1w ago

Japan's loneliness epidemic is so bad that elderly women are committing crimes to find friends and health care in prison

fortune.com Japan's loneliness epidemic is leading elderly women to choose prison

Japan’s largest women’s prison has become home to a growing number of seniors.

Summary

Japan faces a growing crisis as elderly women increasingly commit minor crimes to secure imprisonment, where they find stability, companionship, meals, and healthcare.

Between 2003 and 2022, the number of female prisoners aged 65+ quadrupled. Many, like 81-year-old Akiyo, cite poverty, loneliness, and abandonment as reasons for resorting to crime.

Over 80% of elderly female inmates are jailed for theft.

Japan’s government is introducing programs to support elderly reintegration and reduce repeat offenses, but gaps in caregiving, housing, and healthcare make prison a refuge for many.

World News @lemmy.ca

john89 @lemmy.ca

7d ago

Japan's loneliness epidemic is leading elderly women to choose prison

fortune.com /well/article/japan-prison-older-women-loneliness/

22 2

19 comments

Millienials: Finally, a realistic retirement plan for the average Joe.

Ah man, this is going to make some great manga further down the line.

Capitalism is a death cult. People could easily solve this with a cooperative living model. But no, we have to be good little family units working for our noble masters and paying off our mortgages.
- Are you implying that modern loneliness is specific only to capitalism?
  
  Loneliness is the buzzword, but the article specifically mentions
  ... poverty, loneliness, and abandonment as reasons for resorting to crime.
  I do think capitalism exacerbates loneliness, but on the other points this also indicates to me that they're missing a social safety net that prison is providing. That's a gap in service.
  One could imagine a co-op being started for people like this. Even from purely pragmatic terms, it would cost less than housing them in a prison.
  
  I didn't imply anything. I was pretty clear about what I said. Are there any non-capitalist societies around in the modern world?
- The same capitalist logic that explains the loss of splitscreen multiplayer videogames pretty much applies across the entire socioeconomic sphere.
  The ideal consumer-worker is an isolated one that must be concerned with getting their own products, transportation, goods, and services in order to continue participating in society, and must struggle on their own to find a means to pay for those requirements that never seems to be quite enough.
  Why sell one thing people can share and pass on when you could sell multiple licenses for disposable things tied to users' individual identities? Then we just gotta convince everyone that a "Real Adult" (TM) has their own personal everything.
  It's also amusing how, at the same time, capitalists love to pearl-clutch about the erosion of the family unit, and blame it on some kind of perceived moral ills, when they're actively forcing everyone to constantly be at their jobs.
  Jobs always seem to be at the cost of our humanity, and we keep getting coerced to give them more of ourselves than we ought.

There is a very strong cultural expectation of younger generations providing care for their related elderly. I suspect the stories of why they end up abandoned and desperate are more complex than reported.
- A lot of it can as simple as kids not wanting to live in the small towns that their parents live in to far worse.
  Japan has been undergoing deruralization for decades.

The issue is always wages. When people have high wages, they spend more time with their family.
- That's very oversimplified.
  
  Yeah. If I'm poor, I spend my time stressing and working. But if I can afford blow I'm not gonna spend my time with family either.
- I could spend more time with my family.... for money.

This literally happens in the TV show "Sunny," set in a near-future Japan. I didn't realize it was an actual trend.
- That was my first thought. I deleted my comment to highlight yours. Didn’t know it was a real problem.

Elderly women use this one trick to make friends!
- Shopkeepers hate it!

19 comments