank you so much for this. I will have a look at the Shaw documentary.
It’s sad to hear these stories, and I keep hearing more of them. Writing now, in the aftermath of the Takaichi landslide, I wonder whether she and her party might be able to do something. But then again, Abe Shinzo had long years as PM and it’s not clear that anything dramatic happened as a result.
I ought to look into how South Korea is approaching this. Thank you for pointing out the parallel.
The convenience store observation is brilliant, how infrastructure designed for efficiency can accidentally enable isolation. That seeds-being-sown metaphor for the timing is pretty apt too, 50 years is exactly the lag you'd expect between demographic shifts and their visible consequences. I visited rural Shikoku a few years ago and the emptiness was striking, but nobody seemed panicked, just quietly adapting.
As if to compound the sense of innovation actually enabling isolation, one of the people mentioned in the book is portrayed as just needing a convenience store nearby plus an internet connection at home. That's pretty much his life.
Japan obviously still has a huge amount going for it, but those stories are just so sad.
I really liked this review and I thank you for writing it. I am looking for reading that book. I wish I could do something to help this situation. It makes me sad that it's happening.
I couldn't agree more. Sometimes I feel that my only contribution has been to take my three children (whose mother is Japanese) out of the country, thereby making things very slightly worse...
The book is definitely worth a read.