Tokyo’s suburban housing became vast ghettoes for the old

They also knew he moved into the Atago apartment blocks, a huge housing complex in the suburbs of Tokyo, in 1971, the year after they were built, with his wife and two sons. Toshio Matsumoto, 70, an officer of the Atago housing committee, says it isn’t just death that dampens the mood at Atago: “The people who come after the deceased are also grey, and the elderly will not be rosy in the future unless they get young people into the complex.” While the Tokyo government does not disclose information on individual cases of solitary death, figures show that 501 people died alone in public housing blocks like Atago last year – more than one a day – and 2,344 over the last five years.

Source: www.theguardian.com