Around 68,000 elderly die alone in Japan annually: police

About 68,000 people aged 65 and over in Japan are estimated to die alone at home unnoticed annually, data collected by the National Police Agency indicated Tuesday.

Preliminary police figures showed 21,716 people nationwide died "lonely deaths" from January to March. Nearly 80 percent of that number, or 17,034 people, were aged 65 and over.

The police agency is expected to continue collecting the data as part of government efforts to tackle the issue, as the country is grappling with a rapidly greying society.

The government has in recent years stepped up efforts to combat social isolation and loneliness among people in Japan, including passing a law to address them in May 2023.

A lonely death is defined as one in which a person dies without anyone else witnessing it, with a certain period passing before the body is found, according to an interim discussion last year by a Cabinet Office working group tasked with looking into the issue.

The data on deaths at home among people living alone handled by police between January to March, including cases of suicide, showed the highest number was among those aged 85 and over, at 4,922 people.

Among people aged 75 to 79, there were 3,480 deaths recorded, while 3,348 people aged 80 to 84 were found to have died alone. Those aged between 70 and 74 who died solitary deaths totaled 3,204, followed by 2,080 people from 65 to 69 years of age.