Japan's Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women
Every aging society faces distinct challenges. But Japan, with the world's oldest population (27.3 percent of its citizens are 65 or older, almost twice the share in the U.S.), has been dealing with one it didn't foresee: senior crime. Complaints and arrests involving elderly people, and women in particular, are taking place at rates above those of any other demographic group. Almost 1 in 5 women in Japanese prisons is a senior. Their crimes are usually minor—9 in 10 senior women who've been convicted were found guilty of shoplifting.
Why have so many otherwise law-abiding elderly women resorted to petty theft? Caring for Japanese seniors once fell to families and communities, but that's changing. From 1980 to 2015, the number of seniors living alone increased more than sixfold, to almost 6 million. And a 2017 survey by Tokyo's government found that more than half of seniors caught shoplifting live alone; 40 percent either don't have family or rarely speak with relatives. These people often say they have no one to turn to when they need help.
[...] Neither the government nor the private sector has established an effective rehabilitation program for seniors, and the costs to keep them in prison are rising fast. Expenses associated with elder care helped push annual medical costs at correctional facilities past 6 billion yen (more than $50 million) in 2015, an 80 percent increase from a decade before. Specialized workers have been hired to help older inmates with bathing and toileting during the day, but at night these tasks are handled by guards.
At some facilities, being a correctional officer has come to resemble being a nursing-home attendant. Satomi Kezuka, a veteran officer at Tochigi Women's Prison, about 60 miles north of Tokyo, says her duties now include dealing with incontinence. "They are ashamed and hide their underwear," she says of the inmates. "I tell them to bring it to me, and I will have it washed." More than a third of female correctional officers quit their jobs within three years.
[...] [Ms. N, age 80:] "I can't tell you how much I enjoy working in the prison factory. The other day, when I was complimented on how efficient and meticulous I was, I grasped the joy of working. I regret that I never worked. My life would have been different. I enjoy my life in prison more. There are always people around, and I don't feel lonely here. When I got out the second time, I promised that I wouldn't go back. But when I was out, I couldn't help feeling nostalgic."
Related: Japan Has Aged Out of its Economic Miracle
Japan's Fertility Crisis is Creating Economic and Social Woes Never Seen Before
A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death
Related Stories
in the long run the fortunes of nations are determined by population trends. Japan is not only the world's fastest-aging major economy (already every fourth person is older than 65, and by 2050 that share will be nearly 40 percent), its population is also declining. Today's 127 million will shrink to 97 million by 2050, and forecasts show shortages of the young labor force needed in construction and health care. Who will maintain Japan's extensive and admirably efficient transportation infrastructures? Who will take care of millions of old people? By 2050 people above the age of 80 will outnumber the children.
Who will take care of millions of old people? Robots!
Onuki, a 31-year-old salesman, is headed to the train station to catch the 12:24 a.m. train, the last one of the night, back to his home in Yokohama. The train will quickly fill up with other professional working men.
At about 1:30 a.m., after having made a pit stop at a convenience store to grab a sandwich, Onuki arrives home. When he opens the bedroom door, he accidentally wakes his wife, Yoshiko, who just recently fell asleep after working an 11-hour day. She chides him for making too much noise and he apologizes.
Then, with his food still digesting and his alarm set for 7 a.m., he creeps into bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.
Over the past two decades, stories like the Onukis' have become commonplace in Japan. Young couples are fighting to make relationships work amid a traditional work culture that expects men to be breadwinners and women to be homemakers. It's a losing battle. Many newlyweds are forced to watch their free time disappear, surrendering everything from the occasional date night to starting a family.
The daily constraints have made for a worrisome trend. Japan has entered a vicious cycle of low fertility and low spending that has led to trillions in lost GDP and a population decline of 1 million people, all within just the past five years. If left unabated, experts forecast severe economic downturn and a breakdown in the fabric of social life.
"Adult diapers have outsold baby diapers in Japan for the last six years."
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @12:49PM (1 child)
Capitalism at its finest.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @09:37AM
Offtpic? No. Troll? Sure.
Maybe the buttons should be larger or something...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday March 26 2018, @12:59PM (1 child)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/頭が良い [wiktionary.org]
atama ga ii = "that's smart" in this context?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by mrpg on Monday March 26 2018, @08:18PM
Yes, that's what I was thinking.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fadrian on Monday March 26 2018, @01:16PM (20 children)
That's your choice as a society. In most cases the social safety net is cheaper because you don't have to monitor people 24/7.
That is all.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 26 2018, @01:24PM (19 children)
Cue the alt-righters saying that the third, less expensive option would be cheaper to simply shoot the old people dead. (Oh, and that they would gladly line up to do the deed themselves, for fun).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @02:21PM (15 children)
How about you care for your parents?
Lemme guess, no children. Oh well, there you go.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 26 2018, @02:33PM (11 children)
I have kids. What's your point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @02:42PM (7 children)
Have your kids take care of you.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:08PM (2 children)
Always such genius words from the fools desperate to escape living in a society. Truly the have their cake and eat it too crowd.
Since you'll probably whine that I didn't even address your point I'll explain. In the drive for corporate efficiency Japan shifted from near-guaranteed lifetime jobs to the standard western method of firing people in a quest for quarterly gains. The housing market is tough, many young people can barely afford a broom closet yo live in since most jobs are in the big cities. Long story shirt it simply isn't as feasible for children to take care of their parents. Thanks free market!!!! Maybe if housing wasn't treated as an investment scheme for people to suck money out of we wouldn't see this problem.
There is undoubtedly more to it, but such a widespread problem is due to more than moral failures of the children. Your "solution" I'd just more stupid head in sand syndrome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:14PM (1 child)
Then commute to work, just like everyone else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:31PM
Stick a pinecone up your butt, it'll be more helpful to everyone involved. Maybe you just don't think its a big deal cause you already live with your parents.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 26 2018, @04:09PM (3 children)
That's just not feasible in the modern world. Young people today do not have the room in their lives to be carers. Either they are high-achievers who need every scrap of time to keep up with their careers, or they are middle/low achievers who need every possible resource just to keep food on the table. Oh, and not to mention they have their own kids to look after...
The demographics have changed. Old people are living longer and needing more (and more complex) care. Meanwhile their kids are breeding later, which means that their own parenthood is more likely to coincide with their parents' decrepitude. The ridiculous state of housing and the concentration of work into the cities means that the chances of an adult being able to afford to live within half an hour of the leafy suburbs of their parents are vanishingly slim. With houses getting smaller and more expensive, very few people have enough space for a permanent house guest (never mind one with complex needs like mobility issues).
We live in a high-pressure world where workers are being squeezed ever harder by the economy. Time, money and living space are getting tighter and tighter for all but the richest. Increasing cost of living and falling wages mean that young people are under more and more pressure just to survive, without additional dependants. The days of a family (let alone an extended family) surviving off the wages of a single earner are long gone, both adults must now work. Now you want those workers to take on ANOTHER full-time job. What planet do you live on?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)
"and needing more (and more complex) care."
no, people were allowed to die before. now everyone thinks you have to bankrupt the whole nation to keep one old drunk chain smoker alive until life extension tech comes on line. you had you life. try dying with some goddamn self respect.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @07:34PM
You first, but obviously you have no respect to give so dying with any is gonna be hard. You must be one of those "damn welfare queens are stealing muh monies through taxes!" people. So according to you all old people are drunk chain smokers who are better off dead. May you never experience hardship such as insane medical bills, inability to work, homelessness, or any other difficult life occurrence. I just don't think you would be able to cope and it would shatter you beyond repair.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @04:14AM
To live with your parents.
You are expected to have a place of your own, at minimum wiht non-familial roommates, or preferably on your own in order to be considered successful enough for people to date you. So if it takes you longer to find a spouse it means longer you have to be on your own before you don't have to 'advertise' as a succesful single, and after that then you have to find out if your spouse is willing to take on the care for one or both of your parents, usually only one pair, at which point unless the other family has two or more kids, one of whom is willing to do so, they are now SOL for having unpaid assisted living conditions.
An ex-friend's mom returned to Japan to take care of her parents there, being their only child from the 50s. Many 'younger' families are in even more dire straits, having either had a single child or no children at all. Many more don't even have a spouse or steady bf/gf to fall back on for support.
America is not much better, unless you are part of a religious or ethnic social network which can provide you support, or for many others, gangs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @04:28PM (2 children)
The alt-right and religious decide that if you don't have children as GOD commands, you are a waste and should be killed.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Monday March 26 2018, @04:44PM (1 child)
Wow, I had no idea that Zen buddhism and Shintoïsm were so strict...
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday March 27 2018, @01:54AM
I wish it were as simple as a idiotic religious belief system. It's isn't.
Many people don't have the willingness to empathize with other people. Religion doesn't play any part except being used as an excuse for their beliefs. Shinto would require that you care for your parents, and Christianity would require that you give to the less fortunate. But both have other concerns also which the focused can use to justify actions directly in opposition to the nominal beliefs.
Part of this is that old people become disgusting. They lose control of their bowels. Their skin become ugly. Etc. People who have a strong reaction to something disgusting will find an excuse to refuse assistance to them, even indirectly. If they are vocally religious, the excuse is likely to be religious, but it's an excuse, and often (usually) directly in opposition to the actual tradition of the religion.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:04PM (2 children)
Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean, "your parents have no children"? I don't think you understand this whole "parents-children" concept.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:29PM
AC is not to blame. AC was grown in a lab from stem cells derived from dandruff. That's why there are so many AC.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:57PM
Mod uncle up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @08:23PM (2 children)
I've never heard anyone deemed an "alt_righter" say anything even remotely close to that. Neither have you of course, you said it because you wanted to insert your bias into an article where it didn't really fit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @09:06PM
It is the logical application of the alt-right mentality and it 100% fits into the discussion. Even Japanese society, generally regarded as quite successful and good, has sunk low enough that elderly are committing crimes so they can go to prison. Time to start fixing these problems, this is getting really out of hand.
Oh, but don't let the alt-righters hear that, we'll never hear the end of "taxes and muh oppression!"
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday March 27 2018, @08:36AM
Well then have a little wander through this thread [soylentnews.org]. The "Taxes==Armed Robbery" brigade are out in full force, waving their internet dicks around and saying how much they would love to serve their country by personally executing criminals. What's more many of them don't seem too bothered about guilt, innocence, due process etc - just as long as someone guilty-looking gets shot.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday March 26 2018, @01:21PM (1 child)
Sounds like a George Burns movie, Going in Style (1979).
Quite a while ago, a joke Power Point file making the rounds told of a senior's plans to spend his last days on a cruise ship rather than in a nursing home, as it was cheaper, better service, and a lot more fun.
Nursing homes are depressing places. Full of seniors just waiting around to die, and can't do much, no longer physically or mentally able, and no one, not even family or they themselves, has much use for them. Yet they are better than being all alone in your own house. Not much is worse than that. Even prison can be better than loneliness.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Monday March 26 2018, @03:38PM
That's an understatement.
My ex is a nurse and used to work almost exclusively in nursing homes (because the pay was the best). They smell awful and many of the residents there are little more than walking (or wheelchair) zombies. I used to hear terrible stories of residents waiting out the clock. They are depressing to the core.
On the other hand, I heard some pretty funny stories about residents that were old but horny. There was a lot of taking-matters-in-hand going on there too. My ex told me of one woman who spent most of her waking hours playing in the garden and moaning while she was waiting for the grim reaper. She didn't have long to wait, but she had fun in the interim.
(Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Monday March 26 2018, @01:35PM (7 children)
Plus healthcare, all the company you want and young people (the prison guards) who *have* to pay attention to you.
Sounds like a good deal for lonely seniors -- and it's *free*.
Don't let this get out. In the US, you need to spend *all* your money (okay, you can have US$2,000) before the state will pay for your assisted living.
Instead, seniors can keep their money, have the state pay for their room, board and healthcare in facilities that aren't so much different from the low-end assisted living facilities where seniors are being warehoused on the "outside."
I think bank robbery would be the way to go. Or kidnapping. Something that will land you in Federal prison rather than state prison -- and for a lengthy term too. It's a win/win for everyone!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Monday March 26 2018, @01:44PM (2 children)
$1 bank robbery doesn't pay off for man who said he was desperate for healthcare [latimes.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday March 26 2018, @01:48PM
Poor bastard. I guess the "justice" system got him in the end, huh?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday March 26 2018, @02:40PM
He should have tried selling drugs. Or being black.
Of course if you are going to do this "commit a crime in order to get into prison" thing, then here are a few pointers:
1 - Don't let the courts know your motivation. If they think you're abusing the system, they'll thwart you. When asked why you did it, shout "Because I'm so eeeeeeeeeeevil! Muahahahahahahahah!" Feel free to insult the judge's mother if you feel you need a bit more time inside.
2 - A high-profit crime like bank robbery isn't such a bad idea. I mean there's always a chance you'll get away with it, in which case you can buy yourself all the healthcare, company etc you need without having to go to prison. If you get caught, well it's win/win.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Monday March 26 2018, @01:59PM (2 children)
It's not a bad idea(*), there is the slight risk that some would be hero pulls a gun and shots you tho. That said to make sure you get a max sentence have a gun or a weapon of your own, wave it around a bit in a threatening manner and then also make some verbal death threats. You probably dont want to over do it tho so they start to think that you lost your marbles cause then it might be an asylum instead of a prison. That probably isn't as nice as prison, even tho the drugs might be better.
You want something with a harsh penalty, but also probably something that causes minimal harm to others -- unless that is your thing, if it is you might as well just shoot someone. Being on Death-row might be the ultimate in pampering tho, someone monitors your 24/7 and you dont have to hang around with any of the normal lowlife scum. Kidnapping is in that way a bit much. Unless you just take someone and drive them across a state border and then get caught. Being a big-time drugdealer or cooking your own meth or something might work to. An alternative would be to start sending death threats to whatever is the leader of your nation, those get investigated for sure.
(*) except that it's a horrible idea and a sure sign that something is utterly fucked with your country if going to prison is better then going to a senior citizens living facility.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Monday March 26 2018, @02:15PM (1 child)
Actually, you don't want to be extra violent or use a weapon. If you're considered non-violent/non-threatening, you have a better chance of being housed at a minimum security facility, which is generally less violent and more like an assisted living facility.
I never said it was *better* I said it was cheaper. And if prison is not as good as a cheap assisted living facility, it's not all that much worse.
Yes, I am aware as to what that says about the US. And no, I don't think it's a particularly good thing. There are a lot of moving parts to fixing that. Given that we can't even get an annual budget implemented, I'm not holding my breath.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday March 26 2018, @02:35PM
I guess it depends on what you want. If you are non-violent then you may get a shorter sentence, it might be in a nicer place but you probably won't be there for very long. As noted I don't suggest you actually kill or hurt anyone but having a weapon or destroying a bit of property is normally according to the sentencing guidelines an increase in sentence.
If one skips back to the article about the old Japanese women, they all got between 2-3 years in prison for repeated acts of shoplifting or some form of minor theft. Seems most of them had been in and out of the system a few times. I guess if you live in a three-strikes-states that might work to otherwise it seems like a bit of a pain if you just do minor crimes, you might not even get sentenced to prison but get one of them ankle monitors and then be forced to live on the outside, which is not what they wanted. So there might be a limit here as to how violent or how much of a threat to society you have to be to actually go to prison.
It is probably different from time to time and place to place but the sentence for shoplifting is probably not a very long time in prison in general, unless you are a repeat offender or you somehow really up your game.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday March 26 2018, @06:37PM
> I think bank robbery would be the way to go. Or kidnapping.
There are plenty of Hitler-wannabees out there who should be stopped before their dreams come true.
"Even grandmas can use an AR-15!" and grandmas remember what their dads and husbands risked/lost their lives for.
Not inciting, just suggesting...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @07:39PM
they must've got the idea from the US mental health system.