 |
|
|
|
Vol.41
Death of Isolated Individuals |
|
Jun 22,2016 |
|
|
I watched a TV program on NHK
(Nippon Hoso Kyokai) about
people dying alone without
parents, brothers/sisters,
relatives, or anyone to talk to
or help them.
In
the program, the anchorperson
asked an analyst, "How can we
restore what human relationships
used to be?" The analyst
answered, "It's impossible to
have relationships like ones in
the feudal society." However, I
think this is too far-fetched
and completely misses the point
of the argument.
Death
of isolated individuals is not a
flaw in the nation's system but
a phenomenon that is caused by
poor relations between people.
Reasons for dying
alone may include the following:
(1) People are more often
relocated to remote places where
they have no friends and
acquaintances. (2) The entire
society now moves fast and
people are busy working and have
no time to play and relax, which
links to social problems such as
death from overwork and
households with both husband and
wife working. (3) The gap
between the rich and the poor
becomes wider due to depression,
resulting in an increase in
unemployed persons with
financial problems. (4) There
are no relatives to help each
other as the number of children
decreases. (5) Relationships
between people become poorer
because of individualism and
overreaction to privacy
concerns. (6) More people are
living in apartment buildings or
condominiums, leaving less
transparency about their lives.
(7) More people do not get
married and live alone. I think
there would be more. All are
serious problems, but this trend
is likely to continue further.
To prevent it, I think
that people in a same region
need to create a warm community
by exchanging greetings and
information to help each other.
In 2012, a lot of elderly people
living alone died in a heat wave
in France, where individualism
has been spread. The
administrative authority in
Paris asked their children to
claim the bodies but was shocked
to find most of the requests
were rejected.
Even
for Japan, it is about time to
take into serious consideration
how critical our relationship
issues are.
|
|
|
|
|
