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from the explain-the-sound-of-one-hand dept.
With no families or visitors to speak of, many older tenants spent weeks or months cocooned in their small apartments, offering little hint of their existence to the world outside their doors. And each year, some of them died without anyone knowing, only to be discovered after their neighbors caught the smell.
The first time it happened, or at least the first time it drew national attention, the corpse of a 69-year-old man living near Mrs. Ito had been lying on the floor for three years, without anyone noticing his absence. His monthly rent and utilities had been withdrawn automatically from his bank account. Finally, after his savings were depleted in 2000, the authorities came to the apartment and found his skeleton near the kitchen, its flesh picked clean by maggots and beetles, just a few feet away from his next-door neighbors.
The huge government apartment complex where Mrs. Ito has lived for nearly 60 years — one of the biggest in Japan, a monument to the nation's postwar baby boom and aspirations for a modern, American way of life — suddenly became known for something else entirely: the "lonely deaths" of the world's most rapidly aging society.
To many residents in Mrs. Ito's complex, the deaths were the natural and frightening conclusion of Japan's journey since the 1960s. A single-minded focus on economic growth, followed by painful economic stagnation over the past generation, had frayed families and communities, leaving them trapped in a demographic crucible of increasing age and declining births. The extreme isolation of elderly Japanese is so common that an entire industry has emerged around it, specializing in cleaning out apartments where decomposing remains are found.
Compounding matters, Japan has a declining birthrate and bans immigration.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:20PM (25 children)
Someone believes that a ghetto two or three miles away from this huge retirement complex is going to help discover bodies faster?
Mmmmm - maybe I'm not thinking straight. Sure, bodies will be discovered by people breaking into apartments. The question is, will the burglars call the authorities? Or, will they just pilfer the apartment, and leave the stiff where they found it?
Unless - nahhhh. Immigrants aren't going to be welcomed into the retirement complex. They'll be segregated just like every wave of immigration has been segregated in the US. Immigrants will most assuredly live in a ghetto, and it will take 100 years for them to break out of that ghetto. 100 years conservative estimate - this is Japan, not some western nation like Canada or the US.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:25PM (8 children)
“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”
― Hunter S. Thompson
Go ahead - someone try to argue that, let's see you disprove it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @08:30PM
The Vulcan mind meld?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:56PM (1 child)
I dunno about you, but I wasn't born alone. My mom was there when I crawled out of her, my dad was hovering nearby too... but yea the respect bit makes sense.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday December 05 2017, @08:46PM
Offtopic but this made me remember cutting my twins umbilical cords. That texture that you feel though the scissors is horrifying, with third child coming up I think I will let the doctors take care of this step.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday December 04 2017, @12:03AM
While I agree with the technicalities of the post, I disagree that all humans die alone. Every human wants to die alongside their peers, and some do even if it isn't alongside their peers.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday December 04 2017, @03:43AM
Long Live Hunter Thompson, too desperate to make his deadlines to be afraid of what might happen if he actually submitted the work.
Genius, from the unexamined, unedited, unfiltered output of a drug fueled mind.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @02:51PM
Perhaps Mr. H. Thompson went through life without finding that one true love, the one that touches your spirit.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Monday December 04 2017, @02:52PM (1 child)
Doing a Hannibal Lector and taking pride in how you cook the brains and hearts of your victims? :)
(tounge firmly planted in cheek)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 04 2017, @03:19PM
Well, I would HOPE that if you waste a human being to cook their brains, you do a good job of it. Anything less would be disrespectful!! ;^)
(Score: 5, Flamebait) by takyon on Sunday December 03 2017, @07:35PM (14 children)
Allowing increased immigration is an obvious remedy for a declining population. Might not be your favorite remedy, and you might not agree that declining population is a problem, but it makes sense for it to be mentioned.
"Bans immigration" is an exaggeration, but they don't allow that many people in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Japan [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by Sulla on Sunday December 03 2017, @08:02PM (5 children)
My biggest problem with immigration is the decades of "your population is too high, stop having kids" followed by "wow you f'd up bad and caused population to fall by not having kids, now you must accept immigrants" .
Makes it feel like it was intentional. I don't have a real issue with people moving in because its always happened, my problem is when people get mad that I don't want to integrate to them instead of them integrating to us. This is only a real issue when it comes to muslim migrants who want to adhere to sharia, sharia and common law can not work in the same system. If people want to come here that is fine, but follow this set of laws. Culture changes and melding are acceptable, changing common law is not.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday December 03 2017, @11:22PM (4 children)
my problem is when people get mad that I don't want to integrate to them instead of them integrating to us.
Do you have any actual examples of people getting *mad* at *you* about this? I mean, I get it that some immigrants don't integrate very well (that's nothing new nor particular to Hispanics or Muslims, it's usually the 2nd generation that integrates better), and I get it that there's some extremists out there on the left with some pretty radical ideas about some things, but are there actually people you've met who got mad at you personally because you expected immigrants to learn about the new host culture?
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday December 04 2017, @01:49AM (3 children)
Yes, but I live in a very liberal town.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday December 04 2017, @04:56AM (2 children)
Yes, you've had people tell you this? Like how? How do you even get into such a conversation?
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Monday December 04 2017, @02:23PM
I've seen it happen. Usually someone says something like "fucking immigrants should learn English", someone else gets mad "you're racist!". At this point, I pull out the popcorn.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday December 04 2017, @04:31PM
Back in 2007/2008 Oregon had a referendum about whether the state should be required to teach immigrant students in their native tongue for their entire time in our educational system or if they should be required to learn English. The high school I had just graduated from (back then) had two classes for everything because they needed a Spanish class because many were refusing to learn English. Voters of the state ended up deciding that immigrant kids (regardless of origin) could only expect to be taught in their native language for three years, after which they would be expected to learn English and attend classes taught in English.
I was naturally on the side of not teaching kids their whole k-12 in a language other than English unless they choose to go to an immersion school because we have several immersion schools in my area in various languages (Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, French). Around that time there was a whole lot of "only backwater racist hicks would ever think its okay to force someone to learn a new language". I had at one point gone into the whole "well they moved here" thing but that makes me a racist for not knowing Iroquois, and I got called a lot of things. I don't mind learning Iroquois, but what we did back then was an invasion, are the Spanish invading now? Because if they aren't invading they need to know English. I don't care what they choose to speak, but they need to at least *know* it.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:02PM (5 children)
Increased immigration is NOT a cure for a decreasing population. It is, instead, a prescription for that declining population to be smothered, and displaced.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @10:46AM (4 children)
You say that as if a decreasing population is a problem.
I say a decreasing population is a cure for a lot of things wrong in this world. There is nothing about a decreasing population that causes problems. There are though several issues wrong with our economy/government that can only function with ever increasing growth.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 04 2017, @11:11AM (2 children)
I'll not argue that - but if more than 1/4 of the world's population continues to INCREASE while another 1/4 seems to be remaining stable, and another 1/4 is decreasing - what will be the end result? As I stated above - increased immigration is a recipe to smother and eradicate the existing population. The Japanese could easily, and quickly, disappear if immigration restrictions are lifted. Ditto for Europe, and the Anglo portions of North America.
On the one hand, we have the white supremacy loony toons, and on the other, we have all those social justice warriors. One wants to see the white man rule the world, and the other wants white man to disappear. I want to preserve the populations that we have today, with none of them being displaced. That goes equally for the Japanese, the Kurds, the Yazidi - it's all related. I want to preserve ALL of the existing peoples of the world. I'm happy to see brown people of any flavor building their homes up - but they can't have mine, or any other group's homes.
Screw the immigrants. Give them condoms and/or vasectomies, and send their asses back where they came from. Ask the American Indian tribes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @02:25PM
Nah, the Japanese wouldn't have problems with immigrants because they don't do social programs. If you can't pull your own weight, they WILL let you starve, and won't get upset about it.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday December 04 2017, @11:58PM
Historical fact : - The Chinese imported black male slaves some centuries ago but castrated them on arrival.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @07:08PM
"You say that as if a decreasing population is a problem."
It's mainly a problem for next quarters profit report.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @07:24PM (1 child)
Takyon here is a mouthpiece for our soon-to-be Chinese overlords for anyone that doesn't know.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 04 2017, @08:23PM
☭
ayyyyyy
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(Score: 5, Funny) by EETech1 on Monday December 04 2017, @01:32AM
I'm just here for my weekly visit to the old folks home with my (cadaver sniffing) dog for a little walk around to cheer everyone up:)