JAPAN: In Tokyo, People Live Longer, Making Women Work Harder

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 28 1996 (IPS) - Japan boasts the world’s longest life expectancy rates, but social workers and individuals who care for the aged say that rather than brag, government should hang its head in shame because of its inadequate services for the elderly.

The most vocal critics of the government are Japanese women who in many cases must bear the responsibility of taking care not only of their own parents, but those of their husbands as well.

“When government officials boast of Japan’s longevity, my stomach turns in disgust,” says 46-year-old businesswoman Masako Suzuki, her father a dialysis patient and her mother bed-ridden.

Suzuki, 46, daily juggles the running of her own trading company with the looking after of her parents.

Her day begins at the crack of dawn in the kitchen preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for her parents. When she returns from work around 10 p.m., she first has to spend an hour bathing her parents before she can start attending to her own needs.

“Life is extremely hard for all of us,” she explained. “The government should reflect on the dismal conditions for the elderly before they brag about our longevity.”

Social workers say Suzuki is among thousands of Japanese women who must take care of their parents and elderly in-laws because of a lack of adequate government services and a traditional reluctance by the old to shy away from state institutions.

According to statistics compiled by the health and welfare ministry, almost 86 per cent of those caring for the elderly are women, the majority of them daughters-in-law who, according to convention, take responsibility for the welfare of the parents of their husbands.

“These days,” explained Mie Maruyama, a nurse who works with the elderly, “with more families having less children, the government has put the added burden on daughters who must not only take care of their parents-in law but also their own parents.”

For more than a decade, Japan has occupied the No. 1 spot with regard to the lifespan of its population. The average life expectancy for Japanese women now stands at 83 years, for men it is 76.

According to official statistics released this week, in the Japanese capital, the number of people aged 65 and older is higher than the number 14 and younger.

The statistics compiled by the Tokyo metropolitan government show that as of Jan 1 this year, people aged 65 and older numbered 1.55 million — 60,000 more than on Jan 1, 1995. Those aged 14 and below totalled 1.49 million, down 30,000 from the corresponding period last year.

The government says Japan’s high medical and living standards are key factors in the longevity of the population. Social workers however lament that these same people who helped rebuild Japan after the second world war are not high on the list of government’s priorities.

“Quality home care for the elderly is extremely hard to receive in Japan,” says respected sociologist Professor Keiko Higuchi, who heads the Women’s Association Looking Into the Problems of the Aged, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

“The welfare system is not geared to meeting the needs of these people who have worked so hard for the success of their nation,” she adds.

Social workers compare Japan’s high technological and infrastructural development to what they say are woefully facility- lacking government-supported homes for the aged. Understaffing and too few facilities have meant that some families have been on a waiting list for as long ten years.

Meanwhile, admission fees for privately-run homes are too high for the average Japanese citizen.

State pensions can support an elderly couple paying for rent and food, but it cannot cover home assistance. The government does have a programme providing for trained housewives to visit sick old people, but this is for short-term patients, and state-funded visits are restricted to once or twice a week.

This is because the number of home-helpers are currently around 20,000, far less than the required 600,000 needed for such a programme, say social workers. Consequently, the aging sick end up in general hospitals.

With Japan’s population rapidly aging — one in five people will be over 65 years by the year 2006 according to official statistics — the government is now discussing a Gold Plan which aims to increase the number of home-helpers who will provide round the clock services.

Expected to come into effect in 1997, the Gold Plan is based on a public-insurance system in which the elderly pay a monthly fee, plus ten per cent of the medical and home help charges.

Maruyama however advises the government that greater emphasis must be placed on increasing the number of care facilities and trained home-helpers.

Recent statistics show that more than two million of Japan’s 17.5 million old people live alone.

“Unless there are more accommodation services, the ultimate burden will fall on the women in the household,” explains Maruyama.