Japan’s Seniors Living in Poverty: No Electricity, No Housing, Unable to Retire
Sources:
Keywords: Japan news, Japan economy, senior poverty in Japan, pension, retirement, Japan documentary, aging society, old age in Japan
In Japan, the issue of senior poverty has become increasingly prominent amidst the backdrop of an aging society and economic challenges. As the population ages and birth rates decline, the strain on the pension system and social support mechanisms has intensified, leaving many elderly citizens vulnerable to financial insecurity.
This video delves into the complex factors contributing to senior poverty in Japan, examining the impact of the low birth rate on the sustainability of pension funds and the broader Japanese economy. We explore how rising housing, food, and utilities expenses have compounded the financial burden on seniors, making it increasingly difficult for them to make ends meet.
Drawing from recent news and government statistics, we shed light on the stark realities faced by elderly individuals in Japan, highlighting the urgent need for policy reforms and social initiatives to address this pressing issue. Join us as we delve into the challenges of senior poverty in Japan and explore potential solutions to support the well-being of the elderly population.
#japan #documentary #economy #socialjustice #socialissues #humanrights #japaneseculture #japanlife
45 Comments
low end social security in the US & money taken out for healthcare. Not a livable amount. Multigenerational way of life forgotten.
Same story in the U.S.
I tell you people. This system is a SCAM.
Don't make children because they will be SLAVES paying bills and taxes and work "FOR LIFE to the bone".
Is that how you LOVE your children?
Only have children if you have resources that will lasts them a lifetime unless the system changes dramatically for the better.
Japan is great at making people work from 9am to 9pm until they are too tired to have children, then causing a low birth rate leading to the collapse of pension funds and property prices, burdening productive workers with a legacy of national debt of 263% of gdp.
Same in US. Specially in California
From an anthropological approach, to see elders end up this way it is understandable no matter how sorrowful that looks to others of ther cultural backgrounds.
It was already a cultural habbit, up until 19 century – correct me if I am wrong- when the very elders would leave their places, families, up into the mountains, on the cold freezing Winter time, with just a few crumbles of food and poorly clothed, awaiting to die out of hunger and cold freezing temperature.
It would be a cultural habbit of honor and in doing so, elders would relieve their family from the burden of their elderhood and the hardship of taking care by the young family, no matter that the family was theirs and that they were their sons, daughters and grandsons.
It is irrelevant whether I agree with this culture and I might be wrong on the facts and history backgrounds of such self-sacrifice. Of course, I do not agree with such end of life, althouh it is a culture of honor that implies the act of the suicide, i.e sepuku.
Nevertheless, the tendency is to blame the economical system and its rules. To think on the death of the elders, the costs to clean the house of their body and to inform the prospective tenents of that recent event with the outcome of the loss of profitability, it is concerning. We may blame the system. But the ones taking advantage of the same are the very people trying to increase and make money as much as possible. It probably is a relation between the culture of the death and the fact that the former tenant has just died that might negatively impact the next rent.
However, it might be as well, that elders today, be more in danger to end this way because the economy favors the profits over the culture and amcester values.
It is dramatic and sorrowful and to end life this way it is so unfair for the elders everywhere in the world.
Jesus, isn't Japan about as expensive as here? And we have the equivalent of 4 000 000 yen per annum as the lowest pension, and consider that poverty.
This is heartbreaking, I hope this gets better.
Is there NO govt health care in Japan esp for 65 yrs old?
so sad. a side of japan not well known to foreigners
Wow 😲 we are so blessed in Malaysia then.
No savings apart from pension.
How come none of them have own house or apartment?
I still look up into Japanese people. They are still working hard even if they have aged. Life's like this. Work when you're able. Earn while you can.
I and I will not stand for this, immediately turn this around.
More government means more bondage, less government means more freedom.
How does the electricity bill come to 20000 yen per month!? WTF is the government doing? How is electricity so high? Don't they get solar then for the elderly? This is getting ridiculous, there ought to be alternate sources of cheaper electricity. What are they doing with the power generated by nuclear power plants? Is this all going to tech companies and AI research? We all know how much electricity these suck up!
To know this information from JAPAN is really shameful. Why on earth they do not care for the seniors !!! unbelievable. Normally the Japanese people shows that they are "kind and respectful" but this not the real truth..
Isn't Japan the country ,where people work and worked so hard and so long ,they drop death ?And then receive miserable pension ?They die alone ,elders can almost not rent a place ,does Japan think, young people can not die suddenly in a apartment ?
I feel so bad..for my Japanese elders and my grandpa’s and grandma’s are suffering and it’s making me tear up…😢😖
4:14 I pray for him to have more savings and I’m crying and for her 4:41 she is such a precious woman. And she is just so beautiful, fragile, and so vulnerable 😢🥺
9:49 this is so depressing and just makes me heart break for these elderly Japanese couples and their own livelihood..😢😢
Guess their grown children don't care to help their elderly parents.
Very cold and unfeeling people.
Great, sensible channel by a real Japanese person. Upvoted. Subscribed.
❤
What a nightmare, luckily I was able to retire at age 43
Its better in Philippines
I live in Estonia,my mom is 80 years old and she`s pension is EUR 810. So what the hell?
Japanese folks live too long.
Japan and the USA claim to be rich, but in the UK pensioners get not only their pension, but their rent paid, as do the unemployed, so long as the rent is not an extortionate rate from a private rogue landlord. The standard pension is supposed to be £221.20 weekly, which is enough to live off if the rent is also being paid, but some never paidinto the pension properly, and it is reduced. I use a halogen electric fire with one bar in cold weather, which only heats me, not the room very much. I got rid of gas, so dont pay standing charges. Japan and the USA do not have a proper welfare state, so were never as rich as they appeared.
The issue is the upside down demographics of Japan. Too many old people and not enough young people paying taxes. Old people didn’t have enough children.
If hearing stories like this doesn’t hurt your heart, you’re sub-human and have absolutely zero compassion. No matter the explanation, I will never understand how our western government officials can sleep at night knowing they spend so much money on foolish things while their citizens suffer unnecessarily. I’m so sorry my generation allowed this to happen
How does she pay so much on electricity ??? I have my pc setup, a PS5, aircon running. Never going above 5000 yen There's a phantom consumer in her house perhaps a very old electronic device. Something is definitely off.
04:25 his photo book collection may be the only enjoyable thing in his entire life
I would like to adopt a Japanese grandma to help teach me Japanese. I never really had grandparents. I wish I could bring one or two of these lovely people to the US and help them.
What happens when no one can afford to "LIve" any more ? In the USA, where I live rents are so high no one can live in the city alone unless you make tons of cash….both parents have to work and sometimes more than one job to take care of their families, now it looks like Japan is in same boat , if not worse, and most countries are getting like this, too. I am glad my life is at the end, I am 70 and would not want to be just trying to get started in life now !!!!!!! Feel bad for young people !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This a product of Western Economic Model, this system is designed to extract every ounce of productivity out of a human until they die. Seniors living in poverty is the norm and not the exception
Lady working 6 days a week 4 hour a day making 569 monthly earns on $4.74 an hour wow.
Oh I never expect that in Japan. I'm also in the Philippines but back in the province I have my inherited a small lots of lands. If I can have money I'll build a home and I invited Japanese to stay in my house😅😅
real estate tax is a robbery. if you own a house, you shouldnt be evicted just because you dont pay property taxes.
It’s fully explained when you are working. You know how much you will get.
That is why they have jobs. It’s being heavily discussed here.
Why aren't the sons or daughters helping their elder parents? I thought Japan cared for their elderly. My elderly parents must be lucky I took them in. They don't have to work since I provide everything for them. They are living the best years of their lives. They had nothing saved and my inheritance from them is nothing other than I love them both.
🙏🏻😢🥺
My grandmother lives with my mother and I. I wash her feet, take out her garbage, and help her do all the things she can't do herself. She's strong and healthy for someone who's almost 90 years old. We need to normalize multigenerational homes again.
Age dicrimination too high inside job company factory younger people saydont care age its your job time was paid older employee if you ask help to carry heavy item just teply look said I have owne job go away mostly repect older very very seldom in this earth
l
in Japan