In 2020, the proportion of Japanese households with a single person aged 65 or older was less than 20%.

This phenomenon is expected to increase in the coming decades.

Of Japan’s 47 prefectures, a total of 16 are expected to see an increase in the number of single elderly households occupying more than 20% in 2040.

By 2050, this proportion is expected to exceed 20 percent in more than two-thirds of all prefectures.

Using AI to help older people living alone

Hokkaido, in the far north, is one of them. Authorities are using AI to help elderly people living alone.

Baba Chisato is one of 30 people using this technology. An AI-based app asks her how she feels or if she has taken her medication morning and evening.

The problem is not only old age, but also isolation. Responses from residents like Baba are sent to local authorities as well as their family members living elsewhere.

If there is no response within 24 hours, authorities will call the resident or visit their home to confirm their health status.

Baba says that since she has been alone, she has looked forward to the messages, which have become part of her daily routine.

Sharing a house with the younger generation

The proportion of lonely elderly households in Tokyo is not expected to exceed the 20% level in 2050. The capital will nevertheless face the challenge of how to care for more than a million elderly people living alone.

Miyamoto Koichi, 82, used to live alone, but now shares his home in central Tokyo with a 19-year-old student.

Miyamoto charges a low monthly rent of 30,000 yen, or about $200.

To counteract his isolation, they included a condition in the agreement: the tenant must communicate with Miyamoto at least once a week.

Miyamoto says that nothing good can come from living alone, with no one to talk to. He says interacting with young people gives him energy.

Its tenant, Shimizu Haruki, says he is reassured by sharing accommodation with an elderly person and saving on his rent. He says this arrangement also helps him understand the older generation and he hopes it will be useful to him in the future.

Expert: “Support must be provided by society”

Fujimori Katsuhiko is an expert on social welfare issues at Mizuho Research & Technologies.

He argues that the types of support once provided by families will need to be assumed by society as a whole. He adds that different forms of assistance beyond what families can provide also need to be expanded.

Fujimori believes the government should increase nursing insurance and other means of public support.