This is really distressing.
The number of Japanese seniors living alone increased by 600% between 1985 and 2015, Bloomberg reported. Half of the seniors caught shoplifting reported living alone, the government discovered last year, and 40% of them said they either don’t have family or rarely speak to them.
“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,” one of the Japanese women told Bloomberg.
“They may have a house. They may have a family. But that doesn’t mean they have a place they feel at home,” Yumi Muranaka, head warden of Iwakuni Women’s Prison, told Bloomberg.
Intentionally getting arrested isn’t necessarily unique to Japan. In the United States, for example, there have been cases of people deliberately getting locked up to gain access to healthcare, avoid harsh weather conditions, or force themselves to quit a drug habit.
But the scale of Japan’s problem is alarming authorities. The government is trying to combat its senior crime problem by improving its welfare system and social services program, according to Bloomberg, but the wave of senior criminals doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.
“Life inside is never easy,” social worker Takeshi Izumaru said. “But for some, outside, it’s worse.”
Just imagine the senior citizens deliberately commit crimes so that they can be behind prison and can have some social life.
– Individualism has indeed done much harm.