30,000 — that’s the estimated number of people, mostly elderly, in Japan who’ve died from loneliness, or 孤独死. It’s an unsettling number, especially when viewed in context with Japan’s aging population and rising rates of dementia.
We’ve previously covered this issue in-depth last year and focused on the cleaning businesses, the common habit of self-neglect among the victims, and the lack of solutions and support for people susceptible to kodokushi.
But while the public image of kodokushi revolves around the elderly, a recent kodokushi death and new statistics have quickly dispelled that myth.
On June 9, the newspaper Toyo Keizai reported the discovery of the decomposing corpse of a woman in a 2LDK apartment. Reporter Kanno Kumiko (菅野 久美子), the reporter on this case, has a number of articles and even a book under her belt concerning the upsetting kodokushi phenomenon. Compared to other reported kodokushi cases, the deceased was much younger — in her 30s, in fact. She had died in the bathroom from apparent suicide due to the quantities of blood found, and it was later determined she had died three months prior.
Mr. Shioda, president of the special cleaning business Musashi Think Tank (武蔵シンクタンク) and party to the sad discovery, paints a depressing picture of the woman’s circumstances:
Planning a trip to Japan? Get an authentic, interpreted experience from Unseen Japan Tours and see a side of the country others miss!

"Noah [at Unseen Japan] put together an itinerary that didn’t lock us in and we could travel at our own pace. In Tokyo, he guided us personally on a walking tour. Overall, he made our Japan trip an experience not to forget." - Kate and Simon S., Australia


We hate paywalls. Our content remains both free and fiercely independent. If you love the values we stand for and want to help us expand our coverage of Japan, consider a recurring or one-time donation to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund today.
女性は20代で職場結婚して一人娘を出産。しかし、その後アルコール依存症が原因で、離婚。娘の親権は夫に渡ってしまったらしい。離婚後は、貯金を切り崩しながら、家に引きこもるようになる。床にはウイスキーの空き瓶が無造作に投げ捨てられており、亡くなる寸前まで女性がお酒を手放さなかったということがうかがえた。
The woman got married in her 20s and gave birth to one daughter. However, she got divorced due to her alcoholism. It seems custody of her daughter was awarded to the husband. After the divorce, she withdrew her savings and got to the point where she stayed inside her house all the time. A whiskey bottle had been carelessly thrown on the floor, suggesting that she didn’t give up alcohol until just before her death.
Other discoveries speak to her struggles and memories: a pile of self-help alcohol recovery books covered in a film of dust, trophies and awards from past track and field events, prescription bottles, a picture drawn by her daughter. According to the woman’s younger brother, she started to abuse alcohol to combat the loneliness she felt due to being estranged from her daughter.
Comments on the article ran the gamut from sadness to calls for people to start paying attention to those around them. One anonymous user said:
孤独死は誰にでも起こり得ることだと改めて感じました。日ごろから人とのつながりやコミュニケーションをしっかりとることが大事ですね。またどうなんでしょうか、ITなどを使いその人の身に何か起これば自動で周囲の人やつながりのある人、あるいは公的機関などに通知されるという仕組みを作ったらよいのではないかなと思います。
I felt once again that kodokushi can happen to anyone. It’s important for us to have strong connections and communication with people on a daily basis. I also wonder if it would help to create a system using IT or something that automatically notifies people in the immediate vicinity, relatives or friends, or even public organizations if something like that happens.
The case brings to mind another famous instance of kodokushi: TV talent and former porn star Iijima Ai, who died from complications of pneumonia in her apartment at age 36. Ai had been dead in her apartment for a week before friends came to see if she was all right.
Less than a month prior on May 17, the Kodokushi Countermeasure Committee (孤独死対策委員会), a subset of the Small Amount & Short Term Insurance Association (日本少額短期保険協会) presented the latest findings on kodokushi statistics at the Kodokushi Countermeasure Summit in Tokyo.
Planning a trip to Japan? Get an authentic, interpreted experience from Unseen Japan Tours and see a side of the country others miss!

"Noah [at Unseen Japan] put together an itinerary that didn’t lock us in and we could travel at our own pace. In Tokyo, he guided us personally on a walking tour. Overall, he made our Japan trip an experience not to forget." - Kate and Simon S., Australia


We hate paywalls. Our content remains both free and fiercely independent. If you love the values we stand for and want to help us expand our coverage of Japan, consider a recurring or one-time donation to the Unseen Japan Journalism Fund today.
According to the latest report, the average age of kodokushi victims was 61 years old for both men and women. The gender ratio is 8:2, with more men than women dying. Yet for women in the 20 – 40 age brackets, deaths were notably higher than men in the same age bracket. Causes of death varied — 63.5% of men died from illness compared to 56.6% of women; for suicide, women accounted for 16.3% of deaths compared to 10.2% of men.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a large number of the deaths occurred in July and August — months where temperatures often peak at 32C / 90F and, within the last couple years, have reached as high as 41.1C / 105.98F. Heat has long been a contributing factor in elderly deaths, and also to the discovery of their bodies. 40% of kodokushi victims were discovered within 3 days, but an alarming 14.3% weren’t discovered until more than 30 days after death. The average number of days elapsed until a body’s discovery was 17 days.
A common thread among the victims was their tenuous, often non-existent ties of communication with their relatives. More often than not, neighbors and minor acquaintances were the ones who contacted apartment owners expressing concern over a person’s welfare, whether clued in to odd smells or the piles of mail. It was also the owners who made the calls to the police and cleaning businesses.
As discussed before, solutions are few and far between. Maybe the anonymous user was on the right track when talking about using IT to combat these types of death. The Kodokushi report urged for more efforts in prevention, such as getting local governments involved and implementing volunteer “watchdog” services (見守りサービス). As this case shows, these types of deaths can happen to anyone, regardless of age or gender. Social awareness is one thing, but taking action is another. Hopefully, more concrete solutions will be implemented sooner rather than later.
Sources
孤独死した30代女性の部屋に見た痛ましい現実. Toyo Keizai